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Book 1, Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Son, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Pain and Maternal Love
Travel, Fitting In, and Values
Emotion, Individuality, and the Human Experience
Family and Coming of Age
Community and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
When Claire’s coworkers get back at the end of the day, they share that there were no surprises at any of the ceremonies—except for Dmitri, who wasn’t assigned a spouse. As Dmitri comes through the door, someone teases Dmitri for applying for a spouse only because he wants a dwelling. Claire says her day was uneventful; some of the boatmen went for a walk. They wonder if the boatmen are forbidden from speaking to anyone here—or if the community’s rules forbid speaking to the boatmen. Claire realizes she could look through the rules to see if she can apply for a spouse, but it would be so much work.
It's never confirmed, but it seems possible that the heavy, arduous bureaucracy and the book of rules is the way it is by design: people who wonder about what they might be able to do won’t get much satisfaction if they try to look up their answers. Again, this keeps people accepting what they’re told rather than seeking information for themselves.
Themes
The buzzer signals that it’s time for dinner. Claire joins Jeannette and Edith, whom she asks about the Naming of the newchildren. There was a surprise there: one boy was named Paul, which was Jeannette’s father’s name. This means Jeannette’s father is “gone,” as the community only reuses names after someone is gone. Jeannette hasn’t seen her father in five years or so, though she occasionally sees “the woman who was [her] mother” around. Claire feels bad for Jeannette, but she can’t quite figure out why.
Jeannette’s situation highlights how distant and fractured families are here. Parents are only parents for a little while; it’s not a lifetime job, as it often is in the reader’s world (a mother doesn’t stop being a mother just because her child is grown, for instance, while in the novel, this isn’t true). Jeannette also doesn’t really get to feel sadness or grief upon learning about her father, illustrating how this community stifles emotions, too. Reassigning names once someone is “gone” also speaks to how this community devalues individuality.
Themes
Since she didn’t attend the Ceremony, Claire is the only one who isn’t tired early. She takes a walk outside, along the river. There’s a bridge over it that nobody can cross without permission. The other side is just known as “Elsewhere.” Claire’s walk takes her toward the central plaza and the Nurturing Center, where she runs into the man riding home on his bike. Thirty-six is asleep in a basket on the back of his bike. He says that while he loves giving newchildren to their excited new parents, he’s glad to care for Thirty-six for another year—he’s “special.” Saying he has to get home to be with his son, who’s a Twelve and will get his Assignment tomorrow, the man rides away. Before he goes, he invites Claire to come play with Thirty-six at the Nurturing Center sometime.
While Claire is still intrigued by the river and all it represents—escape and chaos, essentially—for now, her walk takes her back into the heart of her community. At this point, this is where she’s most likely to run into Thirty-six, which keeps Claire relatively attached to this place, even as she’s discovering how stifling it is to live here. In this sense, Claire isn’t embodying her community’s ideals: she’s invested only in her son, rather than in the common good (which here would mean that she embraces being detached and functional only).
Themes
