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Book 1, Chapter 16
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
It’s such a stormy, windy day that none of the other fishermen hear Old Benedikt remark that the storm won’t end until night. While the men are out at sea, the women sit at home, cook, and soothe their frightened babies. In later years, the story of how Water Claire arrived on this day takes many forms, though the main grain of truth is that she “came from the sea” in a December storm. Though some say Tall Andras rescued and claimed her, and some children talk about her like she’s a mermaid or a selkie, she’s just a girl. Old Benedikt actually rescues her from the waves, where she’s gripping firmly to a ship’s mast (though Tall Andras does decide immediately that he wants Claire). He revives Claire and then he and his fellows carry her up the hill to Alys’s hut.
In contrast to Claire’s original community, this one experiences inclement weather. Like her community, however, it’s also next to a dangerous body of water—the sea—that reminds residents of how dangerous nature can be. The rumors and stories surrounding Claire’s arrival speak to how unusual it is for someone to arrive from elsewhere at all. And referring to her as “Water Claire,” and the children’s stories of her being a mermaid or a selkie (mythological shapeshifters that shift between seal and human forms) reinforces the unpredictability of nature in general, and water in particular.
Themes
The village sits on a peninsula. There’s no way in or out except for by sea, which is dangerous, or by climbing up a sheer cliff face. Nobody new arrives, few have left, and only one, Fierce Einar, has ever left and returned. Einar climbed up the cliff one night after a fight with his father, was “embittered” by what he found at the top, and he climbed back down again, bloody and “maimed.” He’s now known as Lame Einar and herds sheep.
The narrative offers Einar’s story in broad strokes here. It’s notable because it’s so unusual in this village—but it also leaves a lot unsaid, and it is something the novel will return to later. It is a mystery what he finds at the top, though it’s implied that whatever lays beyond the cliff is more dangerous, perhaps, than the sea.
Themes
When the men arrive at Alys’s hut with Claire, Alys sends them away and gets to work cleaning, drying, and warming up Claire. She then feeds Claire some broth and tries to engage her in conversation, but Claire won’t speak. In the morning, Claire cries over her ruined tunic and then accepts a new one from Alys. After breakfast, Alys asks why Claire came here. Believing Claire doesn’t understand her language, she introduces herself and explains that she’s a midwife and healer. Hearing giggles outside, Alys shouts to the three girls, Delwyth, Bethan, and Eira, that the girl is alive and well. Claire tells Alys her name.
While Claire’s original community perhaps even forbade speaking to people from Elsewhere, here, the fishermen and Alys take care of Claire like she’s one of their own—or, perhaps more accurately, like she deserves care and compassion simply by virtue of being a fellow human being.
Themes
