Son

by

Lois Lowry

Themes and Colors
Pain and Maternal Love Theme Icon
Travel, Fitting In, and Values Theme Icon
Emotion, Individuality, and the Human Experience Theme Icon
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Community and Sacrifice Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Son, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Travel, Fitting In, and Values Theme Icon

In Son, various characters travel great distances, both physically and emotionally. Travel, and finding a place to call home, is something the novel suggests allows a person to find happiness—and perhaps more importantly, to pinpoint exactly what they value. For instance, as Claire gradually becomes aware of how boring, cruel, and detached her and Gabe’s original community is, she discovers what she values more than anything: her love for her son, an emotion she’s not allowed to feel in her community. Thus, when she discovers that Gabe and Jonas have run away from the community, Claire leaves too, intent only on finding her son.

In the village where Claire eventually finds Jonas and Gabe, this link between travel, home, and values is made very explicit. Here, the community makes a conscious effort to be open and welcoming to everyone, particularly to refugees who have come from places that were cruel or violent. It’s a place that values community and difference, unlike Claire and Gabe’s original community (where people who don’t conform are “released,” or killed) or the seaside village Claire where spends several years in the interim (where the community is robust, but people nevertheless are expected to mostly fit in). Thus, it’s significant that Gabe’s final action in the novel is to use his power to essentially empathize with others to destroy Trademaster, a villain who controls people by making them cruel, cold, and power-hungry. In doing so, Gabe ensures that the village will continue to proudly welcome refugees and will be a place where people will always be welcomed, no matter where they come from or who they are.

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Travel, Fitting In, and Values Quotes in Son

Below you will find the important quotes in Son related to the theme of Travel, Fitting In, and Values.
Book 1, Chapter 1  Quotes

There was a celebratory dinner her last evening in the dwelling. Her brother, older by six years, had already gone on to his own training in the Department of Law and Justice. They saw him only at public meetings; he had become a stranger. So the last dinner was just the three of them, she and the parental unit who had raised her.

Related Characters: Claire, Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six, Peter
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 2  Quotes

She couldn’t look down at her own body but carefully moved her hands to rest there on what had been her own taut, swollen belly. It was flat now, bandaged, and very sore. The Product was what they had carved out of her.

And she missed it. She was suffused with a desperate feeling of loss.

Related Characters: Claire, Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 6  Quotes

In another, recurrent dream, Thirty-six was here with her, in her small room at the Hatchery, but no one knew. She kept him hidden in a drawer, and opened it from time to time. He would look up and smile at her. Secrecy was forbidden in the community, and the dream of the hidden newchild caused her to wake with a feeling of guilt and dread. But a stronger feeling was the one that stayed with her after that dream: the excitement of opening the drawer and seeing that he was still there, that he was safe and smiling.

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six
Page Number: 57-58
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 1, Chapter 13  Quotes

The boat almost grazed the bank there, and she felt a yearning to go close to it. Odd, she thought, but she felt almost lured by the boat, in the same way that she found herself drawn to the Nurturing Center and the newchild who had been wrested from her body almost a year before. There was no relationship between the two, but Claire was feeling increasingly connected to both.

Related Characters: Claire, Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 102-103
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 4  Quotes

Einar was not one for talking. His failures had made him a recluse, but people remembered the vulnerable boy he had once been. Though he had stolen from his father, they forgave him that; his father had been a harsh and unjust man. That he had climbed out, many admired, for the cliff was steep and jagged and the world beyond unknown; few had the courage that Einar had had. They regretted his failure, but they welcomed his damaged return. Einar, though, had never forgiven himself; he lived in self-imposed shame and stayed mostly silent.

Related Characters: Claire, Lame Einar, Alys
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 8  Quotes

“It was different, where I lived. There weren’t weddings. And yes, I gave birth.” She found herself speaking tersely to him. She was angered. “You can’t understand. I was selected to give birth. It was an honor. I was called Birthmother.”

He raised his chin and looked at her with a kind of contempt. “You live here, now. And you’re stained.”

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Tall Andras (speaker), Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 9  Quotes

“You must start to harden yourself. I’ll show you. It won’t be easy. You must want it.”

“I do want it,” Claire said. Her voice broke. “I want him.”

Einar paused, and thought, and then said, “It be better, I think, to climb out in search of something, instead of hating what you’re leaving.”

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Lame Einar (speaker), Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 2, Chapter 11  Quotes

Briefly, on a day when she was exhausted, she thought of Einar with frustration, of how demanding he was, how relentlessly he made her do the exercises again and again. Then she thought of how he watched her, assessing and admiring her strength, and she knew that his gaze was also that of someone who loved her.

Related Characters: Claire, Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six, Lame Einar
Page Number: 225
Explanation and Analysis:

“To me you’re a child, still. And a mum always loves her child.”

“It should be so, shouldn’t it? But something stood in the way of it. I think it was a—well, they called them pills. The mothers took pills.”

“Pills?”

“Like a potion.”

“Ah.” That was something Alys understood. “But a potion is meant to fix an ill.”

“Claire yawned. She was achy and exhausted.

“My people—” (“My people?” What did that mean? She didn’t really know) “They thought that it fixed a lot of ills, not to have feelings like love.”

“Fools,” Alys muttered. Now she yawned too. “You loved your boy, though. That’s why you’re soon to climb out.”

Claire closed her eyes and patted the old woman’s back. “I did,” she said. “I loved my boy. I still do.”

Related Characters: Claire (speaker), Alys (speaker), Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six
Page Number: 228
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 7 Quotes

All that work. The weeks and weeks of planning, of building, of hoping. And all he could say now was that the paddle worked well. Gabe felt it all slipping away: his dream of returning, of finding his mother, of becoming part of something he had yearned for all his life.

Related Characters: Claire, Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six, Jonas, Trademaster
Related Symbols: The Boat and Paddle, Water
Page Number: 332
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 10 Quotes

“Evil can do anything, Gabe,” Mentor said, “for a price.”

Related Characters: Mentor (speaker), Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six, Trademaster, Lame Einar
Page Number: 359
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 11 Quotes

It was dark when Gabe stood at the water’s edge, alone. He had begged Jonas to come with him. But Jonas had said no.

“Years ago, Gabe, when I took you and ran away, there was a man I loved and left behind. I wanted him to come with me but he said no.

“He was right to refuse. It was my journey and I had to do it without help. I had to find my own strengths, face my own fears. And now you must.”

Related Characters: Jonas (speaker), Claire, Gabe/Abe/Thirty-Six, Trademaster, Lame Einar
Related Symbols: Water, The Boat and Paddle
Page Number: 367
Explanation and Analysis: