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Book 1, Chapter 11
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
As weeks pass and as Claire continues to think about her baby, she realizes that nobody in her community ever experiences surprises (aside from the Assignment Ceremony). Life is always the same. Claire is bored. She thinks about Jonas and wonders what he’s doing, but she can’t think of anything. She tries to visit the Nurturing Center, but the receptionist turns her away. When she sees the man on his bike in the Central Plaza, a little seat now on the back of his bike, she begins timing her walks so she’ll run into the man and Thirty-six. It finally works one evening, and Claire sees Abe sitting in his seat, inspecting a leaf in his hands. Abe is still spending nights with the nurturer and his family; his daughter wants them to apply for a variance so they can have three children. He told her no.
It's implied that Claire is the only person in the community who’s ever bored. Somehow, everyone else is content with life always being the same, with no intrigue or surprises. This increases Claire’s isolation, and Abe continues to be the only thing really keeping her attached to the community. That the nurturer’s daughter wants her parents to apply for a variance so they can raise Abe suggests first that the community can and does occasionally bend rules (or, at least, makes of show of saying they will). It also implies that someone else thinks like Claire and, perhaps, is willing to consider a different way of life.
Themes
Claire asks if they’re using Thirty-six’s name in public yet. The man says that while his family is secretly (and against the rules) using it at home, he’s technically still Thirty-six to everyone else. As the man begins to pedal away with Abe, he shares that his son’s name is Jonas.
Though it hurts Claire to not have the man share her baby’s name with her, it still feels good to her that the man and his family are breaking the rules to use the baby’s name at home and thus humanize him.
Themes
