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Book 1, Chapter 3
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
Finally, Claire’s opportunity arrives. The biology teacher borrowed some of Dmitri’s posters and he needs them tomorrow, so Claire offers to pick them up while she runs another errand. She’s not technically lying, which is not allowed; but she doesn’t want to tell anyone she’s going to see Sophia. Fortunately, nobody asks. Claire picks up the posters and greets a former teacher who’s clearly curious as to why Claire, a Birthmother, is out in the community, though the teacher doesn’t ask (this would be rude). Then, Claire turns toward the Nurturing Center, wondering again if her parents were ashamed of her assignment. Do they even think of her now, or of Peter?
Claire continues to flout her community’s rules and conventions by lying, wondering, and through no fault of her own, failing to be what her society considers a good Birthmother. The idea that asking why Claire is out and about would be rude points to one way the community polices people and exerts control: wondering, and asking someone about their experience, is totally inappropriate. In thinking of Peter and her parents, Claire underhandedly reveals that she cares about her own son—and so she finds her parents’ detachment odd.
Themes
Unable to come up with a good, truthful reason as to why she’s here, Claire lies to the receptionist that she’s come to offer the posters to the Nurturing Center to decorate their walls. When (as expected) the receptionist declines, Claire asks if she might take a tour, and she notes that she and Sophia were in the same age group. The receptionist, pleased by Claire’s interest, pages Sophia. Sophia remembers Claire a little, though she clearly doesn’t remember that Claire was assigned Birthmother. They first look in the window of the room where the youngest newchildren are. Sophia explains that the newchildren are all numbered and kept in rooms of 10. They almost have all the newchildren for this year; this means the newchildren will be old enough to play with by Ceremony time, since parents want to play with their children.
Claire continues to show readers that she’s different from her fellows (and isn’t so sold on the community’s rules) by lying to the receptionist. Sophia almost forgetting Claire, meanwhile, is another reminder of how fractured and distant connections in this community are. As Sophia talks about the newchildren (babies) and explains that they’ll be old enough to play with by the Ceremony, she paints a distinct view of what parenthood means here. Indeed, she makes it sound more like a fun hobby than like anything else. And again, that babies are called “newchildren” points to this community’s detached and dehumanizing way of life.
Themes
Sophia, who works with the 21-30 group, invites Claire to help feed her charges, but Claire asks to see the final group, 31-40. The uniformed man in that room jovially invites Claire to help feed the newchildren, so Claire says goodbye to Sophia and enters. The newchildren are in cribs, with bottles propped up for them. Suddenly, one begins to shriek. The Nurturer laughs: he can tell it’s Thirty-six, who’s always fussy. He asks Claire to pick him up and try to soothe him, so Claire picks up her son.
Nobody at the Nurturing Center has any idea that Claire was a Birthmother, let alone Thirty-six’s mother. So picking up her baby for the first time is a private experience for Claire: she’s the only one who understands the significance of the moment. That Thirty-six is known to be fussy suggests that he, like Claire, doesn’t fully fit in with the rest of his peers. For now, it's framed as a fun (if annoying) quirk, but it’s unclear if such quirks will become a liability later.
Themes
