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Book 2, Chapter 2
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
Claire is at the hut preparing soup when Alys returns. Alys takes some of the boiling water to make the tea for Bryn, and as Claire sniffs the steam, she suddenly gasps and then sits by the fire. Alys opens a heavy trunk, which once stored baby clothes but now stores “treasures.” She pulls out a cloth with some brown shreds in it and offers it to Claire to smell. The shreds, Alys says, are beach roses; their scent helps her hold onto her memories. Claire must’ve remembered something when she smelled the tea, but now, Claire doesn’t know what. Alys asks a few questions about what Claire might’ve done before coming here, but Claire doesn’t remember anything.
Recovering her memories is going to be a long and arduous process for Claire, as this experience of half remembering something shows. Again, Alys makes it clear that Claire can and should take the time she needs to recover and remember, and that she’ll be here to support Claire through this process. This highlights that, in this village, caring for members’ emotional wellbeing is a priority—a consideration that went unregistered in Claire’s original community.
Themes
Bethan, Delwyth, and Eira are playing in the meadow. They’re having a pretend tea party, and they all pretend that they’re pregnant and will soon have their babies. Within moments, their babies are all “born” and the girls rock imaginary babies—until Bethan says her mother says it’s bad luck to “pretend about a baby.” The girls abandon the baby portion of their game. Claire, listening from some nearby trees, smiles. Somehow, the girls’ game reminds her of something—but the girls’ pretend pregnancies and Bryn’s tea make Claire extremely sad. She decides to learn everything she can, in the hope that she’ll eventually remember her past.
Unlike girls where Claire grew up, Bethan, Delwyth, and Eira know more or less where babies come from and spend at least some of their time thinking about it—and thinking about having babies themselves someday. They’re far more knowledgeable about such facts of life than anyone in Claire’s community was, and this, perhaps, gives them a fuller life experience. Claire’s sadness, of course, is due to her own forced birth and her missing son, though she doesn’t remember this yet.
Themes
Tall Andras is in an upper field, watching Claire walk a path down below. She doesn’t limp anymore, which thrills him. The crows pester Andras’s crops. Andras’s family depends on him, as his father’s arm never recovered from a boat accident and his mother is unwell. He decides to make a “bird-scarer,” using a gourd for the head. Thinking of the face he’ll carve in it, he twists his own face into something silly. He stops suddenly, though, wanting Claire to see him as a serious man ready to marry.
Unlike others in the community, Tall Andras doesn’t necessarily see Claire as a person to support emotionally: she’s a prize for him to win. As uncomfortable as this might be for readers (and possibly, for Claire), this also highlights how this community is made up of all sorts of different people, with different goals and thought processes. Difference and individuality thrive here, for better and for worse.
Themes
