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Book 3, 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
The village often holds feasts, for any reason or no reason at all. Kira, Jonas, Matthew, and Annabelle all dress up to go (though Jonas resists), and their dog Frolic follows. The village is populated by people who fled violence or chaos elsewhere. People continue to come seeking shelter and belonging. And though the village has occasionally dealt with bigotry and isolationism, years ago Jonas talked everyone into remembering that they were all “outsiders” once and that they should remain a “sanctuary.” Gabe was always embarrassed in school when his class visited the museum and the teacher would point out the sled that Jonas arrived with, carrying the dying baby Gabe. Most of the people memorialized in the museum, like Kira’s father, are dead now. He’s buried beside Matty, his adoptive son who died fighting evil seven years ago.
Here, the novel briefly summarizes events from Messenger and from The Giver. The Giver ends with Jonas arriving here with baby Gabe on the red sled; in Messenger, people became selfish and bigoted, and Matty died a Jesus-like death to help return the village to its former “sanctuary” state. Gabe’s embarrassment at having his arrival memorialized at the museum is, perhaps, normal teenage embarrassment: he doesn’t want to be known for something that happened to him as a baby. But it also suggests that Gabe feels unsettled and like he doesn’t fit in here, even though he’s a refugee like so many others who live here.
Themes
As Gabe passes through the cemetery, he remembers that he was eight when people found Matty’s body. Gabe always admired Matty, who’d taken the younger boy under his wing. Matty’s death changed everyone, as Matty made a huge sacrifice and it encouraged everyone to be kinder and more open. Jonas had, in the wake of Matty’s death, banished Trademaster, an evil man who seemed to corrupt the village.
With Matty’s example to guide them, people in the village were able to choose community, support, and kindness over selfishness and greed. That Matty’s death was somehow linked to Trademaster is ominous, as it suggests that Trademaster’s return could have devastating consequences for the village.
Themes
Gabe remembers talking to Matty once soon before Matty died. Gabe hadn’t wanted to listen, but he took it to heart when Matty told him to study and learn—and that Gabe was going to need to do “something special” and likely had a gift that wasn’t yet apparent. Gabe had actually just discovered veering then—he’d veered into a wrestler’s perspective at a festival—and now, he wishes he’d told Matty about it. Gabe later learned to control it. Once, he veered into Mentor to try to cheat on a math test, but in Mentor’s mind, he only found love and passion for teaching his students. Gabe also wishes he’d told Matty about his desire to find his mother. Now, he tosses a pebble to join many others at Matty’s grave, his own way of saying hi to his friend; and he runs to join the party.
Here, the novel confirms that Matty’s gift, veering, essentially allows him to empathize with another person by dipping temporarily into their perspective. This, Gabe finds, can be a pretty unsettling gift to use. For instance, he entered Mentor’s mind expecting to only find test questions and answers. This suggests Gabe saw Mentor as businesslike and one-dimensional. Instead, though, Gabe found passion he had no idea existed. Gabe’s discomfort with his gift suggests that empathy, as useful a skill as it might be, can be a difficult one to learn.
Themes
