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Book 3, Chapter 4
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 goes to Herbalist for pain relief, as her whole body aches. He encourages her to enjoy every moment she has left and to particularly enjoy the feast later. As she walks back through the village, she wonders why Gabe is so busy building a boat—and she’s sad he wants to leave. When she arrived years ago, Gabe was eight or nine. But though she initially moved forward toward him, she stopped—would he believe her story, and would others taunt him if they knew? Deciding not to burden him, Claire kept quiet and realized how cruel Trademaster’s deal had been. She’s spent the last few years watching Gabe grow up. Now, she worries about Gabe and the river—water has only “brought her heartbreak and loss.”
This is a moment of dramatic irony: readers know that Gabe wants to leave to find his mother, but Gabe doesn’t know she’s right here. The reason he doesn’t know, this passage reveals, is because Claire is doing what she believes to be in his best interest by keeping this information from him. Though this is difficult for her emotionally, the novel also suggests that it’s something she does without a second thought because she’s a mother and is therefore willing to prioritize her child’s needs over her own wants.
Themes
Claire fills her plate with soft foods and settles next to a pregnant young woman. Kira is nearby, supervising her toddlers. Claire realizes that had she not made the deal with Trademaster, she’d be like these young women. She might be back with Einar. But then she wouldn’t have found Gabe, and she knows she’d make the trade again if she could. She notices him at a table with friends. His eyes are still a shockingly pale blue, just like Jonas’s and Kira’s.
If Claire looked her age, she’d be somewhere in her late 20s. But even as she thinks over what she’s given up by trading away her age, Claire remains convinced that she made the right choice. Again, this highlights her maternal love for Gabe and her willingness to sacrifice her own needs and wants for him.
Themes
By now, Claire remembers the mask she wore when she gave birth, holding Gabe the first time, and her dream of the baby in the drawer. She remembers Gabe waving and saying, “bye-bye.” All these memories make her extremely sad—especially since she’s no longer a young woman who can mother Gabe. She doesn’t regret her trade, but she knows Trademaster played a “hideous joke” on them both. As night falls and the music begins, Claire watches Gabe talk to Deirdre as Jonas’s family leaves. Jonas, of course, doesn’t recognize Claire, but Claire remembers him. She wonders if Jonas also worries about Gabe and his boat, and she feels sad that Gabe won’t ever know much about his past. Suddenly, Claire knows what to do: she’ll tell Jonas her story. He can pass it on to Gabe.
The “hideous joke,” of course, is that Claire is now elderly and doesn’t have long left to live. She not only can’t be in Gabe’s life as a mother figure, but she won’t be able to watch him grow much longer, either. Getting more of her memories back increases the bittersweet tone here, as it highlights how much Claire has wanted to be present for Gabe since his birth—and that she’s been denied that for his entire life. By telling Jonas her story, Claire hopes to give Gabe what he craves while still sparing him any embarrassment or discomfort she fears he’d feel.
Themes
