Son (novel)
| Son | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | Lois Lowry |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Giver Quartet |
| Genre | Soft science fiction, Dystopian fiction, Social science |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Books for Children |
Publication date | October 2, 2012 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 393 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-54788-720-3 |
| Preceded by | Messenger |
Son is the fourth book in The Giver series. It was preceded by Messenger, the third book of the series. The book follows Claire, the mother of Gabriel, the baby seen in The Giver.[1]
Plot
Son is written in three parts: Before, Between, and Beyond.
Before
Before takes place in the same location and time as The Giver. Claire's assigned occupation in the community is Birthmother, whose primary responsibility to give birth. At the start of the book, Claire is pregnant. She gives birth to her first child at age 14, but complications during labor necessitate delivery by Caesarean. Three weeks after giving birth, Claire reports to the birthing unit office and is reassigned to work at the Fish Hatchery. Before she leaves, she inquires after the baby she delivered, and the officer informs her that the baby is healthy, accidentally informing Claire that the child is male and number Thirty-Six in his year.
Claire retains curiosity for her son as she begins work at the Fish Hatchery, and begins casually volunteering at the infant nurturing center to see him. As she plays with Thirty-Six, she quickly grows to love him, a feeling she finds that she alone experiences. She later realizes that all adult community members take pills which suppress emotions. As a Birthmother, she was instructed not to take the pills, and the matter was overlooked in her reassignment.
Thirty-Six, whose assigned name is Gabriel and is called Gabe, has difficulty sleeping through the night, so the infant nurturing center chooses to keep him an additional year before he is assigned to a family unit. At night, one of the caretakers, Jonas's father (from The Giver), takes Gabriel home with him, where Gabe is able to sleep soundly in the same room as Jonas. However, Gabe is unable to sleep through the night in the environment of the nurturing center, and it is decided that he will not be assigned to a family unit (and by implication, killed). That night, alarms sound, and Claire learns that Jonas has escaped with Gabe. Desperate to follow, Claire escapes on a supply boat, but the boat soon encounters a strong storm.
Between
In Between, Claire is rescued from the waters by a small village near cliffs. She has no memory of what has happened before. She regains her memory when she sees a friend give birth to a baby, and realizes she was looking for her son and she must find him. To leave the village, she has to learn to climb out of the cliffs, as the sea is too dangerous. She gets help from Einar, a lame friend. She spends years strengthening her body until she is able to lift her body with one arm. During this time, she and Einar fall in love. Einar tells Claire how he became lame. After successfully climbing out of the cliffs, the Trademaster (from Messenger) appeared and asked Einar to trade. Einar refused to trade and the Trademaster hacked off his feet. So Einar tells Claire that she must accept the trade. Claire successfully climbs out of the mountain, and asks the Trademaster to find her son. The Trademaster agrees to find Gabe in exchange for her youth. Claire agrees, but is now an old woman. She gave up everything to find her son who does not know who she is for 7 years until she is in bed dying.
Beyond
In Beyond,Gabriel, the child that Jonas saved from being killed in his former community grows up in the same village from the Messenger. Kira and Jonas are happily married, although Jonas no longer leads the community, having relinquished that role to spend more time at home. Gabe notices a very old woman watching him (Claire). Claire has not told Gabriel that she is his mother because she is so old, no one would believe her. Gabe has the ability to veer, which is to understand someone else's perspective. He longs for his mother. When Claire knows she is close to dying, she tells Jonas the truth. Jonas at first does not believe Claire, but then is convinced when she tells them of their shared history and understands how evil the Trademaster truly is. Claire is dying, and Jonas tells Gabe that Claire is his mother. Gabe finally recognizes this, and understands that the Trademaster must be killed. He meets the Trademaster, and veers into his body, and understands the Trademaster is hungry for suffering. So he tells the Trademaster of all the people that the Trademaster has tried to destroy, and how they are living happily again. This destroys the Trademaster, and when Gabriel returns home, Claire returns to her younger self.
Themes and development
Themes in Son include those of love, obligation, sacrifice, and loss.[2] Lowry had originally not planned on writing Son or any sequels to The Giver, but was inspired to write the story after she "decided to describe what became of him [Gabriel] as he grew up".[3] Initially intending to center the book around Gabriel and his determination to discover his past, Lowry instead found herself being drawn to write more about Claire. She stated that "I wasn’t aware of it at the time ... but when I was writing of her yearning to find her boy, that was coming out of my own yearning to have my own son back."[4]
Critical reception
Reception for Son has been mostly positive, with the book gaining starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist.[5][6] A reviewer for the Washington Post wrote that the book had a "quiet climax", stating that the ultimate "power of this parable" is that "It confronts us with some of the choices we are making and plays out the consequences."[7] Robin Wasserman of the New York Times commented that Son did well as a standalone novel and praised Lowry's descriptions in the book.[2] The Boston Globe criticized the book's "over-elaborations and pacing" while writing that "overall the journey is still worth the effort".[8] The AV Club commented that while the book could have used more world-building, it is also "just plain good young-adult literature".[9]
References
- ↑ Williams, John. "Book Review Podcast: The Final Book in Lois Lowry’s ‘Giver’ Quartet". New York Times. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wasserman, Robin. "The Searcher". New York Times. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ Dar, Mahnaz. "Lois Lowry Talks About Her Latest Novel, ‘Son’". School Library Journal. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ Kois, Dan. "The Children’s Author Who Actually Listens to Children". New York Times. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ "SON by Lois Lowry | Kirkus Book Reviews". 15 September 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
- ↑ Cooper, Irene (1 June 2012). "Son, by Lois Lowry | Booklist Online". Booklist Online. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
- ↑ Quattlebaum, Mary (September 28, 2012). "Book World: ‘Son’ by Lois Lowry concludes series that began with ‘The Giver’". Washington Post. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ Rosenberg, Liz (OCTOBER 03, 2012). "‘Son’ by Lois Lowry". Boston Globe. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ McFarland, Kevin. "Lois Lowry’s new Son finally concludes and resolves the classic story of The Giver". AV Club. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
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