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Book 1, Chapter 9
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
When Claire’s coworkers return the following evening, they share that there was a surprise at the Ceremony of Twelve. The ceremony is a long one. Each child is brought onstage, the Chief Elder praises them for some quality, and they receive their Assignment. But the Chief Elder skipped Nineteen—and then at the end, she apologized and explained that rather than being assigned, Nineteen had been “selected.” Nobody quite understands what for; it’s something “to do with the Giver and the Receiver,” “[w]hoever they are.” The boy looked as confused as everyone else. After this, they all called out his name: Jonas.
Readers familiar with The Giver, the first novel in this series, may recognize the event described here: Jonas is being selected to work with the Giver, who holds all the community’s memories. In this book, though, readers gain insight into how others view this event. It’s confusing and simply unfathomable what Jonas is going to do, highlighting how cut off this community is from not just its own history, but human history and experience at large.
Themes
