Son: Week of 10-14-14

Title: Son

Author: Lois Lowry

Prompt: How does the experiences and community effect the character's actions

Pages read: 50-84

Claire's community has no violence, criminal activity, or much change. Everyone basically plays a role in this society and help carry out the community. Claire may be different though. She was originally assigned birthmother but something went wrong and she works at the Hatchery. Everything runs kind of as one big machine in her community, so there really aren't any problems because people can't vote on anything. Everyone has their jobs chosen for them so Claire gets a bit bored. In fact in one part she even says "I am, I am lonely." She feels that there is basically a higher purpose in life than working at the hatchery for years.

When the birth of her child went wrong she was curious and remembered his number which was "thirty-six" and one day it becomes important. She decides to kind of lie to her director. In her community, lying is not tolerated but she feels it wasn't a total lie. So she goes over to the nurturing center and talks to a girl who was in the same year she was in. She finds the room her baby was in because they are numbered off. She finds "thirty-six" and held him in her hands. From that moment on everything changed. She could no longer thing of anyone else besides her and the child. She felt a new feeling, a feeling she had never felt before and she couldn't quite explain it. 

I feel that Claire becomes capable of lying because she becomes interested because of the incident that occurred. I feel that if she would have stayed with the birthmothers she would just be another piece of the puzzle. Claire also begins to risk getting into trouble to see her child. This is probably because of the strong connection she feels toward it which is this simpler feeling of love. In "The Giver" they say that the people in the village did not know the feeling of love. This is because they have all been deceived and given the idea that what they are told is right and that they only have the right to do what they are told to. Claire is getting over this idea of listening and staying in line. She changes the second she leaves to the Hatchery. She becomes a new Claire.