Chapters 1-4
Chapter 1
The titular “son,” Will, tells his parents he is going to study at a friend’s house but instead “slip[s] off to a cinema.” In the theater lobby, he unexpectedly sees his father, Sonny, with a white woman, Hannah Plowman. He feels pressured by his father to hide his shock and exchange idle pleasantries with the woman. After the conversation, Will runs home and takes refuge in his studies.
A second narrator, speaking in the third person, describes Sonny’s backstory. Sonny was once a teacher, the first in his family to receive a full academic education. After graduating, Sonny got a job in a town school to the east of Johannesburg, where he met his wife, Aila, and had two children, Baby and Will. His accomplishments earned him the respect of the community. However, due to the circumstances of Apartheid South Africa, Sonny and his family were forced to live in a racially-segregated community.
Aila proved a perfect match for Sonny; together, they built a peaceful and passionate relationship, agreeing on everything and leading orderly lives. Both felt a responsibility to a greater community beyond their small family. Sonny found a productive outlet to serve the community in his teaching, but he also sought partnerships with charitable organizations “in the white town.”
Sonny and Aila took the children to town on Saturdays, when they were allowed to patronize white-owned businesses. Despite many shops catering to Black customers on Saturdays, some places, like the library, remained closed to non-white citizens
Chapter 2
The narration returns to Will, who is considering Hannah and focusing on her blonde hair. He thinks it stereotypical that his father, a black man, cheated with a blonde white woman. Referring to “self-respect” as Sonny’s “religion,” Will struggles to comprehend his father’s behavior, as it seems to go against everything he believes.
Will remembers meeting Hannah when Sonny was imprisoned, as she represented a human rights organization and offered the family “moral support” during his incarceration.
The second narrator returns to Sonny’s backstory, namely his quest “to improve himself.” Sonny developed his mind through independent reading and thinking, as his race prevented him from participating in political debates or joining intellectually stimulating communities.
Will resumes narration, reflecting on his happy childhood with his sister. He recognized from an early age that other people respected his father. Despite the approval of the community, the family’s social circle was limited. Will remembers that his parents surrounded him and Baby with a “charmed circle” of “innocence” that kept them relatively protected from the harsh reality of Apartheid.
The third-person narrator recounts how Sonny and his family existed “halfway between” the world of white South Africans and “the real blacks.” The narrator suggests that Sonny, like others who are “between,” saw himself as superior to “them”—the black citizens whom he blamed for segregation and inequality. Sonny did not want to “recognize any feature” that would connect him to “real blacks.”
However, Sonny began to feel “responsibility” toward the Black community. Though he had made many efforts to distinguish himself from “real blacks,” he was deeply moved when a black child was shot and killed—the moment memorialized in a photograph that resembled the famous Pieta of Rome. The image elicited sympathy and outrage in the community, causing people to act against Apartheid.
Though Sonny had previously focused on making a difference within his classroom, he now asked the principal if he could walk with his students across the veld as a show of “solidarity” with black children barred from their school by police. He guaranteed the principal the students would...
(This entire section contains 1044 words.)
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not carry stones and that it would be a nonviolent protest.
However, some of the students carried matches and set fire to a bus, and their actions reflected on Sonny. It was not surprising that parents felt he should lose his job: The children Sonny taught were a part of the community that saw themselves as immune to the problems that befell “real blacks,” whose children could be shot in the streets without recourse.
Chapter 3
Again fixating on the run-in at the cinema, Will wonders why his father would be in public with his mistress. Will believes he should not have seen what his father “had shown” him that day.
Upon returning home that night, Sonny joins the family at dinner as though nothing happened. Will perceives his father tacitly asking him to keep quiet. Both Will and Sonny play along while Aila talks about how much Will has been studying.
Returning to Sonny’s story, the narrator remarks on the notoriety Sonny gained after the incident with the schoolchildren. Sonny was not immediately fired, and the narrator speculates the principal may have protected him for a while. However, after that protest, Sonny became a powerful public speaker, and his newfound visibility led the school to eventually dismiss him.
Chapter 4
Will mentions that the name of the town where he was born, Benoni, means “son of sorrow.” He uses this reference to consider when sorrow entered their lives: It was either when they had to move from the town or when Sonny lost his job. He soon landed a new job but dedicated most of his time to political work, such as making speeches and attending meetings. Will remembers that he loved it when his father read to him and recalls that Sonny once said Will would become a writer.
Will blames his father’s relationship with Hannah on their move from Benoni. They stayed in their house for some time after Sonny changed jobs; however, Sonny and Aila eventually resolved to move the family to Johannesburg. Sonny had begun to think of their town as a “ghetto,” where they were confined by the white majority. As such, he proposed moving into a white area of Johannesburg (occupied by working-class white South Africans) to rebel against racial segregation.
Will expresses his resentment that Baby does not know about Sonny’s affair, feeling unfairly burdened by the knowledge. Distressed, he continues to mentally work through his father’s betrayal, the way his father has made him complicit in his dishonesty, and the future of his parents’ marriage.
