Part 3 Sons for the Return

Matt Kozak
Sons for the Return (Part 3)

What I found most interesting about Sons of the Return was the way Wendt shows how the colonized resist oppression in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Specifically, I found the boy’s masculinity to be quite important in his countering of his own marginalization. As I read the first several chapters I continually thought of the boy as “the perfect man.” Of course, masculinity is tricky to define because the concept varies between groups and changes within different contexts. Nevertheless, this was my first impression. The boy’s stoicism and detachment allow him to manage his position in a racist society. It seems that he is in total control of his situation. “Do you want me to win the game for them?” (Wendt 4) he asks, while playing rugby. It’s not a question of if he can, but if he should.
Of course, this sense of masculinity becomes complicated as the reader sees the boy is not all confidence. He shows insecurity, especially with the girl. The relationship is ultimately something that is out of his control. He could not suppress his feelings, although he tries. The brother tells the girl that the boy “Feels a helluva lot for you yet he won’t show it in public. At least not as other Samoan males are around to accuse him of being soft-hearted” (62). This reflects the ideas of masculinity imposed on the boy by his father on page 76.
       The father also argues “Pain is to be endured; this is the basis of Samoan manhood” (76). The boy demonstrates that this belief, although we might call it detrimental, can be necessary for surviving in a society that routinely others you. With the trust the boy places in the girl, and his commitment to their relationship, he loses some of his tools in combating his own oppression. However, he also gains a connection he never had before, a connection to New Zealand, which he had previously been unable to see as a home. The conflict of the novel seems to stem from this divide- Samoa and New Zealand, Love and self-sufficiency, family or the self, all with the boy torn in the middle.

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