Sons for the Return Home

Sons for the Return Home by Albert Wendt describes the Samoan experience in New Zealand. The narrative is told without giving the reader the names of its characters. It is told mostly from the perspective of a native Samoan boy whose parents brought him to New Zealand as a young boy. It gives the story of how he falls in love with a New Zealand girl and how he comes to embrace the country he grew up in, despite the fact that it has treated him and his family so horribly since their arrival. 
A big reason why I believe Wendt chose not to name his characters is to drive home the point that this is not an isolated case for the life of a Samoan in New Zealand. It could be anyone, including the author himself. Wendt showcases the experience of a Samoan in New Zealand through his main character and select stories from his parents. The choice by Wendt to not explicitly name his main characters blurs the line of what is the story of the main character and his love story and what is from the perspective of his parents, making it one universal story. He yells at his mother as she fails to accept the fact that even though she is a New Zealander and not a Samoan like her husband and children they treat her and her family like “dirty coconut Islanders” (13). The main character is consistently described as distant from his peers. From when he first meets the girl who eventually becomes his love interest, in the opening pages of the novel, all the way through the first half  of the novel. It is not until the girl takes him to a party that both herself and the reader realizes why he is so distant. The native New Zealanders see him and try to engage him in a conversation about the politics of his homeland, however they talk about Samoa as if he is not actually there (23). He holds his tongue to maintain the minimal respect that the people of his new home have for him. 
Wendt even recognizes the fact that Samoans in New Zealand have their own prejudices. More specifically, Samoans have their prejudices against the Maori people and the white ‘native’ New Zealander. Immediately after he fights with his girlfriend the boy says “Like many Samoans, he thought himself superior to Maoris...He admitted that most Samoans believed the same racist myths about the Maoris as pakehas” (97).  Making them no better than the pakeha, or non-Samoan, native New Zealanders. This idea is explored through the second quarter of the novel as the boy and his girlfriend are on their road trip. They stop for breakfast and his girlfriend almost mocks him for his suspicion. He knows its wrong but he cannot help himself as he grew up with the pakehas and he grew up with their prejudices, even if they have prejudices against him. 

Wendt in the novel Sons for the Return Home explores the complexities of being an immigrant and of growing up in a society that sees you as inferior but not as inferior as another community of people. He is struggling to be a part of the New Zealand culture but at the same time he is struggling to fully accept the New Zealand culture due to its prejudices. 

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