Response to Sons For the Return Home

Albert Wendt’s Sons For The Return Home outlines both the definition and struggle for cultural identity through the immigration of a Samoan family to New Zealand in the 1970s. His story shows the contrast between the two cultures, and closely examines the perceptions each has for the other. The novel encourages many thought-provoking questions on the much debated topic of culture, and inspires readers to open their minds to never-ending array of ideas.

The story follows the relationship of a young Samoan man and his Papalagi girlfriend in New Zealand. Their relationship is the perfect way to show the comparison between the two ethnicities, and to examine the real differences between them. It also serves as the catalyst which allows us to see people’s reactions to this relationship. While the boy’s father is accepting, having had significant friendships with Papalagi people himself, his mother is nothing but. While she is polite in the girl’s presence and treats her with respect, her tolerance for their relationship is thin. She tells her son that while she likes her, the girl is “not for him” and wouldn’t fit in in Samoa – despite the girl’s enthusiasm and eagerness to learn about the culture. She is also convinced that her own parents would always look down on them and regard them as inferior. While to many, including myself, it may seem clear that regardless of race, gender and class, it’s never wrong for two people to be together, the boy’s mother simply does not agree. Although it is evident in the book that the two love each other deeply and that her son is very happy with his girlfriend, none of this seems to be relevant in her mind because the girl is not Samoan.

The book also voices some of the negative stereotypes of the two ethnicities. His mother constantly tells her children that Papalagi people are rich, selfish and cruel. Although she has met none, she declares the children to all be spoilt, naughty and have no respect for their parents. The women slept with strangers before they were married and the men were lazy, and both lacked religion looked down on Pacific Islanders. Samoans in comparison were respectful, hard-working and faithful. Interestingly enough, the racism she feels is directed at her in turn makes her just as bad. Throughout the book she despises Papalagis for looking down on her (although we never see this), while really, she looks down on them. She is completely oblivious to the fact that Samoans also pride themselves above others, as is her son, who deems the Maori people to be a lazy race who do nothing but gamble, have sex, drink and fight. He however, learns to think otherwise, after examining this stereotype and realising that ironically, it is the same one the Papalagi assign to Samoans. Previously however, he had been raised to think that Samoans were the only true Pacific Islanders left – a very racist and elitist idea. At the start of the novel, he also avoids involvement with Papalagi people altogether due to disliking all of them in general based on the few he has met.

Then there is the question of cultural identity. The title of the story provokes some intriguing thoughts – in the story, the parents decide to move to New Zealand so that their sons may receive a good education, before returning to Samoa. This plan for their sons to “return home” is consistent throughout the book, the whole point being that the main character, the youngest son, does not know where his true home really is. His parents however, never seem to realise that this could be an issue. Growing up in New Zealand, the boy only remembers his birthplace through glamorised stories of Samoa, but he is told (both audibly and psychologically) that he is a Samoan, and Samoa is his home. Unable to be completely at ease in New Zealand, he returns to his motherland with the assumption that he will feel at peace there. Although when he arrives, he realises that cultural identity is not so simple and “home” is more an idea than a physical place. At the end of the book he goes back to New Zealand, ready to start a new life without a single culture to define him. He realises that he might not be Papalagi or Samoan, but both.