The Son

Published in 2013, The Son is a Western family saga by American novelist Philipp Meyer. Inspired by the 1915-18 Texas Bandit Wars, the novel speaks to the creation myths of the United States. Following its publication, The Son was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Meyer also developed The Son as a television series for AMC. The series ran for two seasons from 2017 to 2019, starring Pierce Brosnan as Eli McCullough.

Set in Texas, The Son tells the story of three generations of the McCullough family, led by its relentless and imposing patriarch, Eli. As a child, Eli is kidnapped by the Comanche nation and raised as one of their own. When he returns to white American society, Eli becomes a vital figure in shaping Texas through major events like the American Civil War. His descendants, Peter and Jeannie, reckon with Eli’s legacy as they struggle to fit into their respective times and places. This novel explores Violence as the Catalyst of History, The Tension Between Hard and Soft Natures, and Taking Ownership of One’s Destiny.

This study guide refers to the first paperback edition of the novel, published by Ecco in 2014.

Content Warning: The source material includes graphic depictions of sexual violence, bodily mutilation, and death. The novel also depicts Texas during the American Civil War, presenting the anti-Black attitudes that propagated the system of enslavement in the American South through the use of slurs against Indigenous and Black people. The novel also illustrates racist attitudes toward Latinx people.

Plot Summary

The novel uses a braided structure and is narrated from the perspectives of three characters: Eli McCullough, whose story spans from 1836 to 1881; Peter McCullough, whose story spans 1915 to 1917; and Jeannie McCullough, whose story spans from the 1920s to 2012. Although the novel intersperses these narratives, cutting from one time frame to another, this summary relates events chronologically.

Young Eli McCullough witnesses his family being killed by a party of Comanche raiders. Toshaway, chief of the Kotsoteka band, kidnaps Eli and raises him to become a respected warrior among the Comanches. After three years, an epidemic wipes out most of the Kotsoteka people, forcing them to return Eli in exchange for resources.

Back in white Texan society, Eli refuses to give up his Comanche ways, engaging in various misdemeanors until he is mustered into the Texas Rangers. As a Ranger, Eli fights against Indigenous nations but hesitates at the possibility of killing the remaining Comanche bands. When the American Civil War begins, Eli fights on the Confederate side. He joins a battalion that merges white and Cherokee units, which disbands when the Cherokee withdraw their support at the war's end.

Eli starts a family with the daughter of a judge who had taken him in shortly after his release from the Comanche. Eli also builds a cattle ranch, which is threatened by a neighboring Mexican landowner named Arturo Garcia. On suspicion that Arturo’s men have stolen some of his stock, Eli assassinates Arturo. He later builds a house for his family on the Nueces River, splitting his time between the house and the ranch. In his absence, Lipan Apache raid the house, killing Eli’s wife and firstborn son. Eli responds by exterminating the Lipan band.

Eli’s youngest son, Peter, grows up at odds with his father, who maintains his cold and relentless ways well into old age. When Peter’s son, Glenn, is involved in an altercation with the sons-in-law of neighboring landowner Pedro Garcia, Eli and his grandson Charles gather a mob to confront the Garcias. This ends in a massacre that leaves all but the eldest Garcia daughter, María, dead. Peter is forced to reckon with his role in the massacre, which sparks a series of racist attacks against the local Tejano population. Peter resigns himself to the fact that he is not cut out for life as a rancher. Meanwhile, his father pivots the family business toward oil drilling.

When María suddenly returns to the ranch, Peter extends his assistance out of guilt for his participation in the massacre. Peter and María fall in love, which Eli strongly opposes. Eli uses the support of Peter’s brother, Phineas, and Peter’s estranged wife, Sally, to force María to leave for Mexico. Enraged, Peter abandons his family to find María and spends the remainder of his life in Mexico.

Years later, Charles’s daughter Jeannie McCullough grows up admiring her great-grandfather, Eli. She aspires to break away from the conservative expectations placed upon her as a young woman. When she is sent to boarding school, Jeannie runs away and returns home, unable to stand the vapid behaviors of her classmates. She soon becomes aware of a threat to her family’s legacy: Her great-uncle Phineas wants to usurp control of the ranch from Charles.

When Charles dies, it falls upon Jeannie to manage the affairs of the ranch. She seeks Phineas’s support in pivoting the ranch to catch the imminent Texas oil rush. Phineas introduces her to a driller named Hank, whom she eventually marries and has three children with. Jeannie becomes frustrated that Hank leaves her to look after the children while he takes care of the business. When Hank dies in a work-related accident, Jeannie once again takes control of the business, giving it priority over her children.

As the years go by, Jeannie regrets her decision as each of her children lives contrary to her expectations. This leaves her succession ambiguous since none of her descendants is suited to take over the ranch once she dies. Late in her life, Jeannie is visited by three different Garcias who claim to have been descended from Peter McCullough. The third visitor, Ulises Garcia, presents birth certificates to validate his claim. He accidentally startles the elderly Jeannie into a fall that kills her. Ulises blows up the McCullough house and decides to make his own destiny.