Sophie's Choice

Sophie’s Choice (1979) is one of William Styron’s better-remembered novels. It is described as an American classic or historical fiction, though it falls squarely into the category of adult literary fiction. The book would be unsuitable for younger readers because of its explicit treatment of sex. It won the 1980 National Book Award and became a bestseller. The 1982 film adaptation, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, garnered an Oscar for Streep’s performance.

Sophie’s Choice stirred up a great deal of controversy and was banned in some locations because of its foul language, sexual themes, and treatment of Polish anti-Semitism. By suggesting that the Holocaust was not a uniquely Jewish experience, the book raised the ire of some special interest groups.

The events in Sophie’s Choice take place in New York during the summer of 1947. The story is told in first-person narration by a young author named Stingo looking back from the perspective of an established writer in 1967. It contains semiautobiographical material related to Styron’s early years in publishing. The tone shifts between broad humor and grim reminiscence but generally conforms to the tragic nature of the material described.

Sophie’s Choice is the story of a concentration camp survivor named Sophie and her emotionally volatile lover, Nathan. Their doomed relationship is observed by their young friend, Stingo, who records Sophie’s memories of the war years and the horrible choice she is forced to make that will doom all her future chances of happiness. From Stingo’s perspective 20 years after the events in the novel, the book explores the themes of the dehumanizing effects of the Holocaust, the persistence of guilt, and the fatal consequences of making bad choices.

Plot Summary

Twenty-two-year-old Stingo is a Southern transplant trying to make his way in New York in 1947. After losing his job with a major publishing house, he decides to live off his savings while writing his first novel. He rents a room in a house in Brooklyn, where he becomes acquainted with his flamboyant upstairs neighbors, Sophie Zawistowska and Nathan Landau. Sophie is a beautiful, emotionally fragile blond who nearly died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. After moving to America, she struggles with health problems until Nathan rescues her and helps her regain her health.

Sophie and Nathan become lovers. Their noisy feuds are as disruptive to Stingo’s concentration as their equally noisy lovemaking. The couple eventually adopts Stingo as something of a pet, and the three spend a happy summer together. Stingo becomes Sophie’s confidante as she gradually unfolds the sad story of her life. He is infatuated with Sophie but equally enthralled by Nathan’s big-brother charisma. The young man’s joy at having these two as his friends is marred when Nathan begins to exhibit erratic behavior and attacks Sophie for no reason.

Stingo learns that Nathan is a paranoid schizophrenic whose condition is aggravated by his drug addiction. He also learns that Sophie was forced to choose which of her children to doom to the gas chamber at Birkenau and which to save. In sacrificing her daughter to save her son, Sophie has been haunted by guilt ever since. Although Stingo tries to get Sophie away from Nathan’s toxic influence, her own sense of self-loathing makes a happy future impossible. In the end, Sophie and Nathan commit suicide by taking cyanide capsules. Stingo is left behind to mourn and chronicle the story of their doomed lives.