What Is Sophie's Guilt

There are two recurring themes in the novel Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, which is love and guilt and they lead to the death of the protagonist. In the novel, the love Sophie has for those who mean the most to her shapes her life and the guilt she possesses leads to her own demise. The narrator of the novel is a graduate of Duke University and an aspiring writer who gets close to his roommates Zofia (Sophie) Zawistowski and Nathan Landau. As Stingo grows closer to Sophie, he learns about her dark past in the concentration camp, how she and Nathan met on one faithful day, the destructive relationship between Sophie and Nathan, and the dark guilt she has kept for many years.
In the novel, Sophie has to choose between her two children on which child goes into the concentration camp, and which child gets to be gassed immediately. But, the question is: How did she get into this predicament? The answer is Sophie’s love for her mother. One fateful night changed the course of her life and her children. “I got caught smuggling for a reason which may
Which one will you keep?’” (Styron, page 529). This question marks the beginning of Sophie’s guilt. Sophie deals with insurmountable guilt daily, the guilt has to deal with the decision she made at the concentration camp based on this question. When she was asked the question on which child goes to the concentration camp with her and which child is killed immediately by gassing. If she does not choose, both children are sent to the gas chamber. When Sophie says “ Don’t make me choose, … I can’t choose.” (Styron, page 529) the doctor states “Send them both over there, then,” to the aide and that is when Sophie calls out “... Take my little girl!” Sophie is filled with the guilt of sending her daughter to the gas chamber and letting her son live in the concentration camp with her. The memory of this event haunts her until she commits