Sophie's Choice

Stingo recounts his father’s visit to New York. The Southern gentleman farmer has difficulty understanding why anybody would want to live in the metropolis. He tries once more to lure his son back home. Stingo is acutely suffering the loss of Sophie and Nathan and tells his father a few facts about his unrequited love. Realizing that New York now holds nothing but loss, he agrees to go back to Virginia to run his father’s farm. When Stingo returns to Yetta’s house to pack his things, he finds Sophie there as well, gathering the last of her belongings. Stingo says, “I realize now that I arrived at a mysteriously decisive moment. Only ten minutes later she would already have collected her odds and ends and departed, and I surely would never have laid eyes on her again” (327).

Stingo immediately calls his father’s hotel and says he’s changed his mind about moving back home. Stingo and Sophie go to their favorite local bar, where she tells him the story of her encounter with Höss. Afterward, they walk back to Yetta’s. Feeling that he’s about to lose Sophie forever once she moves out, Stingo demands to know how Nathan could treat them both so badly.