History IHaveNoSon / Literature

** Sirius Black, who was disowned by his parents and burnt off the family tree after he ran away. He reveals in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' that this is standard procedure in his family -- an uncle who left Sirius money in his will got the same treatment, as did his cousin Andromeda when she married the Muggle-born Ted Tonks.

* The first murder victim in Catherine Aird's ''Literature/TheReligiousBody'' is a nun in her forties who converted to Catholicism and entered the convent at eighteen-and-a-half. The police have to visit her mother in person to inform her of her daughter's death because they can't get her to acknowledge that she ''had'' a daughter long enough to get to her via telephone.

** The movie version [[AdaptationalVillainy subverts this]]. Barty Crouch Jr. is ratted out by [[spoiler: Igor Karkaroff]] in the middle of the latter's trial, which he was observing. He tries to walk out before he could be ousted, but Karkaroff is too quick, and Mad-Eye Moody stuns him with a spell as he tries to run. He is dragged before his father, and eagerly (in a deranged way) greets him, but Crouch Sr. looks on him with shock and disappointment and dismisses him.
--->'''Barty Crouch Jr.:''' Hello, father! ''(sticks out tongue and retracts it like a snake)''\\
'''Barty Crouch Sr.:''' ''(looks at Jr. in disappointment)'' You are no son of mine.

* In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresLungbarrow Lungbarrow]]'', the closest thing the Doctor has to a father is the Kithriarch of House Lungbarrow, Quences. (Technically, they're cousins.) Quences viewed the Doctor as his favourite member of the house. After it was predicted that the Doctor would be the most influential Time Lord since Rassilon (which was actually a pretty damn accurate prediction), Quences doted on him and had him studying at the Time Lord Academy, hoping that he would become the first member of the house to become Lord Cardinal. The Doctor obviously didn't see eye to eye with Quences and had other plans, which resulted in this trope.
* In ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Arrows Of The Queen]]'' by Creator/MercedesLackey, a traditional note is sent to Talia's home after she arrives in the capital and discovers she is to be one of the Heralds of Valdemar. Talia [[RunawayFiancee ran away after hearing she would be married off at thirteen]], dishonoring her family (plus her people, the Holderkin, don't care for Heralds all that much, only tolerating the male ones when absolutely necessary). The letter receives the reply, "Sensholding has no daughter Talia," triggering an opportunity for some angst and subsequent CharacterDevelopment.
* The ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' series does this twice with the elven king. First he disowns his daughter, (and declares he has no daughter when someone tries to talk to him about it), and later he does the same with his younger son. (This time there's a line that goes along the lines of "He made a gesture as if to indicate that he had only one child now").
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':

* This was actually the title of an early-1970s-vintage ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' paperback; it quoted the punchline of one of the included strips, an exclamation by "Marvelous Mark" Slackmeyer's father.
* This happened to Courtney Thane in ''Literature/QuillsWindow''. It is not until late in the book, however, that we find out what the cause of estrangement was.
* In the Literature/VorkosiganSaga, General Count Piotr Vorkosigan has no grandson, because Miles was born handicapped. Physical deformities are reviled on Barrayar, and Piotr sees Miles as a mutant. He refuses to allow a deformed boy to become Count Vorkosigan, tried to kill the boy at least once (three times if you count when he attempted to have the Uterine Replicator dumped), and forbids Aral and Cordelia from using his name as Miles's given name, as is Barrayaran tradition. Miles (who would have been Piotr Miles) is renamed Miles Naismith and gets the last laugh - growing up to become not only Lord Vorkosigan, but a soldier, spy, ''and'' the first Imperial Auditor in the Vorkosigan family.
** If it had been possible for Piotr to disinherit Miles directly, he would have done so, but he could only disinherit Aral, and Piotr was not ''quite'' angry enough to disown his only living child. Disinheriting his sole blood heir also required the consent of the Emperor or in this case the Emperor's Regent... who happened to ''be'' his sole blood heir. (Having pointed this fact out to his father, Aral notes that if Piotr wants his permission then he can have it, which rather took the wind out of the old man's sails.) As it was, though, he threw Aral and Cordelia out of his homes and stripped Aral of his incomes from Vorkosigan district; they did not even begin to reconcile until Miles was five.
* In ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', Mrs. Ferrars first disowns her eldest son Edward when [[spoiler: he refuses to break off his engagement to the eminently unsuitable Lucy Steele]]; later she disowns her younger son Robert when ''he'' [[spoiler: steals Lucy's affections away from Edward and marries her himself!]] She eventually is persuaded to accept them both back into the family, but never restores to Edward the inheritance that she took from him and conferred upon Robert.
* In ''[[Literature/MichaelVey The Prisoner of Cell 25]]'', Taylor tries to get through to her twin sister Tara, who was found by Hatch much earlier and thoroughly indoctrinated into his "family." Tara resists, claiming that the murders Hatch demands his "children" perform don't matter because the victims are [[SuperSupremacist just humans]] and yelling that she's an eagle, not a chicken. Someone comments that he didn't know Taylor had a sister. Taylor retorts that she ''doesn't''.
* Played with in ''Literature/{{Airman}}''. The villain arranges for the protagonist, Conor, to hear his father declaring "I no longer have a son". Conor believes that his father has disowned him, but his father said it because he believed Conor to be dead.

* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Literature/ProsperosDaughter Prospero Lost]]'', when Miranda appeals to Theo on the grounds his brother is poisoned and dying, Theo says he has no brother.
* In ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', middle daughter Suellen has been brow-beating her dementia-stricken father into signing a document proclaiming his loyalty to the Union, thus enabling the family to receive restitution for loss of property. This would be a major affront to any hard-core Southerner, but Suellen is taking advantage of her father's weak mind in order to accomplish this. However, just as he's about to sign the papers, she slips up, revealing what they are. This is enough to snap her father out of his dementia, confront her over what she's done and declare, "You're no daughter of mine!" before storming out.

* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''Literature/{{Freckles}}'', his grandfather's attitude. When he gets a letter telling him that his disobedient son and his wife are dead, leaving an infant grandson, he files the letter away. Nothing is done until he dies and his other son finds the letter.
* In Stephen King's short story "Word Processor of the Gods", the protagonist discovers a typewriter which [[spoiler: makes everything typed on it come true. He then erases his son from existence with it]], and thinks "I have no son". The narration then states: "How many times had he heard that melodramatic phrase in bad novels?"
* ''Literature/OlgaDiesDreaming'': Blanca had been proud of her son Prieto until he became a Congressman and voted for the PROMESA[[note]]Acronym for the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act. In Spanish "promesa" means "promise".[[/note]] legislation despite letters she wrote telling him not to. When they get to meet in Puerto Rico after decades apart, he wants to show her pictures of his daughter, but she is not interested. She only cares about her work helping the people of Puerto Rico. She tells him that he is weak in character like his father when it comes to doing what is needed and ''commands'' him never to come back to Puerto Rico.
* In Creator/SeananMcGuire's Literature/OctoberDaye novel ''A Local Habitation'', Sylvester says his only blood relatives are his daughter and niece; Toby starts to object, and he says he has no brother. (And after what the brother did to his wife, and daughter, and Toby, no wonder.)
* In one ''Cicada'' short story about a young woman in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, when the woman's long-distance relationship with a Canadian man comes to light, her own brother, Alam, says "Your sin is beyond measure, Ayesha. I have no sister," when she is set to be stoned to death. Even considering the ValuesDissonance at play, it's quite shocking because he was shown to be a NiceGuy compared to their other brother, who was quite a {{Jerkass}}.
* Carr, in ''Literature/FancyApartments'', reveals that his parents disowned him. He doesn't explain why, however.
* One of the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' stories has a Jewish musician named Isaac Fremdling was disowned in this way by his father, after refusing to abandon his music studies and follow in his father's footsteps as a rabbi. It's a more nuanced portrayal than most, Isaac explains that his father gave him plenty of chances, and only cast him out after he refused in front of the entire Jewish community of their hometown at which point his father could hardly go back on his word. He also states that the process was very traumatising for his father, who never believed Isaac would choose music over family and community, and that he aged twenty years in five minutes when he realised he would have to disown his son.
* A tragic posthumous variation occurs in ''[[Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales The Last of the Mohicans]]'': Reed-that-bends, a young Huron warrior guilty of cowardice is condemned to be killed and forgotten by the tribe's elders. A short while after the execution, Magua arrives not knowing what occurred, and has the misfortune to mention his name, which causes everybody to look at Reed-that-bends' father, which obliges him to disown his dead son:
--> "It was a lie," he said, "I had no son. He who was called by that name is forgotten; his blood was pale, and it came not from the veins of a Huron; the wicked Chippewas cheated my squaw. The Great Spirit has said that the family of Wiss-entush should end; he is happy who knows that the evil of his race dies with himself. I have done."\\
[...] But the stern customs of his people had made too severe an exaction of the feeble old man. The expression of his eye contradicted his figurative and boastful language, while every muscle in his wrinkled visage was working with anguish. Standing a single minute to enjoy his bitter triumph, he turned away, as if sickening of the gaze of men, and veiling his face in his blanket, he walked from the lodge with the noiseless step of an Indian, seeking, in the privacy of his own abode, the sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn, and childless.
* In ''Literature/TheMurderOnTheLinks'' Madame Renaud disowns her son Jack for being involved in his father's murder and promises she would forbid Jack to touch the inheritance of Paul Renaud. [[spoiler: It's actually a ruse to lure Marthe, who had murdered Paul so that she can get his inheritance via marrying Jack.]]
* Subverted at the end of the Discworld novel ''Literature/TheTruth'', when William [[spoiler: confronts his father Lord De Worde after having exposed the latter man's conspiracy to remove Vetinari from power, and spills out a bunch of jewels, saying that he's paying back the cost of raising him, so they will no longer be related. His father refuses the gesture and as he heads off into unofficial exile announces that William is most ''definitely'' a De Worde.]]

* ''Literature/InTheMidstOfWinter'': [[HumanTraffickers Frank Leroy]] takes the existence of his son, Frankie Jr., who has diabetes and severe cerebral palsy, as a personal affront. He also resents his wife for giving birth to such a child, and thanks to an emergency hysterectomy, being unable to give him the heir he feels entitled to. He even forbids visitors to the household because he is ashamed of his son. Evelyn Ortega, Frankie's caregiver, learns to avoid mentioning the boy in front of his father.
* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'':
** Downplayed when the Count tells Danglars about a rich Italian father who gave his sons a fortune if they married according to his wishes and a few coins if they didn't (he's trying to get Danglars to break his daughter's engagement to Morcerf's son, another step in the Count's master plan to bring them both down).
** Inverted when Morcerf falls from grace and his despicable behavior revealed: Morcerf sees his wife and son leave the house without turning back, showing that they have abandoned him entirely. Albert goes back to his name and not his title, willingly giving up the IdleRich lifestlyle and hoping to make a real man of himself in the army.
* Inverted in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' with Szeth, whose people normally use patronymics. When he is exiled as Truthless and MadeASlave, he stops going by his full name Szeth-son-Neturo so as to spare his father the shame of association with him, instead going by Szeth-son-son-Vallano, as his grandfather is dead and thus cannot be shamed.
* In James [=McBride=]'s autobiography ''The Color of Water'', his account of own story alternates with that of his mother, as told by her; James' mother flees her Orthodox Jewish family; they sit Shiva for her and treat her as dead, and it comes up again when she calls home and her mother picks up the phone.
* Played for laughs in ''Literature/ImperialRadch'', where Breq and [[spoiler: an ancient, long-lost warship]] have been referring to each other as "Cousin" throughout their alliance against Anaander Miannai. When Breq starts singing the equivalent of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall", we get this exchange:
-->'''Zeiat:''' Are there any more verses?\\
'''Breq:''' Nine hundred and ninety-eight of them, Translator.\\
'''[[spoiler:''Sphene'']]''': We are no longer family.
* ''Literature/SchooledInMagic'': Both the heirs of [[spoiler: House Ashworth and House Ashfall]] are formally disowned after it's discovered they're a couple and intend to get married. They feel it's an acceptable price for them being together.
* ''Literature/{{Power}}'': Omishto gets disowned by her mother during a heated moment; though it's immediately taken back, Omishto doesn't stay to let her apologize and just runs for it.
--> '''Mama''': You're not my daughter! You hear that? You're no kid of mine.
* In ''[[Literature/FelseInvestigates Death and The Joyful Woman]]'' by Creator/EllisPeters, Alfred Armiger pulls this on his son Leslie after Leslie decides he'd rather be an artist than continue the family business, and refuses to go along with an arranged marriage. Armiger Sr being the AssholeVictim, this is not the version of the trope where they reconcile in the end.
* ''Literature/{{Deeplight}}'': {{Subverted}}: smuggler matriarch Dotta Rigg initially disowns [[spoiler:her daughter, Selphin,]] for betraying her crew. It doesn't stick, as Hark and Sage talk her out of it.
* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': {{Subverted}}. Manuel claims that his father was furious when he announced his intent to join the dragon corps and threatened to disown him, despite the fact that he's his only son. Manuel's father severed all contact with him when he left the academy and they did not speak to each other for a few months. In the end, though, they met again and reconciled.
* In the ''Literature/{{Underdogs}}'' novel ''Tooth and Nail'', Grant has Alex Ginelli's father Dean held at gunpoint in order to force Alex to give up the location of the Underdogs' base. Alex gives a fake location. Thinking Alex really betrayed his friends, Dean says, "You don't need to use me as leverage anymore. I no longer consider him my son." [[spoiler:Once Grant realizes Alex lied, he has Dean put to death.]]
* In ''Literature/MoreThanHuman'', Hip's father disowns sixteen-year-old Hip for his interest in engineering, as [[FantasyForbiddingFather he wanted him to become a doctor]]. Hip's sorrow over losing his father is outweighed by his happiness that he can work in a research lab and go to engineering school without interference.
* ''Literature/TheTuningStation'': When Ted first told his tyrannical fundamentalist father that he wasn't sure what to believe about God, the two got in a shouting match that ended with his father saying, "Don't bother coming back. You're no longer my son." Ted later learns that his father expected him to come crawling back after a few weeks, but he never did.
* In first ''Literature/{{Thora}}'' book, the mermaid Halla enters a MalignedMixedMarriage with a human man. After her husband disappears and her daughter is born, Halla goes to her family for help, but her father shouts, "I have no daughter! Take her away!"
* ''Literature/HiveMind2016'':
** It is common for children who come out of Lottery at significantly lower levels than their parents to be disowned. Amber's father was disowned for coming out at Level 27, 14 levels below his parents. Margot's older sister came out 20 levels below their parents, and not only was the sister disowned, Margot was disowned for continuing to have contact with her.
** Lucas was disowned by his father at age 6 when his parents split up, and then by his mother as soon as he left for Teen Level at age 13.
** Keith [[spoiler:was one of the less-liked of Claire's grandchildren. When he became a telepath, his family - including his parents - took the excuse that telepaths can't ever meet to exclude him from all family events.]]
* ''Literature/TruthOrDare2000'': Patrick Jordan was a boy with undiagnosed Asperger's in TheFifties whose father always disliked him for being different. After Patrick died under mysterious circumstances, his father burned all his belongings, cut him out of family pictures, forbade his siblings from ever mentioning him, and did his best to pretend that he had never existed. [[spoiler:It turns out that Patrick never died, but lived for decades in an institution. His father just told everyone he was dead, including his other children, to make it easier to pretend Patrick didn't exist.]]
* ''Literature/ThePantsProject'': Liv's mamma's parents wanted her to marry a man from their Italian village. When she married a woman instead, her father told her he never wanted to see her again. She hasn't heard from anyone in her family in years when her brother Maurizio calls her to tell her that their father is dying. Mamma decides to stay in America rather than fly to Italy and attempt a deathbed reconciliation.
* In ''Literature/TheMermaidsDaughter'', opera singer Tom's father disowned him from being gay. He's one of the things Tom [[CopeByCreating sings to forget about]].
* In ''[[Literature/ElementalMasters Unnatural Issue]]'', when his wife Rebecca succumbs to DeathByChildbirth, Richard Whitestone responds by disavowing their surviving daughter (combining this trope and MaternalDeathBlameTheChild), leaving Susanne to be raised by the family servants.

* Inverted in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' with Szeth, whose people normally use patronymics. When he is exiled as Truthless and MadeASlave, he stops going by his full name Szeth-son-Neturo so as to spare his father the shame of association with him, instead going by Szeth-son-son-Tellano, as his grandfather is dead and thus cannot be shamed.

* In ''{{Literature/Elemental Masters Unnatural Issue}}'', when his wife Rebecca succumbs to DeathByChildbirth, Richard Whitestone responds by disavowing their surviving daughter (combining this trope and MaternalDeathBlameTheChild), leaving Susanne to be raised by the family servants.

* In ''[[Literature/Elemental Masters Unnatural Issue]]'', when his wife Rebecca succumbs to DeathByChildbirth, Richard Whitestone responds by disavowing their surviving daughter (combining this trope and MaternalDeathBlameTheChild), leaving Susanne to be raised by the family servants.

* In ''Literature/Unnatural Issue'', when his wife Rebecca succumbs to DeathByChildbirth, Richard Whitestone responds by disavowing their surviving daughter (combining this trope and MaternalDeathBlameTheChild), leaving Susanne to be raised by the family servants.