A "rebellious son" refers to a child who does not obey or listen to their parents or authority figures. They often challenge rules and make their own decisions, sometimes causing trouble or conflict. Full definition
The cause was not so much rebellious sons but their fathers, who made their sons undergo long rites of passage before inheriting property and gaining the right to marry. (firstthings.com)
The novel is a form notoriously unconcerned with fidelity to its sources; nobody praises Flaubert's «Herodias» or Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers for their fidelity to the scriptural accounts they are based upon, and the varyingly revisionist dramatizations of most later writers» the list includes Nikos Kazantzakis, Michel Tournier, Joseph Heller, and Norman Mailer» assert their artistic freedom like rebellious sons. (firstthings.com)
Too often, fairy tales about rebellious sons and daughters conclude with parental figures shaking their heads with the realization that their children were right all along. (rachelheldevans.com)