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Agony Would Be Her Name
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Night Watchman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions
Humor and Pain
Sex, Violence, and Gender
Agency and Exploitation
Summary
Analysis
The Wazhashk family prepares for Homecoming the next day, which will include a parade, a community feed, a football game, and the crowing of royalty. As Thomas works, he watches others to see if they notice anything different about him after the visitation from the “shining people.” On Saturday, everyone gathers for the parade. Representing the jewel plant, Patrice rides in the back of Doris Lauder’s car and tosses some candy to the Mormon missionaries. When Sharlo, Thomas’s daughter, is crowned homecoming queen, Patrice remembers when she was crowned homecoming queen years before. She thinks about how poor she had been growing up, how she had had to slice the ends off her shoes so her toes could stick out, and she remembers how badly her classmates had treated her before her face changed from “ravenous” to “enchanting.”
Patrice’s account of her time growing up adds nuance to the theme of community and solidarity that runs through the novel. Members of the community where she grew up, the community that Thomas is helping to mobilize to oppose the Termination Bill, also bullied her when she was little. The community itself isn’t a utopia. Like most communities, it’s full of people who do great things for one another and also terrible things to one another. The novel wants to highlight, though, how much can be accomplished when people put their efforts into acting in solidarity rather than working against one another.
Themes
Later that night, there is a Homecoming dance, where everyone dances to Mr. Jarvis’s records. After the dance, Valentine and Doris offer Barnes a ride and say they’re on their way to a bush dance, which will have dancing, lively music, wine, and beer. Barnes accepts, hoping that Pixie might be there.
Though Barnes still has Patrice on his mind, this section also foreshadows the possibility that his life, and his obsession with Patrice, might change soon.
Themes
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