The Night Watchman
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Introductory Note Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant Lard on Bread The Watcher The Skin Tent Three Men The Boxing Coach Noko Water Earth Juggie’s Boy Valentine’s Days Pukkons Perfume The Iron The Fruit Crate A Seat on the Train A Bill Who? [1] Indian Joke Who? [2] Flags Log Jam 26 The Wake-Up Shave The Old Muskrat The Waterjack Left Hook Louis Pipestone Ajax Iron Tulip Woodland Beauty The Average Woman and the Empty Tank The Missionaries The Beginning The Temple Beggar Wild Rooster Arthur V. Watkins Cool Fine The Torus Metal Blinds X = ? Twin Dreams The Star Powwow Agony Would Be Her Name Homecoming The Bush Dance Hay Stack Thwack The Tonsils A Letter to the University of Minnesota The Chippewa Scholar What She Needed Old Man Winter The Cradle Board Battle Royale Two-Day Journey Boxing for Sovereignty The Promotion Edith, Psychic Dog The Hungry Man Good News Bad News Flying Over Snow Snares Cradle to Grave The Night Watch Two Months New Year’s Soup The Names Elnath and Vernon Night Bird U.S.I.S. The Runner Missionary Feet The Spirit Duplicator Prayer for 1954 You Can’t Assimilate Indian Ghosts Clark Kent Checks The Lamanites The Lord’s Plan The Committee Scrawny The Journey Falcon Eyes Termination for Federal Contracts and Promises Made with Certain Tribes of Indians The Way Home If Tosca The Salisbury The Lake, the Well, the Crickets Singing in the Grass The Ceiling Greater Joy The Owls The Bear Skull in the Tree Was Painted Red and Faced East The Duplicator Spirits À Ta Santé Roderick Thomas Closing Notes Afterword and Acknowledgments
Themes
All Themes Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions Humor and Pain Sex, Violence, and Gender Agency and Exploitation
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Thomas Wazhashk Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau Arthur V. Watkins Vera Paranteau Wood Mountain Lloyd Barnes Zhaanat Jack Malloy Millie Cloud Valentine Blue Doris Lauder Betty Pye Pokey Paranteau Bucky Duvalle Walter Vold Pogo Paranteau LaBatte Gerald Joe “Wobble” Wobleszynski Bernadette Blue Roderick Vernon Elnath
Symbols
All Symbols The Waterjack Suit The Muskrat
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The Night Watchman

by

Louise Erdrich

The Night Watchman: If Summary & Analysis

Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Theme Icon
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions Theme Icon
Humor and Pain Theme Icon
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
Agency and Exploitation Theme Icon
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 Theme Icon
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions Theme Icon
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions
Humor and Pain Theme Icon
Humor and Pain
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
Sex, Violence, and Gender
Agency and Exploitation Theme Icon
Agency and Exploitation
Summary
Analysis
Wood Mountain lays the baby on the cradle board. Now would be the perfect time, he thinks. If Patrice came home now, he would ask her again to marry him. He’s sure she’ll say yes. A woman comes to the door. Wood Mountain feels dizzy. It’s not Patrice. At first, he thinks it’s a stranger. The woman asks him if he recognizes her, then says that she’s Vera. A grey-bearded man walks in behind her and says he’ll have to leave soon. Vera tries to give him the family rifle as he leaves, but he says he can’t take it. Vera looks at the baby. Wood Mountain says that the baby is hers. Vera collapses “like snow.” When Zhaanat comes home, the two clutch each other with the baby between them.
Vera is finally reunited with her baby and family with the help of Harry Roy. While Wood Mountain thinks he’ll ask Patrice to marry him again if she comes to the door, the fact that Vera is the one at the door foreshadows the relationship that the two of them—Wood Mountain and Vera—will ultimately have. 
Themes
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Theme Icon
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
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