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The Runner
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
Vernon’s feet ached. He misses the family he’d been excited to leave behind. And he misses the idea that someone might love him. He thinks to himself that he must not ever think of Grace. Most of his body complies but not his feet. On the way back home one night, he sees an old jalopy and looks in the window. Only later does he understand what he’s seen, and he’s disappointed in himself for not intervening to stop two people from sinning.
Again, this chapter illuminates that the Mormon missionaries view sex, even between two consenting adults, as a sin, without any apparent awareness of the problems with what someone like Arthur Watkins is trying to do or how his actions would impact people.
Themes
