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Elnath and Vernon
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
Patrice had been in school with Bucky since first grade. The summer before, when she got in the car, he had been the only one in the back, then Myron Pelt slipped back beside her. Looking back later, that didn’t feel good, and she wished she had said something at that point. Then Bucky threw himself at her while Myron held her arms. Bucky tried to press her knees apart and fumbled with his pants. She suggested going to the lake, where she could show them all “a good time.” At the lake, Bucky took her shoes and said that now she wouldn’t be able to run. She dove into the lake and swam as hard as she could. When she saw her uncle’s boat, she went toward him. That night, she looked at the scratches, the bruises, even a bite mark on her shoulder. She hadn’t felt any of it.
Even though Bucky knew Patrice well—or because he knew her well—he assaulted her and attempted to rape her, another instance in the novel where a person attempts to erase someone’s agency for the sake of satisfying their own desires.
Themes
When Bucky’s mouth twisted and then the same illness spread down his side, Patrice knew she herself had done it. Her hatred had been so powerful it had flown out of her like a “night bird.” That bird flew straight to Bucky and attacked the side of his face.
Again, the novel doesn’t privilege a materialistic view of the world versus a spiritual or supernatural view. Both are considered valid. Interestingly, it’s Patrice’s hatred that gives her the power to achieve retribution. She has to seek this kind of retribution on her own, especially because she knows there’s no authority, no legal system of justice, that will do it for her, especially considering what happened to Vera and what the institution in charge of the legal system, the United States government, is attempting to do to her community.
Themes
