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A Letter to the University of Minnesota
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
Millie Cloud spends her days studying at her favorite table at the Walter Library of the University of Minnesota or working one of her three jobs. She doesn’t wear any makeup but lipstick, wearing a bright shade of red that seems to highlight her words. In general, people don’t like her. Men don’t take an interest in her. She doesn’t care. She thinks she might try to be a lawyer because she never backs down from anything. When she gets Thomas’s letter, she’s pleased to be remembered by anyone in the tribe outside her family and to hear that her findings might be useful.
Similar to Patrice in some ways, Millie seems to resist conforming to the gender expectations of the time. She is instead guided by her own ambitions and a desire to remain independent and also, after Thomas reaches out to her, by a desire to help her community.
Themes
