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Indian Joke
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
Thomas is part of the “after-the-buffalo-who-are-we-now generation,” and it is up to them to determine their own identity. But how could they figure out and maintain that identity, he wonders, when the people who sought to take it from them often came with outstretched arms, seeking to crush them with what they called love?
Thomas expresses one of the main themes of the novel here. Countless times, the most harmful acts—against Native people and others—have been done by people with supposed good intentions. Whether it was people who started the boarding schools through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which ended up causing significant damage, or Arthur Watkins, it can be hard to protect yourself from people who claim, and might even believe, that they are your friends.
Themes
