Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Night, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parenting Across Time
The Psychological Effects of Illness
Silence and Isolation
Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
The narrator reflects that all medical events in her childhood seemed to occur during a snowstorm. She recalls one specific incident of getting appendicitis at 11 p.m. during a blizzard and borrowing the neighbors’ horses to take a carriage to the hospital. The doctor removes the narrator’s appendix and she reflects that it seemed as though many people her age had to have this operation. It even seems like a rite of passage that gives her and her peers a temporary special status. She lies in recovery, not thinking of how her father will pay for the operation.
The connection between illness and snowstorms highlights the importance and inevitability of illness in the story. On another note, the narrator’s characterization of her operation as a rite of passage also suggests that the story will involve a coming-of-age journey. Additionally, the narrator’s lack of thought about how her father will pay for the surgery establishes both the naivety of her youth and the relative poverty of her family.
Themes
The narrator returns to school after the recovery period. One day over the Easter holidays, her mother tells her that the doctor had taken out not only her appendix, but also a growth. The narrator reflects that, at the time, her mother never mentioned the possibility of cancer. The narrator compares this omission to that of the subject of sex, but draws the distinction that sex has some gratification whereas cancer only connotes darkness and disgust.
The narrator’s mother’s omission of cancer highlights the idea that parenting changes across time. The difficulty of discussing complex topics such as illness and sex invokes the coming-of-age process that the narrator will undergo as she learns to navigate the most complicated and difficult parts of herself. The silence on these topics also provides insight into the narrator’s family culture—instead of talking about complicated issues, the narrator’s parents stay silent.
Themes
At the end of the school year, the narrator goes on her summer break looking and feeling well. The narrator describes her relationship with her sister, Catherine, with whom she shares a small bedroom, as “unsettled.” The narrator teases Catherine, sometimes even spits on her, but also acts as a guiding older presence.
The introduction of the narrator’s relationship with her sister shows the importance of family relationships in forming one’s identity. The relationship between the narrator and Catherine is arguably the central relationship of the story. The narrator’s description of their relationship as “unsettled” is key: the narrator’s behavior toward her sister is conflicted, veering between caring and unkind. This ambivalence hints at further conflict to come.
Themes
The narrator remembers that particular summer as more free than subsequent summers. She does not have many chores, possibly because the family has enough money to hire a maid or because of her recent medical scare. Internally, however, she feels useless and strange.
The narrator’s memory of doing fewer chores at the time of the story provides insight into her family’s financial situation. She implies that, usually, the family members would do all the labor themselves, suggesting they’re not wealthy enough to hire help. This unaccustomed leisure brings trouble for the narrator. Because she’s isolated and unoccupied, she has more freedom than usual to think about her internal state.
Themes
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The narrator begins to have trouble sleeping, which she attributes to her lack of physical activity. Her mother and father allow her to decide when she goes to sleep, and she stays up late into the night. She describes the strangeness of being the only person in the house awake—while it seems liberating at first, her inability to fall asleep begins to disturb her. She feels “not [her]self.”
The narrator’s freedom to choose her own bedtime is a pivotal moment in growing up. The reduced supervision results in an increased isolation. Though this isolation is freeing in a sense, it is also the catalyst for the narrator’s disturbing thoughts. The narrator’s comment that she doesn’t feel “herself” prompts the reader to wonder who the narrator is becoming.
Themes
As time goes on, the narrator loses hope in getting a good night’s sleep. Instead, she turns her attention to fighting her urges to do impulsive or even dangerous things. For example, she thinks of strangling Catherine in their shared bedroom. Though the narrator has neither the desire nor motivation to strangle her sister, she continuously has an urging thought to do so. These thoughts feel out of her control, and she decides she must leave the room.
The narrator’s violent urges represent her first experience of the darkness within herself. That these thoughts are baseless (the narrator neither wants nor has the motivation to actually hurt her sister) suggests that she doesn’t have total control over the process of growing up. It also suggests that growing up involves facing the potential darkness in oneself.
Themes
The narrator goes outside into the dark night, removing the chair that the family uses as a makeshift lock from the doorknob, and walks around, making observations about her family’s property. She describes everything as “larger.” She describes the difference between the east side of her house and the west side. The east side, closer to the town, looks towards the faint light of civilization. The west, on the other hand, looks towards uninterrupted nature. The narrator’s eyes adjust to the dark and she learns to navigate the property without accidents. As the birds begin to sing and dawn begins to break, the narrator goes back into the house and sleeps.
In removing the chair from the door, the narrator symbolically ventures beyond the limits her parents set—a step toward growing up. In doing so, she becomes able to see her family’s home in a literal and figurative new light. One of her observations, the difference between the east side of the house and the west side, highlights her family’s isolation from local society. This isolation mirrors the isolation that the narrator experiences from her family as she wanders at night and as she matures.
Themes
The narrator does not tell her family about her trouble sleeping and spends most of her days in the hammock in the yard. Her troubles sleeping persist and her nighttime walks become routine. She becomes used to the empty, dark, and quiet house at night. Even as various details become more visible to her in the dark, they also seem stranger. She often sits on the stoop and looks towards the town, though it is miles away, to “inhale the sanity of it.”
It is partially the narrator’s lack of parental supervision that allows her sleepless nights to continue. As she navigates the night without this parental supervision, she becomes used to the new setting. Still, though she learns to navigate the dark, its discomfort does not go away. The connection that the narrator draws between the town and sanity highlights the isolation she feels.
Themes
One night, the narrator senses a presence while on her nightly walk. Though she is nervous at first, she soon realizes that the person is her father. He sits on the stoop in his day clothes, though not his work clothes, and looks towards town. He says good morning, which is unusual, because her family sees each other so much that they don’t bother with greetings. Her father asks if she has trouble sleeping and she says yes. She realizes that her father must have heard her all the nights she walked around, and not just on this one occasion.
The fact that the narrator at first does not recognize her father underscores the distance that has grown between herself and her family. In a similar vein, the lack of recognition highlights the strangeness of the night, when her familiar setting and family become much less recognizable. As the two talk, the narrator’s realization that her nighttime walks have not been a secret reminds the narrator that she is not as isolated as she feels, and that she is still a child living in her parents’ house.
Themes
The narrator confesses her fear that she would strangle Catherine to her father. He tells her not to worry, and that these thoughts are normal. He also says that they are an effect of the ether that the doctor gave her during her surgery. Though the narrator reflects that a parent a generation later would have taken their child to a psychiatrist, her young self finds comfort in her father’s reassurance.
The narrator’s father’s nonchalance towards her dark thoughts comforts the narrator. After this conversation, the narrator can relax knowing that experiencing darkness within oneself is just part of the process of growing up. Though the adult narrator reflects that a more modern parenting approach might have involved professional help, her father’s calm about the topic is nevertheless effective—suggesting that there is no perfect blueprint for parenting.
Themes
The narrator as an adult reflects that her father never felt remorse over the corporal punishment he inflicted upon his children, which he deemed necessary. By contrast, many parents feel disgusted with themselves for the mistakes that they unknowingly made along the way. However, that morning of the narrator’s confession to her father, she takes comfort in his understanding. Though she thinks nothing of him wearing nicer clothes than usual, the narrator as an adult reflects that he probably had an important meeting in town, perhaps a meeting about a bank loan he wouldn’t get or about his wife’s “shakiness” that would never be cured. After this encounter, the narrator can sleep.
The narrator’s discussion of her father’s choice to use corporal punishment highlights the vast differences between parenting styles across time. The narrator herself also shows how much she has changed from her childhood to adulthood. The adult narrator’s reflection on her father’s possible reasons for dressing up shows the difference in maturity between the narrator’s younger and older self. Though at this moment her father's guidance provides comfort for the young narrator, she is still too immature to wonder about her father’s own life and possible struggles. Still, the narrator’s ability to sleep after this conversation shows the huge impact that a parent’s comforting words, and the knowledge that one is not alone, can have on a child.
Themes
