Night
by Alice Munro

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Father Character Analysis

The narrator’s father’s assurance that her violent thoughts are normal cures her insomnia. As an adult, the. narrator reflects on how little she knew of her father’s life and inner world at the time, only picking up occasional hints of the financial and marital burdens he bore. Though she rejects some of his parenting methods—such as the use of corporal punishment—she also seems to have found comfort in his matter-of-factness.

Father Quotes in Night

The Night quotes below are all either spoken by Father or refer to Father . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Parenting Across Time Theme Icon
).

Night Quotes

Who was it? Nobody but my father. He too sitting on the stoop looking towards town and that improbable faint light. He was dressed in his day clothes.

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Father
Related Symbols: Night, Town
Page Number and Citation: 281
Explanation and Analysis:
One night, as the narrator is on her nightly walk, she runs into her father sitting on the stoop. She does not recognize him at first. The fact that she does not recognize him suggests the distance that has grown between herself and her parents as she navigates growing up. Additionally, his unrecognizability highlights the strangeness of the house at night, a virtually different environment from that of her daytime life. In a sense, the narrator and her father meet each other in an alternative world, different from that of their daytime, normal life. The fact that her father is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque e

He said, “People have those kinds of thoughts sometimes.”

He said this quite seriously and without any sort of alarm or jumpy surprise. People have these kinds of thoughts or fears if you like, but there’s no real worry about it, no more than a dream, you could say.

[….] An effect of the ether, he said. Ether they gave you in the hospital. No more sense than a dream.

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Father (speaker)
Related Symbols: Night
Page Number and Citation: 283
Explanation and Analysis:
After the narrator confesses her dark thoughts about killing her sister to her father, he replies nonchalantly. In telling her that unwanted dark thoughts are at least somewhat normal or common, the narrator’s father confirms that the narrator is simply growing up. In other words, the narrator joins the adults in her life in dealing with complicated and dark parts of the self. His comparison of the narrator’s dark thoughts to a dream highlights the disconnect between the narrator’s unconscious and reality. Furthermore, his statement that the thoughts are an effect of the ether (anesthetic) that the hospital gave the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore.

If you live long enough as a parent nowadays, you discover that you have made mistakes you didn’t bother to know about along with the ones you do know about all too well. You are somewhat humbled at heart, sometimes disgusted with yourself. I don’t think my father ever felt anything like this.

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Father
Page Number and Citation: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
In the final moments of the story, the narrator reflects on her father’s parenting. She reveals that he often turned to corporal punishment as a parenting tactic. This revelation reminds the reader that the story represents only a short period of the narrator’s childhood and shows a limited view of the personalities and actions of the narrator and her family members. Because the narrator is an adult looking back on a particular time in her childhood, she visits these memories with the perspective of a parent. Her comment that parents make mistakes that they do not even know about illustrates Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempo
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Father Character Timeline in Night

The timeline below shows where the character Father appears in Night. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Night
The Psychological Effects of Illness Theme Icon
Coming of Age Theme Icon
...her peers a temporary special status. She lies in recovery, not thinking of how her father will pay for the operation. (full context)
Parenting Across Time Theme Icon
The Psychological Effects of Illness Theme Icon
Silence and Isolation Theme Icon
Coming of Age Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Parenting Across Time Theme Icon
Silence and Isolation Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Parenting Across Time Theme Icon
The Psychological Effects of Illness Theme Icon
Silence and Isolation Theme Icon
Coming of Age Theme Icon
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... (full context)
Parenting Across Time Theme Icon
Coming of Age Theme Icon
The narrator as an adult reflects that her father never felt remorse over the corporal punishment he inflicted upon his children, which he deemed... (full context)