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Part 3: A Chance Encounter – Names
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Night Watch, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Identity
Trauma
The Aftermath of the Civil War
Violence vs. Nonviolent Resistance
Home, Safety, and Autonomy
Summary
Analysis
O’Shea: The Only Key. Back when John O’Shea first leaves the hospital, he goes to live with Dr. O’Shea and his wife. He thinks he knows who he used to be—someone who committed violence. He feels like the eye patch is the price he has paid to forget and that he owes Dr. O’Shea and Mrs. O’Shea a great debt. He feels gratitude toward them but can’t reciprocate the familial feelings they show him. He tells them that he is no one’s son and no one’s grandson, as much as he might like to be. He also tells them that he would like to find work elsewhere when possible.
This passage contrasts John O’Shea’s time spent with the O’Shea family with Eliza’s time spent in the asylum. While Eliza finds a sense of belonging in the asylum that leads her to regain a sense of identity, John O’Shea does not find that with the O’Shea family. Instead, he continues to feel, as he did when he first assumed the O’Shea name, that he has only borrowed that name until he regains a sense of identity that he feels belongs to him.
Themes
