Night Watch

Throughout Night Watch, characters’ names and familial relationships are in constant flux, and the novel shows how characters find safety, support, and self-actualization through chosen names and chosen families. For example, Ephraim never knows his biological parents and is raised by his adoptive mother, Dearbhla. After Ephraim loses his memory when he sustains a head wound in the Battle of the Wilderness, Dr. O’Shea and Mrs. O’Shea become his surrogate parents. Ephraim becomes…

Several characters experience traumatic events throughout the novel. Eliza is repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped, while Ephraim experiences the trauma of violent warfare. As a result of their trauma, both lose a sense of identity. Eliza disassociates as she stops speaking and becomes unable to function in daily life. Ephraim, meanwhile, loses any memory of who he was before he was a soldier. In the depth of their trauma, it seems unclear if Eliza will…

When a former Confederate soldier named Papa arrives unannounced at Eliza and ConaLee’s cabin, he subjects Eliza to acts of gender-based violence (including rape and sexual assault) to insert himself into their lives and maintain control over Eliza and her daughter. But while Papa’s cruelty is effective for a time, ultimately his female victims manage to overpower him and reclaim their freedom when Dearbhla orchestrates a plan for Eliza to feign mental illness, which…

In Night Watch, ConaLee and Eliza are almost constantly on the move as they flee from one place to another and another. The precariousness of Eliza and ConaLee’s living situation for much of the novel contrasts sharply with the novel’s closing scene, which depicts ConaLee buying a home and imagining the control she’ll have over who gets to visit and live there. The novel frames ConaLee’s purchase as an exercise in autonomy. By having…