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 makes a flyer for the fight between Joe Wobble and Wood Mountain, hoping for a suggested two dollars admission price. At work, he reads through the Book of Mormon, which the Mormon missionaries had given him, to try and understand the enemy. Afterward, Thomas remembers something from his boarding school days. The only way to fight people who think of themselves as righteous is to present an argument that makes giving you what you want seem like the most righteous option available.
Thomas continues to hone his strategy for how to defeat Arthur Watkins and the Termination Bill, noting that he’ll have to find a way to convince Arthur Watkins not necessarily that he is wrong or that what he is doing is evil. Instead, because Watkins believes himself to be “righteous,” Thomas will have to find a way to convince him that there is an even more righteous option for him to consider.
Themes
