The Night Watchman
The Night Watchman
by Louise Erdrich

Walter Vold Character Analysis

Walter Vold is the overseer and supervisor at the jewel bearing plant. He is described as “lurkishly” watching the women work, and he doesn’t allow people to speak while they are working (though they do anyway). When Patrice needs to go to Minneapolis to look for Vera, he tells her she has just three days of leave total; when higher-ups are set to come to the factory to observe, he takes away the workers’ coffee breaks and never reinstates them. Overall, he is an authority figure intent on enforcing rules and maximizing productivity by his standards, with little to no regard for the humanity of the people who work at the plant.

Walter Vold Quotes in The Night Watchman

The The Night Watchman quotes below are all either spoken by Walter Vold or refer to Walter Vold. 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:
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Theme Icon
).

Lard on Bread Quotes

Mr. Vold forbade speech. Still, they did speak. They hardly remembered what they said, later, but they talked to one another all day.

Related Characters: Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau, Walter Vold
Page Number and Citation: 10
Explanation and Analysis:

Valentine’s Days Quotes

Valentine said, “You can have my days.”

“What do you mean?”

“My sick days. Mr. Vold told me that I could give my days to you. Under the circumstances.”

Related Characters: Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau, Valentine Blue, Walter Vold
Page Number and Citation: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
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Walter Vold Character Timeline in The Night Watchman

The timeline below shows where the character Walter Vold appears in The Night Watchman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Lard on Bread
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Theme Icon
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
Agency and Exploitation Theme Icon
At the jewel plant, Mr. Walter Vold walks down the line, “lurkishly” observing the women work. Walter doesn’t allow speech on the... (full context)
Valentine’s Days
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Theme Icon
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions Theme Icon
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
Agency and Exploitation Theme Icon
Mr. Vold tells Patrice that she has three days total that she can take off for work.... (full context)
Indian Joke
Oppression and Supposed Good Intentions Theme Icon
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
The next day, when Mr. Vold sees what Thomas wrote on his time card about the owl, he interprets it as... (full context)
The Tonsils
Sex, Violence, and Gender Theme Icon
Agency and Exploitation Theme Icon
...when those smiles should belong to her. Meanwhile, because of upcoming visits from the higher-ups, Mr. Vold has taken away coffee breaks at work. (full context)
The Promotion
Power, Solidarity, and Community Action Theme Icon
Agency and Exploitation Theme Icon
...been given the promotion. And she won’t stop talking about it. On top of that, Mr. Vold took away the coffee breaks and never reinstated them. The next day, Mr. Vold puts... (full context)