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
Patrice walks into the gallery that overlooks the floor of the House of Representatives. She notices a striking woman in bold lipstick. Later the woman yells, “Viva Puerto Rico!” and fires shots into the air. Guards crash the gallery and seize the woman’s gun, then her. Authorities eventually question Patrice, and she explains what she saw. Although she knows it’s terrible, Patrice had been excited when the woman stood up and started to yell.
Although Patrice knows that it’s wrong, she also feels excited by the potential of revolution, of real, drastic change, of standing up for what one believes in, even if that stand is marked by violence. This passage probably refers to an actual historical event, when a militant Puerto Rican group wounded several congressmen on the House floor.
Themes
