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
Barnes is frustrated that Valentine is spurning his advances. He thinks that things won’t change until there’s a marriage proposal. On the one hand, he respects this. On the other hand, a man’s a man, he thinks to himself.
Barnes shows again how deeply his understanding of people and relationships has been distorted by prevailing gender norms. By thinking that a “man’s a man,” he seems to express his idea that men are superior to—and hold a higher place of power than—women, and, as a result, women are obligated to do what men want.
Themes
