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
In the hospital bed, Thomas drifts back and forth in time. He thinks of when Patrice swam up to his boat in the lake and the fear he felt when he and Biboon had dug a well, afraid the earth would give way beneath him and swallow him up. But now, he isn’t afraid. Now, it doesn’t matter. Nothing can harm him. There is nothing left to do, and he doesn’t have to go back to Washington.
Though Thomas has been overworked to the point that he experienced a stroke, he also feels a sense of rest, of completion, knowing that he’s done everything in his power to oppose the Termination Bill.
Themes
