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
It’s a case of mutual exasperation. One night when Barnes drops Valentine off, she says goodbye and that she means it. Barnes asks if that means goodbye for good, and he can tell by the look on her face that it does. At home, he plays an opera recording, even though he thinks it wouldn’t be considered a “manly taste.” The record makes him “luxuriantly weep.”
While he’s going through a kind of breakup, Barnes worries that his choice of music isn’t “manly” enough, showing again how gender norms have contorted even his most personal and intimate thoughts.
Themes
