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
Juggie hands Barnes a cigarette as they sit at the kitchen table. Juggie tells him to give up, and he says that’s easier for her to say, since her son is the one who took Patrice from him. Barnes feels sorry for himself, and Juggie feels sorry for him too. She offers to ask out Valentine, her half-niece, for him. When he doesn’t say no, Juggie takes that as a yes. Juggie talks to Valentine, and Valentine then comes over and asks Barnes out.
With a nudge from Juggie, Barnes begins to finally give up on pursuing Patrice, though he still seems to have a skewed view of the situation, saying that Wood Mountain “took” her from him, as if Patrice had “belonged” to him to begin with.
Themes
