‘Night’ – Revision Sheet

Overview

• Autobiographical writing when Munro recalls a time when a terrible thought about
strangling her sister grew in her mind while she was awake most of the night. She
confesses to her father, who took the confession very calmly.
• Some of the themes are illness, physical and mental, poverty (father has money
worries over the farm), and infidelity (mention of the father ‘in love with an
impossible woman.’
• It’s very honest account.
• Set after World War II as she remembers ‘the war and gas rationing.’ The family live
in a very remote and rural area of Canada and the family do not seem very sociable.
• We learn a lot about her relationship with her family – an undemonstrative family,
lack of closeness with her mother, her father’s sensitivity at the end, her love for her
sister, but she also mentions how their lives were ‘not constantly intertwined. She
has her own friends, her won games…’
Narrative viewpoint

• Narrated in the first person and we have no omniscient narrator to tell us other
things that are going on. ‘Night’ is written through a first-person unreliable narrator
– we see things entirely through her eyes.
• On occasions, she addresses the reader directly to draw us in: ‘You might think this
was a liberation.’
• There is use of internal monologue in ‘So who do you think you are then?’ and ‘Think
again’ in lines 86 and 89. The repetition of the verb ‘think’ adds to the sense of
isolation and loneliness. She has no one to speak to about her thoughts.
• Most of the passage is her internal monologue, and there is very little direct speech.
Towards the end when she reveals her secret to her father ‘Strangle her;’ it is one of
the rare moments she uses direct speech in this section and it reflects the relief she
feels to get her thoughts out in the open.
Language

• Munro stresses both the vulnerability of her ‘little sister’ and the love she has for
her. In a single sentence paragraph, she makes this clear: ‘The thought that I could
strangle my little sister, who was asleep in the bunk below me and whom I loved
more than anybody in the world.’
• Lots of very, ordinary prosaic language to reflect her rather uncomplicated, dull life
on the farm – ‘stoop,’ ‘overalls,’ ‘puffed rice,’ etc.
• Lots of contrasts are set up – as a child, Munro was not told about cancer; today,
there would have been a discussion or ‘some probing. Her father speaks to her to
reassure her; today, there would have been an appointment ‘to see a psychiatrist.’
Imagery
 • The snowstorm could be a symbol of traumatic moments.
• Uses pathetic fallacy – the nights she goes to hospital ‘a blizzard had to be blowing’
to reflect the danger she is. In hospital, she sees the ‘snow is sifting in a somber way’
to mirror her low mood after the operation.
• The growth is described as the size if a ‘turkey’s egg’ – the analogy is fitting as she
lives on the farm and the image is taken from the natural world.
• The hammock she swings in represents her lethargy and listlessness after her
operation.
• Her fear as she wanders around in the night is suggested in the sentence ‘Everything
was larger.’ This could symbolise her worries and it has a nightmarish feel. All the
trees are ‘intensely black,’ hinting at her murderous thoughts.
• Night is also a symbol, a symbol of remoteness from family, of isolation from life in
general.
• The town she stares at in the night allows her ‘to inhale the sanity of it.’ The sight of
the town is soothing for her and makes her feel connected to others (in contrast to
the isolation on the farm) and seems to reflect rationality.
• As day lightens and the birds sing (‘on that breaking morning’), suggesting a new
dawn in her relationship with herself, she reveals all to her father and this
symbolises the hope she now feels. A burden has been lifted.
Structure

• Some single sentence paragraphs to create drama: ‘But don’t worry it’s all over
now.’ This is when her mother tells her about the growth. This could suggest the
shock and fear Munro felt. Then ‘I was not myself’ to emphasise her concern about
her strange thoughts in the night. This comes after a long build up when she refers in
obtuse way about her thoughts of murder. She alludes to how she will ‘fight it off’
and the pronoun ‘it’ is vague leaving the reader desperate to know before she gives
the big ‘reveal’ - the dramatic sentence: ‘The thought I could strangle my sister.’ This
is structured to create tension and suspense as she considers strangling her sister.
• The writer uses triplets to convey motives such as ‘jealousy, viciousness or anger’ on
line 104 and ‘lazy, teasing, half-sluggish suggestion’ on line 106. This is when she
ponders over the thought of killing her sister and it suggests how self-reflective and
analytical she is as she considers why she wants to do this – it is motiveless.
• Minor sentence to end – ‘Never mind.’ It ends in an undramatic, almost anti-
climactic way as she dismisses her father’s problems and says ‘From then on I could
sleep.’ It captures her self-obsession, but is fitting as a tendency to play down and
not over-dramatize events leads to the cure of her insomnia.
Sounds

• ‘The ‘snow is sifting in a somber way’ – the sibilance in the line creates a hushing
effect to amplify the silence and her isolation and misery in the hospital.
Mood
• Her tone is conversational – discourse markers such as ‘So’ or ‘Now’ suggest a
relationship with the reader as she imparts the secret darkness in her teenage years.
Very reflective in tone as it is an interior monologue and it reinforces a sense of how
isolated she is.
• One note of humour is her retelling of spitting at her sister.
• She uses some colloquial language – she describes how her father gave her the belt
to cure her of her ‘sass’ to create the sense of the natural speaking voice and the
conversational tone.