Acquainted With the Night Literary Elements

Nonfiction, essay collection

Modern-day Canada, although its concepts are applicable worldwide

This book, as nonfiction, is from the first-person point of view of the author, Christopher Dewdney, who attempts to convince the readers of the beauty of the night.

Benevolent, wondrous, clean

There is no real protagonist or antagonist in this set of essays, just the author and the worthy readers who embrace the beauty of the night.

The author is attempting to encapsulate the nature of the night in a medium-sized book, and a small one by academic standards. This task is difficult, and Dewdney does his best by organizing his information into twelve chapters (as well as an introduction and a conclusion) that correspond to different hours of the night.

In the conclusion, Dewdney compares the natures of sunrises and sunsets before challenging the reader to dwell upon the eternal qualities of night and the cycle of life.

The road map the author lays out in the first chapter foreshadows his actual execution of those steps in the body of the book.

There's also quite a bit of shadowing in the foreground of Dewdney's descriptions of the night.

"We humans are a practical lot, and science is one of the most practical tools we have yet devised." - Ch. 1 ("First Night")

Dewdney alludes to many historical figures, scientists, and poets throughout the course of the novel, quoting excerpts and accomplishments from each. Some figures referenced include Robert Frost, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edwin Hubble, Sigmund Freud, and William Shakespeare.

Night is often personified, and the result is always feminine. For example, both Longfellow and Shelley wrote poems about how Night is like a woman, and Williamson wrote one about how a woman is like Night. Throughout mythological tradition, Night is also categorized as a woman, especially evident in the Greek goddess Nyx, the personification of Night herself.

Dewdney points out a paradox concerning nocturnal animals: for the creatures who can see in the dark, darkness is all about light, as they have to rely on tiny traces of light to be able to see their surroundings.

The poems referenced throughout the book are full of parallelism. For example, look at the first few words of each of the lines in this excerpt from Robert Frost's poem "Acquainted With the Night:"

“I have been one acquainted with the night
I have walked out in rain— and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.”

“...the oak floors in the hallway.” - Ch. 1 ("First Night")

Night is often personified; the Greeks called her Nyx, the goddess of night, and the Romantic poets (Longfellow, Shelley) were in the habit of personifying Night as a beautiful and mysterious woman.