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Watch That Ends The Night

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The idea that everything around us is connected is not one most people want to embrace. People like to organize their lives in ways that make them feel like they are safe or in control. Allan Wolf explores this idea in “The Watch That Ends The Night”. Wolf uses the tragic accident of the Titanic to show how the characters can't keep unwanted people or events out of their lives. He connects the characters in ways that you would not expect and demonstrates that we are all vulnerable to the forces of fate no matter how hard we try to avoid them. The construction of the Titanic is a great example that Wolf uses to show how people want to control their environment and separate themselves from other things. When the Titanic was built it was supposed …show more content…

A ship that big carried a lot of food. There were over 125,000 pounds of meat alone on the Titanic, and with that food came rats looking for a good meal. The Baker described in the story was not very fond of rats. He remembered a time on another ship where a specific rat terrorized him the entire journey as he fought to keep the food supply secure. On the Titanic’s voyage, the rats stole large quantities of food from right under the baker’s nose terrorizing him once again despite his efforts to keep them out of the food supply. This conflict between the baker and the rats is another example highlighting the futile efforts of a person trying to keep an unwanted force from ruining carefully constructed plans. Ultimately, despite their conflict aboard the ship, the rats and the Baker suffered the same fate, drowning at the hands of the iceberg. In conclusion, “The Watch That Ends The Night” demonstrates through the retelling of the Titanic the theme of how people attempt to control their environment to avoid feeling vulnerable to fate. They want to believe they can be in control of their own destiny. The division of the classes, the vision of an impenetrable ship, and the battle between the baker and the rats are all examples of this idea. In the end, the characters all fell into the grasps of their fate. Fate had no respect for the money of the first class members, the “unsinkable” design of the ship, or the battle between the baker and

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