Journey to the End of the Night

The titular night is an important symbol in the novel. Over the course of the narrative, the idea of the night begins to clarify in Bardamu’s mind. References to the night veer from the temporal to the abstract: The night is no longer a time, but a state of mind. For Bardamu, the night comes to represent the end point of nihilism. As he suffers, as he struggles, as he tries to carve out a niche for himself in a hostile society, the night seems to draw in around him. The night is something in which he can become lost and disconnected, separated from the rest of society and reduced to a dark, shadowy, and atomized existence. For Bardamu, the night is something as “black and shapeless as [himself]” (306). He assures the reader that, as he becomes more aware of his alienation, he must “always be thinking of the night” (356). Eventually, as events begin to spiral out of his control, he feels as though there is “too much night around [him]” (405). He is lost and disconnected from the human experience, devoid of purpose and meaning in his life. Whatever light may have been cast on his direction is now gone, leaving him to stumble through the dark void.