43 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel YoderNightbitch
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Hair Growth and Control
One of the first key signs that Nightbitch is turning into a dog is the unexpected growth of hair on her body. She finds, at the novel’s start, a “patch of coarse black hair sprouting from the base of her neck” (3), the growth of her eyebrows, “two black hairs curling from her chin” (4), and the shadow of a mustache. On top of this, the hair on her head becomes unruly, resembling “a cloud of wasps” (3). At first, these developments concern her. Nightbitch initially experiences these changes as something unpleasant happening to her, like an illness. However, as the novel progresses, and Nightbitch starts to embrace the animal side of her nature, so too does she embrace the hair growth on her body. After killing the animals in the woods she “stop[s] shaving her armpits, her legs, the tender folds of skin at the top of her legs and the mound of hair that grew at her center” (183). She experiences an “all-over furring of her body” and expresses the wish to “never brush my hair ever again” (180, 178).
In Nightbitch, hair growth represents the liberation of instinct and nature from the repression that human society imposes upon it. More specifically, hair growth embodies the liberation of female nature. In modern, Western society the control and removal of hair is central to ideas about what it means to be “feminine,” and is a key marker of how women police their own bodies. Nightbitch’s hair growth represents nature’s challenge to the gendered social order. In refusing to shave, or to obsess about the hair on her head, Nightbitch subverts societal norms. By accepting her body hair she re-asserts a more primal, “feral,” and liberated femininity.
Meat and Hunting
When meeting an old work colleague, Nightbitch wants to admit: “I torment myself endlessly, until I am left binge-eating Fig Newtons at midnight to keep from crying” (53). Nightbitch uses processed food to bury her emotions. Even more so than the macaroni and cheese which Nightbitch endlessly makes for her son, Fig Newtons are artificial and man-made. They can be, and are, consumed passively, and like other produced snack foods, require zero effort to acquire or prepare. They symbolize Nightbitch’s alienation from the vital animal and human relationship to food.
In contrast, meat, especially when red and raw, embodies animalism. While kale, macaroni and cheese, and Fig Newtons reflect Nightbitch’s passivity and powerlessness, meat symbolizes her recovery of agency and a re-connecting with her instincts. This is illustrated by the scene in the restaurant. Here, Nightbitch literally and metaphorically runs away from her civilized plate of kale, grabbing a woman’s “half-eaten burger from her plate” and “rip[ping] a bite from it” (147). Similarly, she delights in hunting and killing a rabbit, savoring “the musk of its fear! The warmth of its blood” (91). In these cases, Nightbitch takes something for herself, rather than just being a passive recipient. In the novel, meat and hunting represent spontaneous, vital action, the possibility of recovering an authentic animal self.
Instinct, Reason, and Smell
At the start of each of her performances in the theater, Nightbitch “smells every person in the room” (231). The act of smelling and being smelled pervades both Nightbitch’s artwork and the novel’s climatic sequence. It is not just a gimmick to unsettle the audience, or a reminder of Nightbitch’s canine nature. Instead, smelling intimates how the audience approaches the unfolding work. Instead of entering the performance through the lens of rational thought, they should become open to immediate experience, feeling, and intuition. They should suspend the mediation of rational sense, allowing their instincts, bodies, and feelings to guide their relationship to Nightbitch’s performance.
The binary between reason and instinct is not limited to Nightbitch’s closing scene. Often, the novel uses smell to symbolize instinct challenging reason. Nightbitch’s dislike of Jen is balanced by how Jen brings with her “as some women are magically able to, a symphonic olfactory experience” (37). Jen’s smell instinctively tells Nightbitch to give Jen the chance that her conscious self says she shouldn’t. Likewise, with the dogs on Nightbitch’s lawn. Common sense suggests that one ought to approach three unknown dogs guardedly, especially when with a young child. Yet the dogs’ smell and the fact that they “sniff all her parts that need sniffing” gives her the gut sense that the dogs are safe and important (59). She gains this awareness through smell in a way that would not otherwise be possible. Nightbitch’s smelling of her husband before sex, and her smelling of the audience, shows how smell is a gateway to a different way of seeing the world.
