In this chap­ter from “Moth­er Night,” the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on his rela­tion­ship with Kraft, who ini­tial­ly shared a strong indig­na­tion about the injus­tices the pro­tag­o­nist faces. Kraft, who admires the arts, believes that future civ­i­liza­tions will assess indi­vid­u­als based on their artis­tic con­tri­bu­tions rather than their past actions. He encour­ages the pro­tag­o­nist to revive his writ­ing, sug­gest­ing that true cre­ativ­i­ty can bloom through inspi­ra­tion, specif­i­cal­ly through a rela­tion­ship with a woman. Kraft’s belief is sin­cere, and he chal­lenges the pro­tag­o­nist to recon­sid­er his stance on writ­ing, per­suad­ing him that engag­ing with a woman could ignite his cre­ative spir­it.

Although annoyed by Kraft’s insis­tence, the pro­tag­o­nist reluc­tant­ly con­tem­plates the idea. He dis­miss­es it, feel­ing bur­dened by mem­o­ries of a past rela­tion­ship that now feels dis­tant. As he seeks solace from their con­ver­sa­tion, he descends to check his mail­box, find­ing it a place of mun­dane cor­re­spon­dence, includ­ing div­i­dend checks and junk mail. Sur­pris­ing­ly, he dis­cov­ers more sin­is­ter items in his mail­box, includ­ing a let­ter from Bernard B. O’Hare of the Amer­i­can Legion.

The let­ter reveals O’Hare’s dis­dain for the pro­tag­o­nist, express­ing dis­ap­point­ment that he remains alive while heroes from World War II have per­ished. O’Hare demands that the pro­tag­o­nist face jus­tice, urg­ing that he should be hanged or deport­ed back to Ger­many, the coun­try he is accused of lov­ing. Along­side this let­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist finds a hate-filled news­pa­per, *The White Chris­t­ian Min­ute­man*, which echoes the rhetoric he once espoused in Ger­many.

This chap­ter paints a vivid pic­ture of the pro­tag­o­nist’s inter­nal con­flict regard­ing his iden­ti­ty and past choic­es. It reveals the soci­etal back­lash he faces and the absur­di­ty of his situation—living in obscu­ri­ty while rem­nants of his past con­tin­ue to haunt him. The cor­re­spon­dence he receives fur­ther under­scores the ten­sion between his for­mer and present selves, accen­tu­at­ing the com­plex­i­ties of his exis­tence in a soci­ety laden with prej­u­dice and col­lec­tive mem­o­ry. Through Kraft’s encour­age­ment and O’Hare’s ani­mos­i­ty, the pro­tag­o­nist grap­ples with the lega­cy of his actions and the roles assigned to him by oth­ers.