Even the title Breaking Night has a deeper meaning: “Staying up through the night until the sun rises.” This message signifies the hardships and challenges as one breaks through the night. In her memoir, Murray portrays the challenges and obstacles she encountered as a naïve homeless teenager while aspiring to create a better life for herself, despite her parent’s drug addiction and life on welfare. Although it hurt Murray that her parents were constantly high, she never stopped loving them. As evidenced in her memoir she stated, “I couldn’t heal my parents, as much as I wanted to, but I could forgive and love them.” This internal conflict and her personal desire to forgive is a theme in the memoir. The book demonstrates that an independent and self-sufficient teenage girl can not only survive her struggles, but also can succeed and achieve. Despite this, Murray shows how anything can happen when you persevere and try to turn your life around. Murray’s memoir teaches you that: “It’s not about having more stuff, it not about the next accomplishment but its really about being peace with yourself and finding a way to integrate the thing you value with the actually way you live.”
