Night Vale Deviant Analysis

Depending on what form of deviance we look at within Welcome to Night Vale we see a different approach to deviance. When looking at the interaction between the government and deviant citizens of Night Vale there is a clear distinction of right and wrong implying that the stance on deviance that the town itself takes would be more of a positivist perspective. We see this when looking at the belief in mountains and angels. In Night Vale it is against the law to acknowledge the belief of angels and mountains. This is seen in episode 25 when a City Council member says "Angels aren't real. They just aren't" (Fink and Cranor 252). We see the opposition to mountains in episode 18 when employees of Night Vale Radio chant "IT IS FLAT ALL THE WAY ROUND.

When we look at specific characters such as Kevin, the radio host for the sister town of Night Vale, Desert Bluffs, we see that his deviance is more based on immoral behaviors, but we also see that Kevin's character faces another stigma just through his appearance. For example when he smiles other characters such as Cecil react in ways such as "He must be wicked, this man" (Fink and Cranor 190). Another instance where Kevin's smile is seen as deviant is towards the climax of the series where he smiles and in reaction Cecil says "You monster" and Steve Carlsberg says "That was really gross . . ." (Fink and Cranor 262). In other instances we see deviance as a norm violation when looking at Steve Carlsberg in episode 53: September Monologues. Steve describes how he was socialized similarly to Cecil by saying "He was raised in the Night Vale tradition of silence. And with a belief in the power of hierarchy and bureaucracy. I had been raised that way too, but it didn’t stick" (Fink and Cranor). We see that the socialization process had by an everyday citizen, such as Cecil, did not take well to Steve. The deviance perpetrated by Steve would be categorized as a norm violation. To further this conversation we look at the acts committed by the City Council and the Vague, Yet Menacing Government Agency we see their deviance as a reflection