The painting is limited only to brown tones and vibrant red shades, and is compositionally flat and stilted, with no implementations of depth.

The sporadic interruptions of vibrant red and the painting's intrusive angularity serve to shock the viewer, and animate the scene with chaos and energy.

Initially, like many Neue Sachlichkeit and Futurist artists, Beckmann believed war could cleanse the individual and society.

The Night's illogical composition relays post-war disillusionment and the artist's confusion over the "society he saw descending into madness" (Kleiner et al.).

Although The Night does not directly depict a specific battle or war scene, the image is considered one of the most poignant and seminal pieces of post-war art.