Informative Essay On Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

Narratives about captivity have often intrigued readers in Western culture. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s stories helped pave the way for stereotypes within both European and white culture; teaching Europeans to see Native Americans as cruel and allowing whites to see the evil in the American slave market. In both “A Narrative of the Captivity” and “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano share their individual stories of being kidnapped and enslaved. Though the two narrators share similarities in their personal accounts of being held captive, either individual’s reaction sheds light on the true purpose of both Rowlandson and Equiano’s writing.

Nightjohn is a book about a slave who has gone through so much, he ran away from his plantation, made it all the way North and became free, but turned around and came back to teach other slaves how to read and write. He taught Sarny how to read and write for tobacco the first night he was at the plantation, and helped her get through tough times by reading, writing, and teaching her valuable lessons throughout the book. Although Nightjohn was trying to be a nice person and teach them how to read and write if they got caught the consequences would be horrible.

Running and screaming. Burning and freezing. The survivors of the Holocaust have been through it all. Their stories describe each and every detail of the horrendous events they experienced. Although the book Nightfather is fiction, the stories described depict the actual Holocaust exactly. By dissecting the time period of Carl Friedman’s Nightfather, a reader can understand the elements of fiction and realize the impact of history on fictional literature.

---reading review of <<Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and a True Tale of Slavery>>

First of all, Nightjohn had escaped the terrors of slavery before, yet he came back, so that he could teach children to read and write. Nightjohn felt that knowledge was power. Slave owners didn’t want their slaves learning anything due to the fact that they didn’t want them to be smart, they worried that the slaves could outsmart them. Waller was included in this opinion. While explaining why they weren’t supposed to read Nightjohn mentioned, “ ‘Cause to know things, for us to know things, is bad for them. We get to wanting and when we get to wanting it’s bad for them. They thinks we want what they got.” (page 39). Sarny then mentioned that she wanted what they had. Nightjohn was trying to help Sarny get a life that she deserved. He continued to push forward, moving closer and closer to teaching Sarny how to read and write. His determination helped Sarny continue to work to get to a place that she was happy with.

This is an essay about NightJohn and how he needed to use Bravery, leadership, and freedom to gain control. NightJohn is a book about slavery and not just any slaves but NightJohn and Sarny.

In these two tales of brutal bondage, Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the modern reader can decipher two vastly different experiences from circumstances that were not altogether that dissimilar. Both narratives tell the story of a slave gaining his or her freedom from cruel masters, yes, but that is where the most prominent similarities end. Not only are they factually different, these stories are entirely distinct in their themes.

Although the novel is intended for young people the age of twelve-year-old Sarney, it is unsparing in its depiction of slavery. The novel is written in dialect, and attempts to show the reader what it was really like to endure the pain of being considered a possession. Despite her youth, Sarney has already seen people being beaten before her eyes, attacked by dogs, bound and chained and punished for running away. As a future slave woman, she knows she is likely to be forcibly 'bred' or subjected to serve her white master's pleasures. The actions of Nightjohn result in getting him dismembered in punishment, but Sarney and John both believe that the rewards of reading are too great and continue to try to help other slaves

Slavery was a big problem in the south in the 1800’s. Slaves were whipped, shot, and tortured in every way possible. They were often auctioned off for money, so they had many different friends and families. Nightjohn was a free slave who had something no one could ever take from him. He had letters. He shared these letters with a female slave named Sarny for some tobacco. Slaves weren’t supposed to know letters, so they had to have private lessons and no one could know.

in the book nightJohn by Gary Paulsen, it was in the time that slaves were used for white's personal needs weather it was fair or not. During the life as a slave many children didn’t see their birth mothers, and slaves warn’t allowed to learn, and the white’s were, so the whites had more power than the slaves. In an every day life was like a rerun, until a new slave was bought by the Waller also known as “master”. Waller often bought slaves, but this slave was unsuspected to be bought because he had whip scars and bruises all over his body, the new slave was later known as nightJohn. nightJohn was later introduced to Sarny when he started asking people for tobacco, and trading for letters for it, and that’s when Sarny couldn’t keep quiet any longer, and asked “a letter?” (page 34). Sometimes the most strictest rules need to be broken for the better.

Slavery has always been viewed as one of the most scandalous times in American history. It may seem that the entire institution of slavery has been categorized as white masters torturing defenseless African Americans. However, not every slave has encountered this experience. In this essay I will focus on the life of two former slaves Harriet Smith and Mr. George Johnson and how in some cases their experience were similar as well as different in other aspects. The negative aspects of slave life were unquestionably heinous and for that reason especially, it is also important to also reveal the lives of slaves whom were treated fairly and with respect.

NightJohn changed people’s life in a big way and he was a great leader. He could help people and wouldn’t be afraid to do no matter if he was risking his life. He didn’t care if he would get hurt doing it, his goal was just to teach people how to write and read. He never let anybody down no matter if he would get in trouble he would not care. He would always help others before helping himself. NightJohn was a very brave man and back then everybody was afraid to speak up but he wasn’t.

that treatment, and the conditions that lead to resistance by the slaves working in their various

Throughout history, humans have demonstrated having ideals that made them believe they are superior than other humans. Look no further than the United States, when racism thrived and African American people were enslaved for no other reason than that their skin was darker than that of a white man. The institution of slavery has been embedded into American civilization longer than it hasn’t, and although slavery in America was atrocious and heinous, it had very uplifting sides. Gary Paulsen’s historical fiction novel NightJohn displays both sides of slavery through the eyes of a young, enslaved girl named Sarny and her journey of learning how to read and write from a fellow enslaved African American named John on the Waller Plantation. The method Paulsen describes the harsh restrictions placed on enslaved people, the brutal treatment of these

Douglass gives detailed anecdotes of his and others experience with the institution of slavery to reveal the hidden horrors. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. He analyzes the story of his wife’s cousin’s death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderer’s freedom. He states, “The offence for which this girl was thus murdered was this: She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried.” This anecdote, among many others, is helpful in persuading the reader to understand the severity of rule slaveholders hold above their slaves. This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily.