Night John Steinbeck's Nightjohn: Showing Love Through Pain

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.

With rhetorical tact, Douglass uses his narrative to underscore the overwhelming desperation inherent to slave songs. Says Douglass, “The singing of a man cast away upon a desert island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.” Driven by an all-consuming

The young adult novel Nightjohn depicts the plight of enslaved African-Americans from the point-of-view of an adolescent so that readers can feel as well as learn about the difficulties experienced by slaves in the antebellum south. The book revolves around the prohibition of teaching slaves how to read. In the novel, a former escaped slave named John teaches a young girl named Sarney how to read. John or 'Nightjohn' as he is called, slips into the slave barracks at night when the whites of the plantation are sleeping, and attempts to spread empowering knowledge to his people. John could have remained safe in the north but he chose to return because of his belief in the power of the written word.

Night john was a book about a escaped slave. He went back into the south to help other slaves escape. He taught slaves to be able to read and write. The NightJohn book was published in 1993 and the movie was created in 1996. There was bravery and prejudice even the feeling of freedom in this book and movie. NightJohn was a brave man even with the risk of slavery over his head.

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.

Patton, 1993). Hence, the Mammy in the white household is seen as an intelligent servant to the white family, solving wisely and even god-like every duty she has to fulfill. Unsurprisingly, she constantly balances between the white and the black community, being a spokesman for the black minority (cf. Atkinson 2004, 2). Although the black servant is a slave within a white household, the Mammy is portrayed as being content with her way of living, having a satisfying master-servant relationship and feeling not inferior, but rather seeing herself as a member of the family (cf. Jewell, 1993: 38). In acquiescence with Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, the image of the Mammy has been applied to create an atmosphere of racial harmony within the slave system (cf. 2008: 13). Hence, the role of the Mammy in the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century is established in effort to create an image of the Mammy contrasting to the stereotypical image of the African American slave, who is inferior to the white

Noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in his self titled slave narrative addresses the indescribable sadness that the slaves were experiencing, which they portrayed through song. He intensely describes the emotions that he hears within the songs of the slaves. In the passage Douglass shows how the slaves believe that they feel, versus how they really feel, and he does this this by changing the tone throughout the passage. He uses these tones to make the reader fully feel the helplessness that the slaves feel and recognize the effects that slavery had on people.

Both Bales and Soodalter use the rhetorical appeal, pathos, in which they use hurtful words and indicate that Maria is only a child. This leads to the audience feeling compassion and sympathy for Maria, and all other slaves as

When describing horrific events he was forced to witness, the tone of Douglass’ voice becomes very detached, as if he is so used to witnessing beatings that it has become a normal event. Douglass also writes, “He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moments warning, he was snatched away, from his friends and family, by a hand more unrelenting than death” (34). This quote is used by Douglass to infuse a feeling of disbelief in the hearts of the audience, for the man in the quote earned this punishment for merely speaking the truth one time. The audience feels sympathy towards this slave for being taken away for something that should not be punished.

In 1993, Gary Paulsen wrote the book Nightjohn. Nightjohn is a book set in the 1850s, during slavery. It shows the thoughts and views of a twelve year old girl named Sarny. Sarny is a black slave girl, who is uneducated, malnourished, and living life the best she can. Suddenly, a man by the name of Nightjohn is brought to the plantation. Sarny traded tobacco for learning the alphabet from Nightjohn. Nightjohn ran away one night, and was thought to never return, but actually he created a hidden, underground school. Nightjohn could have been inspired by two interviews, Uncle Billy McCrea’s and Walter Calloway’s.

Many themes were portrayed in Cannery Row.  These themes give the play depth and fascination.  The three most significant themes thought are Loneliness, Sympathy, and Remuneration, allowing the story to reach many areas in life.

The book Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen is about a man named Nightjohn also called John. John came back from freedom to teach slaves to read and write. He stumbles on a girl named Sarny, Sarny really wants to learn. As the story goes on Sarny learns that hope is very important . In the story, John will do anything to teach Sarny to read and write.

Douglass corrects white reader’s misconceptions about the slave’s assumed happiness by illustrating the song’s true meaning through his personal experience “within the circle.” Douglass is astounded that northerners believed they were singing songs out of happiness; he says, “I have often been astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake” (26). Douglass explains that the songs create a common experience among all slaves. Therefore, those outside the circle are ignorant to believe that their songs are out of happiness or contempt. In actuality, “slaves sing most when they are the most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears” (26). Douglass makes it clear that slaves are actually evident on a sub-conscious level of deep unhappiness. The singing is a coping mechanism, per say, to the aching hearts. The songs are not a pastime

Of Human Bondage is a deep, if somewhat disturbing book. Disturbing not because of anything nasty, but because it makes you think. Reading it you soon realise that it is a thinly disguised autobiography, and in my view that makes it more interesting because it is describing the reality of growing up as an aspiring (but failed) artist, followed by somewhat loveless relationships. All the time the hero is searching for happiness and the meaning of life, and you are really drawn in by this struggle, even whilst it seems hopeless. It makes you wonder if the artistic temperament makes things more difficult, especially as at the end he decides to settle down, and live like most ordinary people, content with his lot. This neat paradox encapsulates

Once a slave acculturated himself to his “new home,” he found himself unable to re-establish his family ties. Even if a slave was lucky enough to find a significant other, often times they were separated by sale, as can be seen in the account of Laura Spicer and her lost love. Moreover, couples often found their children sold off to other masters never to be seen or heard from again, at ages as young as eight years old. Therefore, a slave’s life was full of perpetual uncertainty, and fear of abandonment and neglect. Their bonds of love were never enough to out-weigh the voice of