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A Book Report On Night John By Gary Paulsen

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The story “NightJohn” is about a slave named John who traveled to plantations to educate young slaves. When John is bought by Waller, a young slave named Sarny learns that there is more to life than working their days away for their masters. John does whatever it takes to educate other slaves - even if it puts his own life at risk. The book “NightJohn” by by Gary Paulsen, Sarny learns that anything can be accomplished when you have the courage to stand up for what’s right. First, Mammie is put in a difficult situation when Waller caught Sarny writing in the dirt. He ties Mammie up and demands to know who taught Sarny to read. It was clear that everyone expected Mammie to get punished for the wrongdoings of John. “She don’t know nothing. It was me that taught the girl the letters” (page 72). John had the courage to …show more content…

In fact, she didn’t even think it was possible for her to learn. But when John showed up, he showed her that he wasn’t going to give up on his goal of educating slaves. “That’s the next letter. H. It sounds like huhh, or hehh . . . He makes the letter in the dirt” (page 79). Even after John was punished for teaching Sarny to read, he is determined to teach her more. This showed that John would keep trying to educate others, no matter what happened to him. He fought for what he thought was right. Lastly, after John was punished for teaching Sarny to read, he decided to run. Everyone knew the punishments if a slave was caught running away but John still took the risk to get away to help others learn to read. “John. Be right there, next to me. “Come on,” he said . . . School---we got to go to school. Don’t you want to learn the rest of the letters” (page 85)? After every horrible thing that happened to John, he got clean away. He had a lot of courage to come back and risk even more punishment just to teach a few young slaves. Sarny learned that anything can be done when you have

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In chapter 4 of the book Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen the chapter focuses on why the slaves don’t run away and why Nightjohn is teaching slaves how to read and write. Chapter four starts off with a girl named Alice who is mentioned to be weird. But when she goes to the breeding shed she freaks out and becomes even more crazy. She is so crazy she runs away but eventually gets caught and has to be sewn back together. Then Jim is mentioned, another slave who ran away.

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Numerous things have occurred in history that most people either believes is false, or denies that it has happened, one of which being slavery. In the realistic fiction novel NightJohn by Gary Paulsen, Paulsen describes the life of Sarny as she goes through the struggle of being slave. Information such as brutality, family seperation, and acts of kindness can be corroborated with Nightjohn through Fredrick Douglass, Mingo White, and Solomon Northup. Multiple examples of brutality can be seen in Nightjohn, the most prominent being whipping and the use of dogs to hunt down slaves. The first act of brutality to be read is whipping, where Sarny reports that slaves would be whipped for going too slow.

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After having read both Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and Harriet Jacobs’s Incident 1. How were Douglass and Jacobs similar and different in their complaints against slavery? What accounts for these differences? In both the inspiring narratives of Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass’s and in Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs the respective authors demonstrate the horrors and disparity of slavery in there own ways.

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Lastly, Sarny was unbroken, she learned to tolerate people, and she had the characteristic of understanding. In the novel the author states, “We each live in our own times...best we can”(p.92). Sarny believed that life will not always be fine, but the only we can to is to accept our time and live the best as we could. This shows that Sarny has tolerance to trouble, and the world’s evil. She understands that Miss Laura and herself have different lifestyles, different classes.

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Many of us take education for granted and don’t learn to our fullest potential, but Fredrick Douglass soaked in every piece of information up because he knew it was his way out. “Learning to Read and Write” is a famous article based on what Fredrick Douglass went through to earn a valuable education while being enslaved. Author Fredrick Douglass, wrote “Learning to Read and Write”, published in 1845. Throughout the article, he takes us through different events he goes through while being enslaved. Douglass begins building his credibility with personal facts and successfully demonstrating logic and pathos appeal.

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Douglass belong to a well off family. The woman of the house thought him how to read and write some things. Until her husband found out that she was teaching him, then she suddenly stopped and was angry at Douglass, when he was reading. They felt like he would listen to the Irishman when he said “They both advised me to run away to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I should be free.” After losing his only source of teaching he resorted to the lest fortunate white kids for help.

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But sometimes he likes to take the whip and this time he whipped her until her back was all ripped and bleeding. We had to watch”(43-44). This represents pathos to create the subject of freedom by way of showing simply come cruel they may be treated. Mothers are used for breeding but, don't even get to keep their children in the end. It’s even worst to think that Sarny as a child doesn’t realize what she has lost and thinks it not only normal but okay from children to be taken away from their parent and passed on for someone to take come on till they themselves are old enough to work and to create the theme of freedom by showing how old hearted the ‘master’ is that it is clear he enjoys the pain he causes and that he makes the other slaves watch in a way of a silent threat or promise that this could and will happen to them if they too step out of line.

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The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a very great perspective for people of today to understand what it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s. It tells the story of the slave Frederick Douglass and how he began as an uneducated slave and was moved around from many different types of owners, cruel or nice, and how his and other slaves presences changed the owners, and also how he educated himself and realized that he shouldn’t be treated so poorly It was at the point later in the book that I realized how some slaves might have felt during slavery in the 1800’s. When Douglass is sent away to Mr.Covey he is treated pretty badly but eventually he stands up to Mr.Covey and demands that he stopped being treated like an animal.

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In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.

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The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through

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In Frederick Douglass’s narrative essay titled “Learning to Read” he recalls his journey to literacy. Throughout the essay Douglass reveals how he learned to read and write, despite the fact that education was strictly prohibited to slaves. Initially, Douglass learned how to read through his mistress, but he later learned from the little white boys on the streets. As for learning to write, he often times observed ship carpenters and replicated the copy-books of his Master’s son. Frederick Douglass did not have the same opportunities students have today, yet despite his adversities, Douglass was able to become a literate slave, and ultimately free himself from slavery with the power of

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What common themes bond together the literary works of the 1800’s? Frederick Douglass and Kate Chopin both realized that people were not being treated fairly and thus it influenced their writing. Through personal experiences and observations Frederick Douglass conveyed how African Americans in My Bondage and My Freedom were treated unfairly. Kate Chopin used the plot to show how women were treated unfairly in “The Story of an Hour”. My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass tells of some of the experiences he went through as a slave.

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PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.

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This showed that he was trying to keep his name clean by telling the truth. When John was in prison, they give him another chance to be freed of charges. They tried to persuade him

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