ipl-logo

Book Report On Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

954 Words4 Pages

Imagine being trapped, trapped in a never-ending field of cloud-like cotton. Trapped and forced to work all day for your enemies wealth. Trapped and beaten to the bone when trying to escape. Trapped in the cage that you will live in the rest of your life. Trapped… From the 1600ś to late 1800ś, slavery was a famous but cruel industry in the United States. The Novel, NightJohn by Gary Paulsen is based on this time period and is about a 12-year-old slave named Sarny living on a plantation. She has no blood-related family and is in the care of older women she calls mammy. Sarny is an observant, quiet girl who meets a slave name John that begins to teach her the illegal act of reading and writing. NightJohn relates and is proven by historical sources …show more content…

In the book, Sarney is taught the alphabet by John and eventually is able to create words. But it also comes with the risk of punishment from their master. For one thing, in the excerpt “African American Education in Slavery: Self-taught” by Heather Andrea Williams about how slaves learned during that time says “According to Jones ‘slaves would slip out of their quarters at night and go to these pits, and someone who had some learning would have a school.” To emphasize, the process in which slaves risked their lives to learn in pit-schools relates and justifies NightJohn because Sarney followed John into the same pit-schools where he taught her, showing these events were factual. Identically, written by Heather Andrea Williams on slave education, it says “Green recalled that her mother had learned to read by keeping a book in her bosom at all times and asking the white children to tell her everything they learned at school each day.” In detail, slave perseverance to learn by listening and studying off the white people at the time corroborates with NightJohn because Sarney learns about the world around her by listening to the white people in the house. This showing that the novel historic information is correct due to the courage slaves had to

Show More
Related

Chapter 4 Of Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

343 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel NightJohn by Gary Paulsen, chapter four is mainly about Sarny’s memory of how bad it is to try to run away from the Plantation. Sarny first has a flashback to when Jim a field hand tried to run away from the plantation; In response, Clel Waller the slave master set the dogs at him while Jim tried to hide in a tree. He was unsuccessful and whipped while the dogs ate at his skin. Furthermore, Pawley was a slave on the Plantation when he tried to visit a girl on another nearby plantation.

Read More

Chapter Four Of Sarny By Gary Paulsen

319 Words | 2 Pages

In chapter four of Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, Sarny experiences a traumatic event. Sarny and the other slaves had to witness Alice, a girl that dreams a lot getting whipped badly by the master. Unfortunately, the cause of her getting whip was that she wandered off near the White House and the slaves weren't allowed to be there. The slaves had to watch Alice dripping blood and numerous cuts while she was being whipped so they would know what to expect if they did something like that. Additionally, an old man named Jim couldn’t take no more and had enough which made him tried to leave.

Read More

Chapter 4 Of Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

189 Words | 1 Pages

In chapter four in the book Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen, It starts with Sarney the main character talking about a woman on the plantation that went by the name Alice. She was at the time where she had to give birth and she did not want to do that. She fought and argued until she was tied down and did what she had to do. After this she was emotionally wrecked and was wondering in front of the white house. This then led to her getting caught and whipped in front of all the slaves by the slave master Clel Waller.

Read More

Analysis Of Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

407 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Summary Of Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

288 Words | 2 Pages

In the article, “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, he achieved to learn how to read and write in the time of slavery in Maryland. At a young age he learned how to be literate. But then he was a slave that not only thought about being free but wanted to learn how to read and write. His mistress only helped him to learn the alphabet, but he was also accused of reading, so she never trusted him to be near a newspaper, book or anything that had to do with reading. Sometimes he would get sent to run errands and he tries to finish it fast so he can read a part in a book that he found or get some lessons.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Learning To Read And Write By Frederick Douglass

743 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Literary Analysis Of Nightjohn

950 Words | 4 Pages

Nightjohn, a novel written by Gary Paulsen, takes location throughout one of the finest periods of prejudice and racism in American records. Nightjohn is the story of a young slave lady named Sarny. Within the book, Sarny meets any other slave named Nightjohn, he teaches Sarny a way to study and write. Ultimately, after Nightjohn is punished for coaching Sarny, he runs away, however, later he returns to complete coaching Sarny. Sarny failed to accept the fact that she was a slave or the unfairness in opposition to her prevent her from learning.

Read More

Thesis For Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

691 Words | 3 Pages

NightJohn Simply, regret is a traumatizing emotion for people to have. Many African Americans were a very common target to become slaves and servants to mostly all white men due to the color of their skin. The cause of slavery, the abominable wrong doing on America’s behalf tore apart the equality of men. Although Gary Paulsen’s novel, NightJohn, is considered historical fiction, the descriptions of supporting to one another, brutal punishments, and harsh restrictions can be corroborated with multiple sources.

Read More

Slave Dancer Quotes

1147 Words | 5 Pages

The Slave Dancer: Research Paper “When we were two days on our western course, I heard once again that cry from one of the holds, a woman hair-raising, heart squeezing scream. I had been dancing a group of slaves, and at that terrible sound, Spark signaled me to stop my tune. Not a minute later, a black woman was tossed upon the deck like a doll of rags,” (Fox 51). In the book The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox, a thirteen-year-old boy, Jessie is captured and taken on a slave ship.

Read More

Comparison Of My Bondage And My Freedom By Frederick Douglass

322 Words | 2 Pages

At the time period, during slavery, slaves were not taught to read. They were

Read More

Frederick Douglass Rebunk The Myth Of Slavery

814 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Frederick Douglass Rhetorical Analysis

935 Words | 4 Pages

Slavery is equally a mental and a physical prison. Frederick Douglass realized this follow-ing his time as both a slave and a fugitive slave. Douglass was born into slavery because of his mother’s status as a slave. He had little to go off regarding his age and lineage. In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Read More

Frederick Douglass Syntax Analysis

1186 Words | 5 Pages

In this except from the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass (1844), Douglass tells the story of the obstacles he faced as a runaway slave. Douglass speaks of the excitement he experienced after first escaping; he soon realizes that he will forever be bound to the paranoia caused by the idea of getting caught, and he challenges his audience to place themselves in his situation. Douglass’s purpose is to reveal the physical and emotional hardships faced by runaway slaves and to encourage the people to do something about it. He writes with tones of loneliness and paranoia to an audience who does not understand the trials runaway slaves face, in hopes that they will recognize the cruelness of slavery and make an attempt to end it.

Read More

Frederick Douglass Learning To Read Essay

498 Words | 2 Pages

According to Mistress Hugh, “education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (Douglass, 33). Although Mistress Hugh had stopped teaching Douglass how to read, the seed of knowledge had already been planted. In the years that followed, his hunger for knowledge did not dissipate. Douglass devised various methods to learn to read and write in very clever ways.

Read More

Frederick Douglass: Overcoming Obstacles

392 Words | 2 Pages

African-American slaves were forbidden to obtain the knowledge of being able to read or write, stemming from the fear of white masters that educated slaves will overpower them. Douglass managed to learn to read by bribing poor and hungry white boys into teaching him in exchange for bits of bread. Douglass illustrates his thirst for literacy through “[The] bread [he] used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give [him] that more valuable bread of knowledge” (pg 23). This reveals how much Douglass valued education and took advantage of all the knowledge he had access to. Today’s youth, especially the ones belonging to a minority

Read More

More about Book Report On Nightjohn By Gary Paulsen

Related Topics

Open Document