Finial draft: Night John

Night John: reading response (theme)  

                The book Night John was an amazing read for me; this story had taught me so much also how slaves were treated. This story was written by Gary Paulson and he really inspired me as a person in so many ways. In the beginning a little girl named Sarny was picking tobacco and saw a man pulling a horse and a slave owner by his neck. This part was the most shocking because this showed how cruel slavery was. I really felt awful because it was so descriptive. The way that Sarny described that scene was devastating,the man pulling the carriage was sweating, had scars all  and over his back, and was constantly being whipped if he slowed down. It was so harsh that you could really picture the moment. The man pulling the slave owner was named Night John because he taught kids that were slaves, he went underground to teach kids that were slaves how to read and write.

Letters: Ever since life went on with a new slave, he has been teaching Sarny how to read and write but secretly. Every day she learns new letter and how to write it. I really thought that that was touching because John is risks his life everyday juts to teach a young child how to read and write. So basically he is like a teacher and she’s the student, which is showing how unfair slavery was. Learning letters as a slave must have been fascinating because they are not expected to have an education. Each day while John is teaching Sarny her letters, Waller starts to get suspicious. One day when Sarny is “suppose” to be picking cotton she starts to retrace what John has been teaching her, she starts tracing the letters A,B and C in the dirt but she does not notice that the owner is coming her way. Waller approaches her and says “ what you tracing in that dirt” and Sarny  does not reply, although she heard him. He kicks her and kicks her until she speaks but nothing comes out. He kicks her across the face and her mother  steps in and says “ ME, I was the one that taught her the letters” and he walks over to her and rips off her shirt in front of a crowd of men and woman, the mean cover their eyes as a sign of respect and the women gaze in shock. She is tied by her arm and legs until she confesses where she learned how to write but she doesn’t.

Alice: A big part of the story is where a woman named Alice who cannot stand working for the Waller and just gets s fed up with him one day and tries to make a run for it, she feels as though no one is going to find her but deep down inside she feels the guilt and taste of regret. She keeps running through the night thinking that she is safe even though she knows that they shall find her. I feel like it was not a good idea to run away from the plantation just because you get fed up because everyone knows the consequence that you will face if you disobey orders. Mean while Alice decides you take a rest and hears the sound of hungry vicious dogs nearby but thinks nothing of it. The sound starts to get closer and closer. She starts to run faster and faster, but it’s too late the dogs catch up, she is being bitten all over her back and feels the thought of regret and pain. The dogs drag her back to the rotten plantation. Alice’s back is ripped and sore, the women of the plantation put salt and cloth to heal the bruise. She never talks again, she just lay in that same corner that she died in.

An overall summary of this book is that it was very suspenseful but sad at the same time there was so many scenes in the book that sounded so realistic. I really enjoyed the part at the end where he and Sarny just leave the plantation at night to travel to the Underground Railroad to teach other kids to read and write and of course try to escape. That part of the book was the best, because it wasn’t about hanging anyone or people dying because of stress or pain in general.