Nightjohn 11/13/2014

Title: Nightjohn
Author: Gary Paulsen
Pages read: 0-90 (Finish)
Prompt: Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence
Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.

The story takes place during slavery in a story that is similar to situations that slaves faced then. The dialogue reveals a lot about the characters in this book. The book is telling about Nightjohn and you learn everything about him through his dialogue with the main character, Sarny. Nightjohn comes in around the third chapter and he has scars from beatings and whippings. One night Nightjohn asks for some tobacco in a trade for something. Sarny asks Nightjohn what he will trade for because he appears to have absolutely nothing. He says he can trade for letters as in the alphabet. The conversation between the two reveals that Nightjohn has been educated somehow even though he appears to be a slave. The word choice used is slang which makes it seem more realistic and shows how they haven't been well educated because of some of the lack of grammar. Also in the conversation the words lighten the mood because it is more like a teacher and a student as opposed to the usual mood were you feel sorry for the slaves and the things they have to do. 

Later in chapter 4 all they talk about if specific incidents that have happened when people have tried to run. They were very gruesome experiences. On page 44 of the book it says "she had screamed until she sounded like pigs being cut." This sets an even more negative tone than before and provides a better understanding for what slaves endured from their masters. Later on Nightjohn is teaching Sarny other letters when Sarny's Mammy sees and approaches them. She is enraged and ask him what he is doing. Mammy asks "Don't you know what they do to her if they find her trying to read?" This creates tension and you begin to anticipate where this is going. Through this conversation you learn Nightjohn had escaped his former plantation and gone North. This is where he learned to read and he says he came back to the south to teach kids to read. Then Sarny learns her first word which is "bag" and is ecstatic about learning her first word. So she begins writing it everywhere and this would be a mistake. Her master would catch her writing the word and it just created a world of problems.

He sees her and began yelling and hitting her while asking questions. Sarny says "he kicked me in my stomach." This reveals how little slave masters cared about their slaves and shows in particular the willingness of this slave master to beat and kick a young teenage girl. Instead of punishing the girl he has Mammy punished. He uses her as a horse to push his wagon and whips her and creates cuts in her arms. Then Nightjohn admits to teaching her. The mast decides the punishment will be for him to lose several of his toes. Now the tone and mood are just hate and sorrow. Hate towards the master and sorrow for Nightjohn and Mammy for having to endure that much pain and suffrage for something we a lot of the time take for granted now. Then Nightjohn after a couple nights leaves. Sarny is sad and begins to have her "troubles" or in other words her period. When the slave girls show signs of this they sending them to the breeding shed. This is where they would send the girls to make more children. Through learning letters and hiding her troubles you know Sarny is brave and rebellious. Then an exciting event happens, Nightjohn comes back and tells Sarny to go with him. Go with him to school, so they follow a path and there is a small hidden pit where he has brought kids to learn to read and write. At the very end she says "feels good to write again." This brings joy to the mood and makes you hope for a better future for those slaves.