29 pages • 58 minutes read
Gary PaulsenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
12-year-old Sarny is Nightjohn’s narrator, telling the story from her first-person perspective. The grammar with which the novel is written reinforces Sarny’s lack of education. Despite lacking access to education, she values learning, letters, and numbers. Even before Nightjohn becomes her teacher, she absorbs information through observation and reflects on daily lessons. Nightjohn’s arrival allows Sarny to pursue her natural hunger for knowledge.
Sarny’s character reveals that she and other slaves are enslaved both physically and mentally. Before Nightjohn mentions experiencing freedom in the north, Sarny has no concept of what freedom means. She doesn’t set foot outside of the plantation until Nightjohn shares his secret school at the novel’s end. Through her character, Gary Paulsen shows that slaves were brainwashed to believe their masters and unable to experience reality beyond plantations.
Sarny’s character undergoes a transformation throughout the novel. In the beginning, she lacks hope and means to pursue her desire to learn. By the novel’s end, she has learned to read and write—skills that give her the power to narrate-write her own story. Although her body is still Clel Waller’s to command, her mind is no longer enslaved.
By Gary Paulsen
Brian's Hunt
Gary Paulsen
Brian's Return
Gary Paulsen
Brian's Winter
Gary Paulsen
Canyons
Gary Paulsen
Dogsong
Gary Paulsen
Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books
Gary Paulsen
Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered
Gary Paulsen
Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
How Angel Peterson Got His Name
Gary Paulsen
Lawn Boy
Gary Paulsen
Liar, Liar
Gary Paulsen
Masters of Disaster
Gary Paulsen
My Life in Dog Years
Gary Paulsen
Northwind
Gary Paulsen
Soldiers Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers
Gary Paulsen
The Crossing
Gary Paulsen
The Monument
Gary Paulsen
The River
Gary Paulsen
The Transall Saga
Gary Paulsen
The Voyage of the Frog
Gary Paulsen