Free Choice Commentary with two rules:
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Remember that you can comment on the events and characters, but you also can discuss the choices that Gary Paulsen is making as a writer.
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25 comments:
How do you think that Gary Paulson found the punishments that Waller used on his slave. Surely no one could have a graphic enough imagination to make it up. And anyway I think that he would have based it on fact, even if fact is not so nice. Fact in this book is definitely not pretty (not to mention not for the squeamish). Maybe he had ancestors who were alive then, friends with ancestors, or interviewed a professional on the subject. It would have been hard talking about it, but necessary. I know that every time I think about Alice and how the dogs were chewing at her front, and how the men had to carry her off, I get a sudden mental image of half a body being hauled off, with the heart exposed and still pumping. It's not fun to imagine.
O.K. I forgot Night John at school.
So in Night John a little girl named Sarny that lives on a slavery plantation helps her mom ,not birth mom, take care of the young ones. If you get caught reading the master will whip you or he will have another slave do it for him and watch. There is one thing that all the whippings have in common is that all the slaves on the plantation have to watch the person get whipped.
Wow pigwidgeon that is really gross about the mental image of a "Half of a body being hauled off, with the heart exposed and still pumping." Well that does not seem to be a good image to have in you`er mind, but you always have had a good imagination and bad one as in graphically [no offence]. I think it would be hard not to fight some dogs that are tearing you apart like I would think that instinctively. I no that if you are getting hurt you try to defend yourself ,unless you were doing a sit in during the civil rights movement. I also wounder why Alice was not showing any signs of pain when Sarny`S mother was sowing her up. OUCH!
I think this is a very well written book because Gary Paulson writes this in a different way than he usually writes other books.This book is written very graphical which other authors have a hard time with.I wonder where Gary Paulson got the information on how the slaves got punishment.Really This probably happened back then maybe even worse.None of this would be a pretty sight.
There are many books and websites devoted to slave narratives. Many of the African Americans who endured slavery were not allowed to learn to read or write, so the narratives were written down by others - kind of an oral history. Here is what Gary Paulsen had to say about it - this is from his website:
The way I came into writing Nightjohn, I came in the back door. I worked for several years on research on a book on Sally Hemings, who was a slave girl owned by Thomas Jefferson. I think they had between six and nine children together over her life. When Jefferson died he was bankrupt and she was sold in the block. Said, "one 53-year-old woman worth $50.00," and they just got rid of her. And I wanted to write about her but there's not enough. I think a lot of the historical information about her has been destroyed over the years.
But while I was doing the research on Sally, I ran into many other stories and I got hold of the slave chronicles and its interviews of ex-slaves in the '20s and '30s in America. Just in dialect--some of it's hard to read. It's written the way they talked. It was beautiful.
I sat in my basement reading these things crying every night. And one of the things I ran into several times was the slaves' attempt to learn to read. For the slaves it was a capital offense to learn to read and they could be killed. They usually didn't get killed right away because they were too valuable to the slave owner. So the owners would cut a thumb off, or sometimes a toe; sometimes the front half of the foot would be chopped off. And they were always whipped. That didn't stop them and they would hide in the schools--they would call them pit schools--and they would get a ditch or a gully or a hole, and they'd cover it with brush so the light wouldn't shine out, and they'd go in there at night with torches. They tried to teach each other to read and were successful in many places. Most of the owners were terrified of the slaves learning to read, because they knew they would want to be free.
Education truly is power. One of the things I hope you take away from this book is just how important literacy is - for the slaves of the pre-Civil War South - it was worth dying for.
Ms. Baker
Wow. I guess I never really realized how important literacy was until I read that quote of Gary Paulson's. But now it seems pretty obvious. Of course if slaves learned to read they would start to believe that they had more potential than a slave. Then they would have to think of a way to use that potential, which could only be outside the boundaries of slavery. And anyway there was always the temptation of freedom without the slaves knowing they had potential for the owners to deal with. I understand why the owners would like to keep the slaves illiterate, but I still think that the whole thing was outrageously cruel.
Mrs. Baker & Pigwideon: Yes, it is interesting what the hoops were that people jumped through just to learn to read and write. Nowadays, kids often moan and grumble about going to school, but back then, they would risk having limbs and fingers cut off. Very interesting, the things we take for granted.
Well phat mann some don't want to go to because they think it is to early. You never think how literacy is good for you.But this book really tells me a lot about punishment.Nobody should ever trivialize they feel like a African slave.By chance they don't know what they had to go through.
Wow half of your foot cut off that is harsh but why do that like if cut off a thumb you could not write but a foot? Well I guess that would teach you not to read or right. I can not believe all of this over learning 26 letters & thousands of letters like that is just odd over one little thing. But some things will not make sense 100 years from now like the Iraq war.
To phat mann, people did get a limb chopped off, part of it anyway, in this book. But Old Waller must have been harsh, because in books, it’s hard to make people as bad as they are. Or you can make them super evil like the way Sarny described the hell that Mr. Waller was going too. Just like phat mann, I can't imagine that they have to go through all that to read and write which for us, is casual.
Sarny really doesn't like Waller. Just like all the other slaves.
Wasn't there a law that didn't allow anyone to vote if they couldn't read? The slave owners could have also didn't want any of there slaves to vote if they did back then.
Waller is deffinatley harsh if he makes his slaves pull him along in the buggy he had. Its amazing what the slaves did just to learn to read. There were probably slaves that didn't want to learn to read or write like Sarny's "mammy".
I actually don't think mammy could write. Night john was the only one. I liked the book but the punishments were graphic. Not that is bad it is just gory. Mammy was nice a definitely didn't deserve to be hurt like that. She warned Sarny but Sarny disobeyed. I t isn't Sarny's fault. For instance if you saw 10 million $ lying in your mom's purse would you take it?
I thought parts of this book was very good but other parts were a little gross. I liked John because he got wiped and he got some of his toes cut off and still teaches people to read. Thanks to him Mammie is ok, thanks to him some slaves know how to read.
I think it was a good book but it was really gross!!!! I think it's awful how Waller cut or CHOPPED Night John's middle toes off. :(
But John got away still. I also feel really bad for Mammy, Waller sould'nt have done that to her.
I really like the book but I didn't like the wipping parts or the other ones but I think that Sary is a brave person to watch all that wipping and other things they did. If it was me I would have had nightmares from that. I think it's great night John tought people how to read because one day I bet it was the little girls and boys who had a voice and maybe if night John didn't teach them how to read there would still be slavery.
Midnight, I liked the part when a person gets there toe chopped off, it is viglant but it toghy the person a lesson that is for sure. what I thogt before the part in the book I thoght they where going to chop the persons head off.
What I think about the book is that we shold read HATCHET it is a really good book well that is my opinion HATCHET is the best book of gary pulsun that is my opinion. HATCHET I think is the best survival story ever written.
I think that this book was very good, but also extremely grotesque.
Like Ms. Baker said in class, most of the violence was too discrete to be picked up by most kids our age. The toe chopping was fairly obvious, but there were several little punishments that in my opinion, were even grosser than that.
Luckily, the author was brief and vague about such occurences, so as to not completely freak out the reader. If what happened in this book actually went on in real life, than I feel absolutely awful about how we humans had it in our hearts to treat other humans in such a way.
Harry Plopper, that is nice to say that that is your opinion. although, other people might agree with you. but that is still your opinion. I have heard so much about Hatchet though I am not drawn to it. I thought that Night John was a really good book. The author chose really good words to describe things. for example, in the book it said;the whip snaked up. If I had written this book I would have said something like, the whip came up and then down and the sound of the scream came.
Ps. Harry Plopper, I think you meant to say TAUGHT him a lesson. And thought.
I think it is terrible how slaves got whipped but think of hooking up a old lady to a horse harness and whipped her. I would think all those slaves could overcome Waller but I know it would take a lot of more effort
I have not heard of hatchet so I don't see why we can't read it? If it was me writing the part about the wip comming up on mammy's sholder I would have said he liffted up the wip and snaped it down apon mammy's shoulder leading it to bleed. I can take some gross stuff like the toe but not the wipping. Daphne I agree with you about the efort it would have to overcome Waller.
I've heard of Hatchet. I also heard that its a really good book.
I too wouldn't have used the same words Gary Paulsen used. The words I would have used would be similar to the ones that already been said.
I'm not drawn to it, just like you Spleahoppatense.
We could read Hatchet. According to everyone else it is a good book.
Sometimes you have to choose words that will draw the reader in and want them to read more.
I was superised I saw that Gary Paulson wrote this book. Gary Paulson does not usualy write books like these.
I agree with you mr.bling, Gary Paulsen dosn't usually write abooks like this. He usually writes more peaceful books. And Night John is NOT peaceful!!
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