Thesis For Night John

In the midst of hardship, acting selflessly and sacrificing yourself for the sake of others is what will be remembered in the end. Giving up your own comfort, security, or pleasure can change someone else’s life. In “NightJohn” by Gary Paulsen, John sacrifices himself in numerous ways knowing that it is benefiting others. When a new slave is introduced to the plantation, Sarney, a young slave, notices something different about him. Within the first nights the new slave, John, offers to teach Sarney letters in exchange for rolls of tobacco. Every night from then on, Sarney begins to learn the alphabet letter by letter- something very dangerous and illegal for a slave. One day, talking with John and Mammy, John explains to them how he was a runaway that eventually became free. “And you came back?” Mammy asks him, “Why?”. “To teach reading” John explains simply to her (pg. 55). It turns out John could have safely lived the rest of his life in peace- instead he gave up his freedom to return to the nightmare of slavery and for one reason only- to teach slaves how to read and write. “We all have to read and write so we can write about this- what they doing to us.” (pg.58). Because he realizes that there is a real problem at stake, John was willing to give up a free life to better the chances of other slaves.

Waller, the plantation owner, was furious and immediately punished Sarney’s Mammy. As Mammy hung in chains waiting to be whipped, Sarney told John. All the slaves gathered (as they are forced to do) to watch Mammy be whipped. Not long passed before John spoke, “Let her be. She didn't know nothing about it. It was all me.” (pg 72). The price for his confession was not small. Each middle toe on John’s foot was to be cut off. As he spoke the words, being a realistic and experienced slave that John is, he was not expecting anything less- he knew the