Nightjohn can teach us many things with it’s themes. Gary Paulsen incorporates themes in his story to help push the narrative of the book. While they are all noteworthy, these three themes are the most prominent. Bravery, leadership, and perhaps most of all, prejudice. Leadership appears often in Nightjohn. Gary Paulsen bestows this theme on Nightjohn and makes the other slaves believe in him. This must have been very taxing on Nightjohn as being the leader of a group of people with no basic human rights would be difficult to say the least. To be an effective leader you must have courage and bravery, as well as a huge amount of patience. Clel could be considered a leader, albeit not a good one, because he literally owns the slaves and orders
Leadership is a trait that many people have naturally and others try to obtain. Many people consider themselves a good leader when they fail to carry out the characteristics leadership require. In the book, “Lord of the Flies”, Ralph is a better leader than Jack because of the traits he possesses. That is why certain skills are necessary to be considered a successful leader.
When people lose their dignity, they also lose a part of the very thing that makes them human. Despair, hopelessness, fear and apathy are all ways a human can lose their humanity. The eyes provide a window onto the soul, and thus a view on the person’s mental state. The eyes also function in reverse, as a symbolic gesture of control over someone. All of this is present in Night, by Elie Wiesel, an account of human tragedy, human cruelty, human dignity, and the loss thereof.
One of the main themes throughout the book is the title of the book “Night”. There are references from Eliezer about night during the book, which are full of symbolism. The word “night” is used repeatedly, and Eliezer recounts every dusk, night and dawn through the entire book. For instance, Night could be a metaphor for the Holocaust—submerge the family and thousands of Jewish families in the darkness and misery of the concentration camps.
Most of the story Night takes place in a concentration camp, so cruelty is going to be normal for the prisoners at the camp. The point of this essay is to give examples of how cruelty is a theme in the story Night.
Night is a story about young Eliezer who had to face the ugly side of war and hatred. A topic that is commonly seen in this book people dehumanizing other people. In this case it would be the Nazis dehumanizing Jewish people.
Leadership in Watership Down Many people possess leadership qualities, although they don’t rule a country. Meriwether Lewis, the official leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, has been called “undoubtedly the greatest pathfinder this country has ever known.” Just like Hazel, Meriwether Lewis led a group of followers into unknown territory. The two guides faced many difficult situations that they were able to overcome since they had the qualities of a notable leader.
One theme in Night is that inhumanity can cause loss of faith. To begin with, Elie Wiesel was thirteen years old when he was devoutly following Judaism. Then towards the middle
There were many themes illustrated throughout the memoir, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael beah. These themes include survival/resilience despite great suffering, the loss of innocence, the importance of family/heritage, the power of hope and dreams, the effects of injustice on the individual, and the importance of social and political responsibility. Every theme listed has a great meaning, and the author puts them in there for the readers to analyze and take with them when they finish reading the book.
What is a leader? According to the dictionary a leader is a "person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country." (Merriam Webster) Though that may be what the term leader is defined by, one would assume that it takes much more to be considered a "good" one. A leader, is in many cases the voice of the people, he is the one whom everyone looks to in a time of panic, the one whom the people entrust to make the hard decisions and the one whom is supposed to value his constituents wants and need. Unfortunately most leaders fall short of accomplishing the things they set out to do, "as principal chief during the 1830s John Ross faced the most critical period in Cherokee History, and somehow
One theme was silence, I think that night serves as silence, each night its silent outside, everyone sleeps and its for the most part motionless and soundless. I also believe night serves as darkness, as in the dark side of this world. The Holocaust is known to be one of the roughest time periods ever lived in. Night is also when you dream, and when most people dream, they dream of the happiest place they can be. This was the only time these people were happy, their dreams kept them alive.
The Illegal, and Some Great Thing by Lawrence Hill both contain several important themes. To explain, The Illegal features the main character’s loss of innocence, and the racism towards people because of their country of origin, and ethnic background. Next, Some Great Thing includes the themes of racism and prejudice towards not only the protagonist, but also to French Canadians because of the colour of their skin, or the language they speak, and the courage of characters to stand up for what they believe is right.
In the book Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen chapter 4 has many events that are crucial to the story. First Alice who is a little addled in the mind is forced to be a breeder but she fights against it and then she was beaten. Next Alice was caught walking up to the white house and then Old Waller whips her with his belt until her back is bloody and her skin is hanging off her body. Then Sarny has a flashback to Jim who ran away but the dogs found him and while he was hanging in the tree they ate the entire bottom off his body and he died on the tree. Furthermore Pawley was sneaking away to be with another woman on a different plantation, one day he was caught and even though he was coming back Waller let the dogs cut him but not kill him. Then when
Nightjohn is a book by Gary Paulsen about a southern slave’s struggle to learn to read. After reading Nightjohn and several slave interviews, it is clear that Paulsen did research before writing the book as it shares similarities with many first-person accounts of the pre-war south.
The servant by James C. Hunter tells what Hunter interprets as Leadership. He explains the story through a manager in charge of a large glass manufacturing plant. The author uses this character to explain leadership in a business by using religious overtones to help the reader understand the concepts better. The manager John must go through a journey to develop into a stronger leader since recently he has been having trouble both at work and at home with his wife and two children. On the work side of his life the plant he oversees recently has gone through an attempt for the workers to unionize which failed but has created unhappiness with the workers and caused upper management in the company to express dissatisfaction with John. At home his
The major themes of the book are directly related to the themes which John Demos uses to tell this story. The storyline moves on though the evolution of one theme to the next. The function of these major sections is to allow the reader to relate to John Williams overall state of mind as the story unfold. By implementing these major themes into his work, John Demos make it possible for the reader to fully understand the story from beginning to end.