Nightjohn

“I’m Sarny and the other part of my name be the same as old Waller who wants to be master but is nothing. Nothing. I don’t count the back part of my name no more than I count old Waller himself. No more than I count spit.”

As a slave on Clel Waller’s plantation, Sarny is considered his property by law. However, her hatred for the slave owner keeps her from acknowledging his last name as hers. Although Waller is wealthy and powerful by society’s terms, Sarny recognizes that he is worthless because of his wicked nature.

“I thinks of all the things I have learned that day and then I tries to add them to the things I learned the day before and then the day before that.”

Sarny’s nightly routine of compiling newfound knowledge shows her proclivity for learning. Even without Nightjohn’s teaching or access to school, Sarny hungers to learn. Gary Paulsen demonstrates the human desire to understand, showing readers the value of access to education.

“I was small then and didn’t know about being free, or even how to think about being free, or even what being free meant. So I asked her what free meant.”

Mammy is reluctant to explain freedom to Sarny, telling her that she will learn about it when she is older. In other words, Mammy wants to protect Sarny from things that could get her in trouble. Sarny’s lack of knowledge about freedom shows the extent to which slaves were cut off from reality. Slave owners did everything in their power to prevent slaves from having any kind of hope for a better life.