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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mammy make for Alice to drink after tending her wounds in Chapter 4?

2. What does John do on the first night after his punishment from Waller in Chapter 6?

3. What sounds does John make while enduring Waller's punishment in Chapter 5?

4. What is the stump used for that Waller orders one of the field hands to fetch in Chapter 5?

5. What creatures does Mammy remark upon when Sarny runs to her at the spring house in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is foreshadowed in Chapter 6? What does the reader expect to happen based on John's actions?

2. What causes Master Waller to send Old Delie to the spring house in Chapter 5?

3. How is John's departure described in Chapter 6? What does Sarny make of John's farewell?

4. What does John teach Sarny in Chapter 6? How does Mammy respond when she observes this exchange?

5. How does Waller discover that Sarny is learning to read and write in Chapter 5? How does he react?

6. How did Pawley die, according to the story related from Sarny in Chapter 4?

7. What leads up to Alice being being whipped by Waller in Chapter 4? How is her whipping described?

8. What is the significance of Master Waller's public displays of punishment for the slaves in the novel?

9. What are Sarny's perceptions of Alice's whipping when she witnesses it in Chapter 4?

10. How does Master Waller punish Mammy in Chapter 5? How do the other slaves respond to the abuse?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the poetic elements seen in “Words.” Develop a chart that indicates examples in this chapter of repetition, assonance, alliteration, rhyme, meter, symbolism, metaphor, etc. Why do you think that this chapter differs from the others in its narrative style? What does this change indicate?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author’s dedication in the beginning of the novel and the lives of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. What was Jefferson’s stance regarding slavery in the U.S.? Why did Gary Paulsen dedicate Nightjohn to the memory of Sally Hemings? Why is Sally Hemings significant in American history?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the setting of Waller’s plantation. About how many slaves do you imagine living on the plantation? What kinds of crops does Waller produce? Where on the plantation do the slaves live? What are their living quarters like? How is Waller’s home described?

(see the answer keys)

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