This week I have been reading NightJohn, and I really like it. So far it has been about slaves on a plantation where they are treated above averagely brutally. The story starts out with a little girl, going on twelve named Sarney. She lives with a breeding mother and does children's chores, but I can foresee whats going to happen. In the book, they only count the girls ages. The master only cares about them through the child hood. At the age of twelve, boys and girls are separated, the boys go out and work the field, and some girls clean the house. Others become immediate breeders from the first possible time as so not to waste any. That is where I am in the book so far.
I would have to say, so far in the book Night John would have to be my favorite character. He hasn't done much yet except to trade tobacco with Sarney so that she can learn some letters. I think I like him the most because he knows whats going on in the outside world, unlike the incompetent slaves who are too frightened to fend for themselves. I have a strong feeling he will become a leader, naturally because he knows things, and he has the cuts on his back to prove it.
My least favorite character so far would have to be Old Waller. He is the plantation owner who has no sense of humanity. He catches a pregnant slave near the big house, and chains her up to be whipped. I understand that it was usual to serve that kind of punishment back then. But he left her out overnight for the flies and in the morning he had two slaves bring salt for the woman just to give her more pain. I think that he should have stopped after the night outside, because after that she ran away. Old Waller is cruel and doesn't seem to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
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