John is a book by Gary Paulsen about a young slave girl who is taught to read by a slave that got free then learned to read and came back to teach other slaves. There are many themes in John but i chose to write about Prejudice, Freedom, and Leadership. Prejudice was used in john to show how much white people really hated black people and vice versa. Black people were viewed as property and they were denied all constitutional rights for a long time. Slave owners would go to huge lengths to stop slaves from escaping. One way people thought would help slaves not want to be free was not allowing slaves to learn to read or write. John got free in the North then he went back south to help slaves learn to read and write. If any slaves showed leadership