Grant Wiggins was introduced to the reader as an apathetic school teacher with few emotional ties to anything or anyone. He blazes through life without any thought. However, this changes as he begins to develop a genuine interest for Jefferson’s mental well-being. As Grant’s hardened heart begins to thaw in the presence of simple-minded Jefferson, I begin to resent him less. When Grant buys Jefferson a radio out of his own pocket-albeit with a few donations from other people- this clearly shows how far Wiggins come on his path towards finding meaning in his life. This is the man that yelled at his students for wasting precious chalk that came out of his own pocket. In my eyes, this puts Grant on the path to redemption. This seemingly simple gesture is a monumental step. It is the first major step on the road to emotional bonding for both Jefferson and Wiggins. At the beginning, this radio seemed insignificant. It was a nice gesture. However, this little contraption causes much change in the plot of the story. This tiny box gives Jefferson another reason to believe he is a man. My ...
The attorney claims that it would be wrong to kill a man no more intelligent than a hog. This is seen as very controversial and is almost a turning point in the story. From that moment on Jefferson was dedicated to not die “like a hog” and rather “die like a man”. He learns how to read and write and most of all his dignity was at an all time high. The symbol of the hog has a huge role in this book, as it is the driving force behind the whole bigger meaning of this story. By dying with courage, Jefferson was told he would always be
Grant Wiggins, one of the few black men of the time to have a college education, lives with his aunt on a plantation just outside Bayonne, Louisiana in 1948, and teaches at the all-black school held at the all-black plantation church. Considering the poor relations between blacks and whites at the time in which the story is set, it comes as no surprise that Grant sees tension frequently in his community – not only through the ways in which persons of various races treat one another, but also in the justice, or lack thereof, served in court cases. The white authorities accuse Jefferson, an innocent student Grant taught a few years prior, of first-degree murder. During the trial, Jefferson's state-appointed defense lawyer pleads for the jury to have sympathy on Jefferson as he is a hog and does not possess the intelligence to commit the crimes of which he is accused. Because the whites dominate the society, the court finds Jefferson guilty as charged and the judge sentences him to death by electrocution. Upon hearing the verdict, Miss Emma, Jefferson's aunt, resolves to persuade Grant to teach Jefferson that he is, in fact, a man – not a hog – and to get him to wal...
...ate representation of its deep insights into the mind of Jefferson. In Chapter 29 one gets an accurate and in depth view into the mind of a colored farm worker from the deep South during the 1940’s. The way the sentences were structured has not been edited to portray proper English nor have the thoughts been completed. In that passage Jefferson’s ignorance is exposed, but in doing so his values and faith shine. In his own way, he acknowledges his fate and then tries to reason why it happened. A Lesson Before Dying provides a pure and true insight into a Jefferson’s mind. This is why it should be included in a list of works of high literary merit.
In Gaines' A Lesson before Dying, Grant Wiggins, a black male school teacher, struggles with the decision whether he should stay in his hometown or go to another state while his aunt, Tante Lou, and Miss Emma persuades him and gives him the responsibility to teach Miss Emma’s wrongly convicted godson to have pride and dignity before he dies. The wrongly convicted man, Jefferson, lost all sense of pride when he was degraded and called a "hog" as he was sentenced to death and announced guilty for the murder of the three white men at the bar he so happened to be in. Through Grant’s visits to Jefferson’s cell, the two create a bond between each other and an understanding of the simplicity of standing for yourself or others. In Gaines’ novel, Grant, Jefferson, and everyone around them go through injustice, prejudice, and race.
In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, Grant Wiggins is asked to turn Jefferson, a young man on death row, into an honorable man before his execution. Grant faces many difficulties when Jefferson is unresponsive and refuses to comply with Grant and Aunt Emma’s request. Throughout the story, Grant struggles to find motivation to keep working with Jefferson as he faces the difficulty of racism and prejudice. The author of the novel, Ernest J. Gaines, uses characterization to prove the theme that a lack of compassion in individuals can prevent people from uniting to form a better society, because they do not try to understand one another. In the beginning of the novel, Miss Emma and Tante Lou are threatening Grant into going to visit Mr.
Throughout the book, Jefferson develops and changes the way he views himself. From the start, Jefferson had no self respect, he was always putting himself down, and thinking that he was not a human being. By the end of the book, he is a much more confident and discovers his dignity.
African-American life in pre-Civil War America and life in pre-African-American Civil Rights Movement have many comparisons and also many differences. Some comparisons are the ideas of racism and segregation and some of the differences include the education during these two times and freedoms. These comparisons and differences are related to the novels Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass which is written by himself and A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest Gaines. These two texts will compare and contrast how life was being an African American during these different periods of time.
After he went and obtained a college degree, Grant Wiggins goes back to live with his grandmother. Being that he is a very educated person, Grant was elected by his grandmother to try and get Jefferson to realize that he was a man and not an animal like the white people had led him to believe. Throughout the entire novel, Grant is battling this idea in his head because he doesn’t feel that even he knows what it is to be a man. He doesn’t believe that he is the right person to talk to Jefferson. But by the end of the novel, he figures out what it is to be a man.
It is important to note that it is impossible to see Jefferson as completely heroic and Grant Wiggins as completely unheroic. Jefferson doesn’t want to help anyone at first, and makes his godmother cry by pretending to be a hog. Grant defends Jefferson in a bar fight. For this reason it is wrong to write them off as simply one or the other.
The ending of A Lesson Before Dying gives the reader a sense of despair and then portrays a sense of optimism. Gaines’ writing is unique because the reader feels this hope for the future and optimism without Gaines having to say it. Instead, he wrote about the execution and the hope was picked up from the “little things.” At the reader feels disappointed because Jefferson has died. The optimism comes into play through Grant and the fact that he has learned his lesson(s) from Jefferson. It is also uplifting because Jefferson has died with dignity on the day meant for him. I think that Gaines also throws a curve in at the end through the character of Paul whose purpose seems to stress the hope for the future of Blacks in a white society.
The struggles of Grant and Jefferson share a common theme, man’s search for meaning. Grant has the advantage of a college education, and while that may have provided some enlightenment, he remains in the same crossroads as Jefferson. Grant sees that regardless of what he does, the black students he teaches continue in the same jobs, the same poverty and same slave-like positions as their ancestors. Grant has no hope of making a difference and sees his life as meaningless. Though Jefferson’s conflict is more primal, it is the same as Grant’s struggle. Jefferson is searching for the most basic identity, whether he is man or animal. It is this conflict of meaning and identity that bring Grant and Jefferson together.
Throughout the hundreds of years, individuals have pondered the impact of heavenly or insidious force, environment, hereditary qualities, even excitement, as deciding how free any individual is in settling on good decisions. Fate, a result of the past, is often described as the advancement of occasions out of man 's control, dictated by an extraordinary force. In any case that someone may utilize their freewill can reflect upon their outcomes, decided upon a supreme force, whether they are positive or negative. In the novels “A Lesson Before Dying,” Ernest Gaines and “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck, the authors explore the trials and tribulations of self influenced fate controlled by an higher force.
Grant Wiggins is a highly intelligent person. He is the person who helped Jefferson in becoming a man even though he thought it was hopeless. The first example is when Grant visited Jefferson; he put on a hog act which discourages Grant in helping him. Grant still kept going even though he did not want to. He made his first breakthrough to Jefferson. Grant was a happy that he went through to him. The second example is when he decided to spend 20 dollars on a radio for Jefferson. He borrowed money for Jefferson’s radio even though he could not even pay for his own food. He did this because he felt that if he did not get something, Jefferson will assume that he gave up on him. The last example of Grant is that he decided to buy a pen and a notepad for Jefferson. Consequently, Grant made Miss Emma, his aunt, and the minister wait for him but he did not want to give up on Jefferson because he knew if he gives up now, Jefferson will never become a true man.
The final attribute Gaines uses in A Lesson Before Dying to show Jefferson’s lack of destruction is his trying to better himself before dying. Jefferson does this by repeatedly seeing Grant Wiggins and Reverend Ambrose in prison before his execution.
What is death? What makes death such an avoided subject? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, death is defined as: the permanent cessation of vital functions; the end of life. So maybe we fear death and death’s process because the thought of life ending is unbearable or because we know little about the dying process and naturally, as humans, we fear the unknown. These all may be true and in most cases probably are. But if one was to take a look at death and the process and consider the true meaning of that very moment in one’s life, maybe we would view it differently and maybe, just maybe, see life itself in a whole new way?! Marie de Hennezel, in her book Intimate Death defines death as . . . “our life’s culmination, it’s crowning moment and what gives it both sense and worth” (xi). She sheds light on the positive side of death, the part no one thinks about or acknowledges. And she shows us that death can in fact make us see how amazing life can be. In his book, The Body Silent, Robert Murphy shares with us the changes in life and actions of society when faced with the process of death.