Response To A Lesson Before Dying

We live in a generation of daily selfishness and high egos, but in a time of crisis, sacrifices appear out of dust. If you were in a position in this book, would your definition of sacrifice or shame change? In the book, A Lesson Before Dying By: Ernest J. Gaines published in 1993. The fiction novel is about a black man named Jefferson being wrongfully convicted of a crime during the Jim Crow era. Grant’s legacy is to make a change in Jefferson before his death by electrocution. Certain events can pressure people into making decisions that benefit others and affect yourself in a negative way in some scenarios. First, Grant has to sacrifice for others, which creates shame mostly because of his skin-color. For example, “To show too much intelligence

But he didn’t tell me that my aunt would help them do it” She got up slowly, heavily, and went to Miss Emma, who had begun to shake her head and cry. Miss Emma sincerely did not want me to go, but my aunt had not changed her mind for a moment. “I’m sorry, Mr. Grant, I’m helping them white people to humiliate you, I’m so sorry. And I wished they had somebody else we could turn to. But they ain’t nobody else””(pg. 79). In other words, Grant has to go through humiliation every time he visits Jefferson. This is a sacrifice because he is treated less than a human when he goes. It is predicted for him how his life in the city would play out before he even made promises to help Jefferson. This is shameful to him because he made a tough promise that he must keep. The word choice used in this passage shows negative connotation which shows the pain he feels. Words like “slowly”, “heavily”, “dirty”, “break”, and “humiliation” really help vocalize the shame he feels. The repetition of the word strip shows him being “stripped” of his dignity. He feels vulnerable every time he visits the prison. Lastly, "Now his godmother wants me to visit him and make him

As shown in, “”No tell me,” she said. “Who am I? Who are you? Who are we? Tell me.””All I know is I love you” I said.”” (pg.209). Because of this, Vivian is seeing Grant’s attitude change abruptly. She challenges his point of view by repeating questions to show him how confusing it is for her to love him when he is being affected by the stress. The constant word choice like “tell me” and “who” shows she is angry. There is a negative connotation to almost all the words, besides when Grant tells her “All I know is I love you. In the view of Grant, “Every little thing was irritating me. I caught one of the students trying to figure out a simple multiplication problem on his fingers, and I slashed him hard across the butt with the Westcott ruler. He jerked around too fast and looked at me too angrily for my liking.”(pg.35). As a result, Grant is being affected by the stress and is doing worse at his job. He is frustrated with how his life was playing out at the time. The word choice in this passage is negative. For example, “irritating”, “Slashed”, “hard”, and “angrily”. These reflect how Grant is feeling about Jefferson, Vivian, Miss Emma, and his aunt. In addition, “”Boxing is over,” I said, and I grabbed a chair and threw it at him.” (pg.202). As a result, Grant doesn’t know how to express his anger and stress, so he does it by fighting. The context of this quote is about a bar fight, which is very