Grant Wiggins In A Lesson Before Dying

As the eighteenth century, British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, “Nobody but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” For Grant Wiggins in A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, Sterne’s quote accurately applies to his character while he assists Jefferson. Throughout the novel, Grant repetitively contemplates the idea of taking Vivian and leaving Bayonne and the Quarters for a place that accepts Black Americans as people, rather than objects; unfortunately for Grant however, he perpetually concludes on the idea of remaining in the Quarters (albeit, from outside influence). With Grant’s …show more content…
As Tante Lou continues to coerce him into helping Jefferson, Grant breaks down and angrily exclaims, “Everything you sent me to school for, you’re stripping me of it…” which emphasizes his inner conflict of commitment and suffering discrimination, or freedom from family and unofficial slavery. Under this discrimination, Grant, and every other black man, faced the moral dilemma of staying and attempting to change things for the better or leaving for better opportunities. As Grant notes to Vivian, “each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious cycle---which he never does…it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind.” From his commentary, Grant remarks how the injustice he and other blacks face from whites drives them to despair, and pushes them to other areas so that they live a better life, all the while leaving the rest of the community to suffer. Not only does Grant feel this passionate craving, but he even acted on it and left. As Grant quotes from his professor, “if I stayed here, they were going to break me down to the nigger I was born to be.” To that, he adds that, “he didn’t tell me that my aunt would help them do it.” Now that Grant lives again in the Quarters and experiences the unjust discrimination from the whites, he again feels that same feeling of flight, however, he constantly refuses it, even though he knows that the whites are degrading him, and he faces betrayal from even those closest to him. His decision to stay contrasts with the other black men in the quarter, and even the black men who had left, because those that have stayed, never change anything, and those that left gave up or never tried at all but as Grant says throughout the novel, he cannot change anything, so he feels the need to leave, but he feels the need to help, so