In Louisiana in the 1940’s, a fictional young man named Jefferson was wrongly accused of murder. He was put in court for the jury to decide his fate. His attorney announced that Jefferson could not have committed this crime, because he has the mentality of a hog. He was not smart enough to think of murdering three people in a town store. The jury voted against him, and Jefferson was then sentenced to death. Miss Emma, Jefferson’s grandmother, tells Grant Wiggins, Miss Emma’s close friends nephew that he should go to the jail and get Jefferson to believe he is a man; to die with dignity. Throughout the movie, words are both used to humiliate and redeem the characters in it.
