In the 1940s segregation between the white and black communities was strong. Often times African Americans would suffer the ridicule of those who were prejudice within the white community. The plot of A Lesson Before Dying takes the reader through the life of young Jefferson; from the time he is tried for the murder of a white man to his last moments at his execution. After being called a hog, Jefferson took on this animal rule, upsetting the women who raised him, Miss Emma, his godmother. Emma requested the help of the quarter’s self-conflicted teacher Grant Wiggins, to find a way for Jefferson see the man he is. Grant is already struggling to find his place within the plantation and this task pushes him further into his own detached
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Not many black students get the chance to move up and go to the university and make a living doing something other than working in the fields. Being educated gives Grant another thing that sets him apart from the rest of the people in the plantation. He is able to look deeper into things and is able to see all that was wrong with the world that they lived in that the others were unable to see. “...his unusual education and unique prospects make him even more vulnerable to the misery and hopelessness of local existence” (Paryz, par. 1). Grant has to teach the children knowing that it is hopeless and that most, if not all, of the kids will simple end up working in the fields or in a kitchen. His education makes it easy for people to expect more out of him, and Grant knows this. The students and even some adults looked to Grant to be something more, and being he was already different from the rest it is easy to see why. Miss Emma had looked to Grant to help with Jefferson, figuring that because he was the school teacher that he would be able to teach Jefferson something that was beyond the classroom. This extra responsibility did not please Grant and he felt the pressure of Emma and Lou’s expectations. He did not understand how he, a single man who still did not know who he wanted to be was supposed to help another man find himself before he was to die. “‘ I’m supposed to make him a man . Who am I God?’” (Gaines 31). Grant often doubted himself and the possibility of Jefferson seeing a man when he looked inside himself but continued on the journey for Miss Emma’s sake. Being asked to do so much and having to live with such high expectation simple because he was the only one that was educated made it easier for Grant to isolate himself from the
Not many black students get the chance to move up and go to the university and make a living doing something other than working in the fields. Being educated gives Grant another thing that sets him apart from the rest of the people in the plantation. He is able to look deeper into things and is able to see all that was wrong with the world that they lived in that the others were unable to see. “...his unusual education and unique prospects make him even more vulnerable to the misery and hopelessness of local existence” (Paryz, par. 1). Grant has to teach the children knowing that it is hopeless and that most, if not all, of the kids will simple end up working in the fields or in a kitchen. His education makes it easy for people to expect more out of him, and Grant knows this. The students and even some adults looked to Grant to be something more, and being he was already different from the rest it is easy to see why. Miss Emma had looked to Grant to help with Jefferson, figuring that because he was the school teacher that he would be able to teach Jefferson something that was beyond the classroom. This extra responsibility did not please Grant and he felt the pressure of Emma and Lou’s expectations. He did not understand how he, a single man who still did not know who he wanted to be was supposed to help another man find himself before he was to die. “‘ I’m supposed to make him a man . Who am I God?’” (Gaines 31). Grant often doubted himself and the possibility of Jefferson seeing a man when he looked inside himself but continued on the journey for Miss Emma’s sake. Being asked to do so much and having to live with such high expectation simple because he was the only one that was educated made it easier for Grant to isolate himself from the