How can one you teach someone to be a man when you aren’t one yourself? For instance, in Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying, Grant Wiggins, black school teacher, acquires criticism for being ‘passive’. Meeting with the white superintendent, Dr, Joseph, Grant receives complaints, disapproval, and insults of Grant’s students, and even his name. Passively acting, like no true man would, Grant restrains from correcting another because he is scared of the consequences, he doesn’t tell the superintendent what is too much, and he surrenders after requesting for something he wants only once, and avoids demanding for something. You simply cannot call him anything but passive, a real man should not act passively. Grant allows Dr. Joseph to walk all
