At the beginning of the novel, Jefferson gets imprisioned for a crime he did not commit and is claimed a “boy”, “hog” and a “fool” (7). After the trial occured, both Miss Emma and Tante Lou force Grant to change Jefferson into a the “man” he does not see in himself. In this moment, Miss Emma asks Grant if he is “the teacher”, Grant responded with “yes, I am the teacher… and I teach what white folks around here tell me to teach… they never told me how to teach a black boy out of a liqour store” (13). Grant knows he is just sustaining the system. In spite of the fact that he needs to help his students avoid being black and poor in the South, he feels not well prepared to do this regardless of his acedemic education.
