Leadership In Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

My first claim is that Grant sacrifices time and dignity for others. On page 47 and 48 in the book, Grant is trying to visit Jefferson in prison and is talking with

In A Lesson Before Dying by author Ernest J Gaines, Grant is the protagonist who is trying to do the right thing for his people. Grant is in a very turbulent situation, having to make Jefferson into a “man” by the time he is executed. This is the central plot of the story, but not the main themes and ideas of it. Grant is struggling to help Jefferson because he sees generations of injustice through him. “’We got our first load of wood last week,’ [Grant] told him. ‘Nothing changes,’ he said.” (Gaines, 53). The response Grant’s teacher gives him has a deeper meaning: he as Grants’ teacher failed to change the injustice and racism and Grant is in the same situation. “Nothing changes”, but Grant does not give up for the sake of Jefferson, his people, and most importantly, himself. At one point, Grant actually reveals that “it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind. So, he,

In the novel, A lesson before dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, Grant Wiggins is a person who can at times be ill to all people around him. Grant Wiggins, a teacher at the school, in the end of the book shows that he has changed over the course of the book. At the beginning, he thought that it was pointless to go visit jefferson to try to make him a “man”. He said “Now his godmother wants me to visit him and make him know-- prove to these white men--that he’s not a hog, that he’s a man”(Gaines 44). This is showing that not only does Grant not want to go to the Jail and talk to jefferson but he also doesn't want to go to deal with the sheriff either. And this was just the beginning of it. Near the end you can see his diversity changing when he finally

Emma and Grant. After learning to open back up to his friends and family, he still gives them disrespect. A few pages after Jefferson talks to Grant, Ms. Emma comes to have a conversation with him. After she asks Jefferson how he is feeling, he doesn’t even respond or act like she’s there (page 136), showing how much Jefferson in entrenched into the idea of not finding value in himself. Furthermore, on page 130, while Jefferson talks up to Grant, he tries to anger him by insulting his girlfriend and testing his patience. Both of these interactions take place in cases where Jefferson shows signs of opening up to others, but they are also instances of how little Jefferson loves or cares about those who care about him. On page 139, this is addressed when Jefferson has another conversation with Grant a couple of days later. When talking with Jefferson, Grant tells him, “no matter how bad off we are,’ I said, ‘we still owe something. You owe something, Jefferson. Not to me. But to your godmother. You must show her some understanding, some kind of love.” Then Jefferson tells him, “That’s for youman’s... I ain’t no youman.” Later in the book, Jefferson eventually starts to show love to his loved ones again after having a powerful, life-changing conversation with Grant. After this, he is able to eat Ms. Emma’s food and is able to

Grant helped Jefferson to become a better person. With the help of Grant people saw the change in Jefferson since he was accused until the day of the execution. After the execution of Jefferson, Paul meets with Grant and he explains to Grant,“He never could have done that. I saw the transformation. I’m a witness to that”(254). This quote reveals the transformation that Paul saw by Jefferson, and Paul knows that no one could have moved Jefferson like Grant did. Grant changing Jefferson supports the idea that Jefferson was a better person, and that Grant is a hero because people saw the change in Jefferson, and Grant helped change Jefferson for others and had no selfishness. No one knows exactly what Grant did to change Jefferson, but the town, especially paul, all saw that Jefferson connected with Grant and changed with Grants help. The change that Grant made with Jefferson shows that he is a hero because others saw the impact that he had. Heros have an impact on people without even knowing and the change with Jefferson is exactly what happened with Grant changing Jefferson, he didn’t know how big of change he made. Grant teaches Jefferson that he has to love his family and the impact that it will have. Grant says to Jefferson that he owes something to Miss Emma, so he states, “No matter how bad off we are, we still owe something. You own something,

Through Grant’s actions it is easy to see he is not comfortable with his life. He lives in a small, racially discriminated and prejudiced town, and is a college educated man treated like a man who hasn’t finished elementary school. Adding Jefferson’s situation on top of all that, it is easy to see how Grant desires to simply give up and run away with the love of his life, Vivian. But Grant realizes that the issues at hand are bigger than just him; the way Jefferson dies will have a lasting impact, much like Christ’s crucifixion, on the local community. He understands that the dignity Jefferson shows in

For the majority of the novel, Grant denies that he can help Jefferson in any way at all. When his aunt and Miss Emma request that Grant go talk to Jefferson to teach him that he is a man, Grant explains, "It is only a matter of weeks, maybe a couple of months – but he's already dead…All I can do is try to keep the others from ending up like this…There's nothing I can do anymore, nothing any of us can do anymore" (14). Before receiving extreme pressure from his aunt to comply, Grant goes so far as to refuse to even attempt to help Jefferson. With this attitude that "There's nothing [he] can do anymore," Grant can, in fact, do nothing. Even though Grant correctly recognizes the fact that Jefferson will die in a short while, he fails to acknowledge the possibility of working through the injustices to make a difference. Grant, himself, feels stuck in his environment – he is "just running in place" there – yet he feels a sort of responsibility for his people and an attraction to the town, and cannot bring himself to leave (15). In order to "try to keep the others from ending up like" Jefferson, Grant wants to help his students, but he fails to respect them (14). If Grant has a bad day, he takes out his anger on his students, slapping them on the back of the head for playing with an insect, or sending them to the corner for an hour

First, Jefferson learns to feel empathy during his time on death row. After Jefferson is initially convicted and placed on death row, he takes it out on people around him, especially Grant. For example, Jefferson offends Grant's girlfriend, Vivian, which makes Grant think “I would have hit him if he had been in anyplace else” (p.130). However, later in the novel, Grant teaches Jefferson to feel remorse and

Every time Grant goes up to the courthouse, Jefferson rarely speaks to him and doesn't even look at him sometimes, forcing Grant to lie to his godmother, not knowing how she would take the truth. With Jefferson ignoring Grant and not wanting to cooperate, Grant must figure out a way to reach Jefferson and find something meaningful to him to prove that he is a man. This next quote demonstrates how Grant lied to his godmother and she learned how Jefferson had been behaving with Grant in the cell and she did not like it one bit.

Jefferson gets one great thing out of his relationship with Grant, the courage to go to the electric chair standing up: “He was the strongest man in that crowded room, Grant Wiggins... When Vincent asked him [Jefferson] if he had any last words, he looked at the preacher and said, ‘Tell Nannan I walked’” (253-4). Grant accomplished Miss Emma’s goal of having Jefferson be proud when he went to the chair. We can see that Jefferson understood the impact that he could leave behind.

Jefferson opens up to Grant telling him how he feels and this changes Jefferson and Grant because they are getting close to each other so Grant is giving Jefferson anything that he want and can get because in exchange Grant buys him stuff so he can talk to him about his problems and how he feels. In the book he says “ He has written about dying and about the difference between men and hogs.” he says this because he is mad that his lawyer called him a hog and that made him feel like less than a person so he just does not know how to feel about that because he is comparing him to an animal. Grant also says “ He tells Jefferson that he wants Jefferson to believe in something so that someday Grant can look to Jefferson as an example and start believing in something himself.” said Ernest J. I believe that he says this because Grant has no hope and does not know what to believe in and he needs help because he is

Leaning on her ability to persuade, and using her power as an extensive friend to Tante Lou she can basically tell Grant what to do and gets away with it. She knew Grant did not want to go and teach Jefferson, but still went ahead with it. Driving along the St. Charles River I could feel Emma not looking at me, not looking at anything..just thinking. Like my Aunt she knew how much I hated all of this.(p.68) Miss Emma therefore forces Grant to do matters that she wants, not what Grant thinks he is capable of doing. Thirdly, Vivian, the love of his life, is also limiting Grant's ability to make decisions based strictly on his own intent. She understands Grant's need to leave and see new things, but has restrictions in her life that will not allow her to help Grant begin a new existence. Vivian is in the middle of a drawn out divorce and needs to see it through so she can maintain custody of her children. We see an example of this on page 93. Let's go somewhere and spend the night. Baton Rouge, New Orleans- anywhere, Grant asks. I can't, My Babies. This sentence alone describes the turmoil she is going through with her own threatening aspects and how it effects Grant's choices. I think the book is an intriguing novel and surfaced important issues dealt with in society. Religion, racism, and many other articles of today are just a few. But, Grant is a complex character and can be depicted thoroughly. His education holds him

In A Lesson Before Dying, we see Grant, one of the main protagonists, take on the toughest thing he will ever do with his life; this being, convincing a teen black boy that he is not a hog, and that he is a man that is going to die in the electric chair. At the start of the book, we see that Grant wants nothing to do with this kid, he would rather go home and lay around; but he doesn’t. Everytime he goes, the easier for him it gets for him to go and talk to Jefferson. By going every single time he says he will go, Grant is persevering. He when at the prison, he tries to talk to Jefferson as well. At first he talks little if nothing at all to Grant, the second time, about the same. The third time, he talks a little bit to Grant. And by the end of this book, we see that Grant could have a full conversation with Jefferson, who at the

Grant’s point of view changes throughout of the novel as a significance of his visits to Jefferson and his relationship with Vivian, his close relative Tante Lou, and Reverend Ambrose. He figures out how to love something other than himself to make progress toward change without withdrawing into his shell of criticism. Still, Gaines does not recommend that since Grant's attitude progresses, he will have the ability to effect change; he doesn't propose that Grant's attitude enhances completely. Jefferson dies a hero, yet despite he still dies, killed by his racist oppressors. Grant closes the novel supported by the progressions he has seen, yet discouraged at the barbarity of his community. He is still perplexed, he is still pulled back from

Grant had been struggling with his own demons since he came back to his hometown after college. He no longer believes in God and is bitter and beat down by the way black people are treated. He separates himself from his community because he thinks that he no longer belongs. He thinks that his family and friends don 't understand how white people keep them all in their place, and that they are weak because they just accept it. He never wanted to help Jefferson and thought he would never be able to make a difference. Breaking through to Jefferson makes him realize that as much as he hates the way life is in their small town, he does belong. He is a part of it and the people. He can finally understand what Jefferson 's aunt wanted him to do, and explains to Jefferson that he can die a man, that Jefferson can go to the chair with so much dignity that he strengthens the whole community. They all owe something to each other, and like it or not, they should all be trying to help each other out. Jefferson realizes that since he loves his aunt he should learn to “be a man” so she can have peace when he dies. When he finally goes to the chair, he is a man. He dies with dignity and leaves his mark behind. White men know deep in