Analysis of Grant Wiggins
Lindsey Aguilar
October 31, 2012
4th period
Throughout a person’s life there are many obstacles thrown their way. We go through many conflicts and complications that pull us each and every way. As so, in A Lesson Before Dying Grant Wiggins faces many complications throughout the novel. Grant faces conflicts with others as well as his own mind. His ambitions and desires conflicts with reality and his own priorities. The main problem in which the novel is set around, Jefferson giving the death sentence, causes many other problems with Grant and others who are involved.
Grant Wiggins is a African American teacher who lives in the south who is faced with a major obligation: go to the jail and make Jefferson a man, teach him. This request comes from Miss Emma, Jefferson’s grandmother and Grant’s aunt’s bestfriend. Grant is faced with this challenge and asks the same question everyone else asks, “What difference would it make? He is still going to die.” Miss Emma wants Jefferson to die a man, this is her last dying wish. At the trial Jefferson was called a hog countless of times. They said giving Jefferson the death penalty would be like killing a hog. It was just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Grant throughout the book seems bitter with his life, as if he is not satisfied. What Grant really wants is to leave Louisiana, move to California, and marry Vivian. His main desire revolves around Vivian. His obligations remain in Louisiana.
For Grant to stay in Louisiana, he feels like he is being entrapped. His Tante Lou who resents Grant lives there, he has an obligation to stay and teach a dead man, and he has no advancement with his job. He wants a change, everytime Grant would talk to Vivian, he would beg her to just get up and runaway right then and there. Yet, Vivian told him no, for many reasons. Her divorce would have to go through first and she wants him to stay to help Jefferson.
The two conflicts: to stay in Louisiana to help Jefferson and to leave and run away to California shape the story in many ways. The death sentence not only help make Jefferson a man but also Grant. Grant learns to soften up, help people, care for Miss Emma and her feelinigs. Grant tries to help Jefferson in the best way possible. When Grant first started visitng Jefferson he didn’t do or say much. He would bring Jefferson the food his grandmother cooked and say a few words here and there. Grant starts to change his ways around the time of Christmas. At the school’s Christmas Program, his eyes start to open. He realizes it’s the same program every year, the same songs, the same acts. When will it change? He sees the present that the children bought for Jefferson and it just makes him think. When the date is set for Jefferson’s death, Grant really starts to think. He realizes just how unjust it is that twelve white men set a man’s date for his death, an innocent man, just because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The visits with Jefferson start to become more personal after the date is set. They talk more, Jefferson actually eats the food Miss Emma cooks for him. Grant teaches Jefferson just what a man is, a friend is, and what a hero is. He tells him a friend is someone who does something to help or please another person they care for. A hero is someone who does something that normal people can’t do. He is different from other people. He goes on to tell Jefferson that he can be a hero, do something that Grant cannot do himself. He wants Jefferon to prove his myth wrong about his people. Stand up and call them liars.
After the visit Grant feels good. He goes for a drink and gets into an argument for defending Jefferson. Grant would have never probably taken up for Jefferson before. He is also becoming a man at this point. He has taken his responsibility and lived up to them all. His conflicts helped shape him as a man. The conflicts Grant faces help him grow and also grow with Jefferson to help him and teach him.
October 31, 2012
4th period
Throughout a person’s life there are many obstacles thrown their way. We go through many conflicts and complications that pull us each and every way. As so, in A Lesson Before Dying Grant Wiggins faces many complications throughout the novel. Grant faces conflicts with others as well as his own mind. His ambitions and desires conflicts with reality and his own priorities. The main problem in which the novel is set around, Jefferson giving the death sentence, causes many other problems with Grant and others who are involved.
Grant Wiggins is a African American teacher who lives in the south who is faced with a major obligation: go to the jail and make Jefferson a man, teach him. This request comes from Miss Emma, Jefferson’s grandmother and Grant’s aunt’s bestfriend. Grant is faced with this challenge and asks the same question everyone else asks, “What difference would it make? He is still going to die.” Miss Emma wants Jefferson to die a man, this is her last dying wish. At the trial Jefferson was called a hog countless of times. They said giving Jefferson the death penalty would be like killing a hog. It was just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Grant throughout the book seems bitter with his life, as if he is not satisfied. What Grant really wants is to leave Louisiana, move to California, and marry Vivian. His main desire revolves around Vivian. His obligations remain in Louisiana.
For Grant to stay in Louisiana, he feels like he is being entrapped. His Tante Lou who resents Grant lives there, he has an obligation to stay and teach a dead man, and he has no advancement with his job. He wants a change, everytime Grant would talk to Vivian, he would beg her to just get up and runaway right then and there. Yet, Vivian told him no, for many reasons. Her divorce would have to go through first and she wants him to stay to help Jefferson.
The two conflicts: to stay in Louisiana to help Jefferson and to leave and run away to California shape the story in many ways. The death sentence not only help make Jefferson a man but also Grant. Grant learns to soften up, help people, care for Miss Emma and her feelinigs. Grant tries to help Jefferson in the best way possible. When Grant first started visitng Jefferson he didn’t do or say much. He would bring Jefferson the food his grandmother cooked and say a few words here and there. Grant starts to change his ways around the time of Christmas. At the school’s Christmas Program, his eyes start to open. He realizes it’s the same program every year, the same songs, the same acts. When will it change? He sees the present that the children bought for Jefferson and it just makes him think. When the date is set for Jefferson’s death, Grant really starts to think. He realizes just how unjust it is that twelve white men set a man’s date for his death, an innocent man, just because he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The visits with Jefferson start to become more personal after the date is set. They talk more, Jefferson actually eats the food Miss Emma cooks for him. Grant teaches Jefferson just what a man is, a friend is, and what a hero is. He tells him a friend is someone who does something to help or please another person they care for. A hero is someone who does something that normal people can’t do. He is different from other people. He goes on to tell Jefferson that he can be a hero, do something that Grant cannot do himself. He wants Jefferon to prove his myth wrong about his people. Stand up and call them liars.
After the visit Grant feels good. He goes for a drink and gets into an argument for defending Jefferson. Grant would have never probably taken up for Jefferson before. He is also becoming a man at this point. He has taken his responsibility and lived up to them all. His conflicts helped shape him as a man. The conflicts Grant faces help him grow and also grow with Jefferson to help him and teach him.
Novel Notes
- title and author A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
- protagonist Grant Wiggins
- major characters (excluding protagonist) Jefferson, Tante Lou, Miss Emma, Vivian, Reverand Ambrose, Irene, Paul, Sheriff Guidry, Henry Pichot
- point of view (be specific 1st, 3rd omniscient, or 3rd limited) 1st person
- setting (time and place) 1940's; Louisiana
- tone (two or three adjectives) Grant's narrative voice reflects his changing moods, shifting from brooding cynicism to awareness and confidence
- irony (2 examples, with brief explanation)
- symbols (2 repeated objects or motifs, with brief explanation) The hog is a symbol of ignorance relating to Jefferson. Throughout the book, Jefferson is referred to as a hog, his attorney states that executing him would be like putting a hog in an electric chair. They go on to state that that he is ignorant and stupid, he would not know how to commit and carry out such a crime. The church is also a symbol, it is a symbol for hope that the society will change.
- theme (write a specific sentence about an issue or idea) explanation of title. Recognizing injustice and facing responsibility; redemption in death.
Four by Four
People show no mercy
Death is ultimate punishment
All men die men
Family stands together always
All love is patient
Grant loves his Tante Lou
Fight for your beliefs
Justice system is corrupt
Jefferson an innocent man
Eye for an eye
Discrimination is highly unjust
The South is wretched
Slavery out of control
Discrimination is poison to all
African Americans work harder
Death is ultimate punishment
All men die men
Family stands together always
All love is patient
Grant loves his Tante Lou
Fight for your beliefs
Justice system is corrupt
Jefferson an innocent man
Eye for an eye
Discrimination is highly unjust
The South is wretched
Slavery out of control
Discrimination is poison to all
African Americans work harder
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