In the beginning of the novel, Aunt Lou and her best friend Miss Emma, ask Grant to turn Jefferson, her godson, into a man before his execution. Grant is unhappy with his own life, and feels he has nothing to offer Jefferson, so he answers her by saying, “Jefferson’s dead.” Although Grant is a college graduate and teacher, he still lives in the same house with his Aunt Emma, on the same small plantation where she raised him. In addition, he lives day to day, doing the same thing over and over. For example, he teaches all grades in the same one room black church/school he attended. In the classroom, Grant is strict with the kids, and takes his anger out on them when he’s mad. He carries a ruler and uses it to hit a student who counts …show more content…
Am I reaching them at all?” When he thinks back his own teacher had told him and his classmates that most of them would die a violent death. The teacher later tells Grant that to find out about life, he had to leave he South. But Tante Lou tells Grant that he is not like the others, and to learn as much as he could, and then when he goes away, someone else will teach him more (63). But even though he went away and learned, he still feels lost.
When he goes to the jail, he tells his aunt that he feels humiliated by the white guards that touch the food, pat him down, and threaten to stop the visits if Jefferson acts up. Unfortunately for him, Tante Lou insists that Grant go because, “There ain’t nobody else.” On the next visit, when Grant goes to the jail alone, he tries to talk with Jefferson who calls himself a hog and refuses to eat or talk. At one-point Jefferson gets on the floor and eats the food from a paper bog like an animal (83) Grant is so frustrated and upset by Jefferson’s behavior that he can’t go home until he sees Vivian to figure out what he can tell Jefferson’s aunt. Again, Grant talks about going away, but Vivien reminds him that he had gone to visit his parents in California, but did not stay, he came back to Louisiana. She reminds him of why he came back, “You haven’t left because you love them more than you hate this place.”