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Was Grant A Hero For Jefferson

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Grant was able to help Jefferson become human again because of the lessons he taught him. Grant was able to convince Jefferson that he was a part of the community, he showed him what it means to be a friend to someone else, and was able to teach him what it means to be a man. This allowed Jefferson to stand up to the white community and show them that their racism cannot degrade him and his community. He also made Miss Emma, Jefferson’s godmother, proud. Grant was not only able to make Jefferson a man again but also a hero to his community. Grant’s success in making Jefferson feel like a man came from making him believe that he was part of the community. After the trial in which Jefferson was convicted as a criminal, Jefferson lost perception …show more content…

During one of his visits, he asks Jefferson to be a friend to Miss Emma. Grant explains to Jefferson that a friend will do anything to make another friend feel happy and make their lives better. Grant is ultimately asking Jefferson to be a hero for Miss Emma and his community by becoming a friend. It shows that he is able to maintain human interactions, thus proving to the white community that he is capable of more than just being an animal. Grant states that a hero “does something that other men don’t and can’t do. He is different from other men. He is above other men.” (pg. 191) This quote shows that Jefferson has the ability to challenge the white people’s small minded opinions and be a symbol of hope to his community. It is clear that Grant was able to make his point when Jefferson accepts the food given by Miss Emma. To add on, later (pg 225) Jefferson offers Grant a potato. This signifies that Jefferson is understanding that he is human and belongs to the community. He is able to prove this by showing that he has something to give back. This obviously leads back to the concept of friendship. At first, when Jefferson was taught to be a friend, he was accepting food given to him. Later towards the end of the book, Jefferson is giving back. By being a friend, Jefferson is also being a hero. It is clear that he now understands his role in the community and what it means to be a

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This passage reveals the underlying causes of Grant’s anxiety about teaching Jefferson his final lesson. His own education has been based on mastering the cultural vocabulary of white America, and although he is respected in the quarter for his high level of academic achievement, Grant knows that he is only helping to perpetuate this system. Although he wants to help his students avoid the pitfalls of being black and poor in the deep South, he feels ill-equipped to do this despite his academic pedigree. This is one of Jefferson’s first pieces of dialogue that does not relate to him being a hog.

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301 Words | 2 Pages

Jefferson’s lawyer tells the all white jury that Jefferson is nothing more than a ‘hog’, lacking any intelligence or understanding. Grant’s Tante Lou and Miss Emma try to get Grant to meet with Jefferson and teach him to be a man so that he can die with dignity. Grant struggles to get through to Jefferson and questions whether he should even bother trying. Jefferson finally starts to listen to Grant and Grant feels like he is able to reach Jefferson.

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1556 Words | 7 Pages

One lesson that Jefferson learns from Grant is that he has the potential to make a difference to the whole town. Grant teaches Jefferson how he has as much potential as anyone else. By believing in Jefferson and giving him resources, Grant helps teach Jefferson this lesson. Jefferson changes throughout his time in prison to become more aware of his worth. One way Grant helps Jefferson realize this is by organizing his students and other people from his quarter to come and visit Jefferson, this makes Jefferson realize how he matters to his community.

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1015 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines, Grant is a main character that has a lot of influence over the people in his community. Some might even consider him a hero. I believe that Grant is a hero because he helps Jefferson become a man, changes himself for the better, and wants to continue changing the community. Over the course of the novel, Grant helps Jefferson become the man that he needs to be in order to walk to his death with honor. When Grant first begrudgingly went to visit Jefferson in prison Jefferson was in a really low state.

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813 Words | 4 Pages

Undoubtedly, Grant registers the unfairness and lack of justice. Even though this is the case, Grant still continues to help Jefferson become the man he

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749 Words | 3 Pages

When Grant was at the Rainbow Club there was a gentleman behind him making rude and hateful comments about Jefferson towards Grant and then Grant retaliated with this: “You shut up, or get up.” (199). At the Rainbow Club there was a white guy saying mean things about Jefferson and saying that he deserved to die and Grant had enough and did something that was unthinkable at that time. He wanted to fight him and that shows redemption because he stood up for and what he believed in. In the same way that Grant achieved redemption by standing up for Jefferson he also shows redemption by showing his determination to Jefferson.

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670 Words | 3 Pages

The main conflict of the story is Grant convincing Jefferson that he is truly a man and that there is hope in the world. After Jefferson’s sentence is set, Jefferson doesn’t have hope for the world and thinks that he going to die anyways, so why care. Grant is teaching him that he can help others and that there is hope in the world and in the future. So, Grant is using character motivation to help Jefferson throughout the entire novel. The other literary term, diction, is repetition of a word to show its importance.

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1098 Words | 5 Pages

He [Grant] also finds his own freedom extremely limited, if it indeed exists at all, and he sees the future of his students to be lacking in any promise of advancement.” It is evident that Auger is correct that Jefferson and grant have a similar change within their view in themselves and society, and the perception that Grant is restricted in his freedoms. Grant and Jefferson both go through changes in their personality and how they view their life from realizing and learning what life is really about. Grant, previous to learning more about life, was very hard on his children at school. The children were scared of Grant, to the point that they would cry for doing something wrong.

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480 Words | 2 Pages

The United States has had very many heros that served as our presient. Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington are all heros and were a very important part of our society. They all did everything they could do to make this world a better place, yet they all had their differences in going about doing it. But i will have to say that the strongest president was Thomas Jefferson. Thomas was one of the smartest men to live and not only was he very smart but he had a desire to constantly learn new things.

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2126 Words | 9 Pages

This is shown throughout the novel by showing that in the beginning of the novel, Grant wants nothing to do with Jefferson and his situation. As the book continues, he realizes that Jefferson is a human too and that he needs to realize how good he has it compared to some people. In the beginning of A Lesson Before Dying, Grant Wiggins struggles with accepting his responsibilities. This is shown in multiple examples. The two examples used in this paper were when Grant avoids all of his responsibilities and does not want anything to do with Jefferson.

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885 Words | 4 Pages

This proves how Jefferson meets the final quality of a champion of change because he recognized his activism and the effects it would have on people. Jefferson recognized his activism through asking the people to tell his Nannan he walked because he knew it was a serious matter to her. He knew that his Nannan wanted him to walk in order to prove he was as much of a man as anyone else in the room, and by asking the room to tell her, he acknowledged that him walking was proving his manhood to everyone. Jefferson met the qualities of effectively enacting change and recognizing his activism by showing his strength when he walked to his death in front of many white people and asking them to share his story. Jefferson is a champion of enacting change and recognizing what he’s

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853 Words | 4 Pages

Grant did his best to teach Jefferson that he had worth and it paid off. “If I ain’t nothing but a hog, how come they just don’t knock me in the head like a hog? Strab me like a hog? More erasing, then: Man walk on two foots; hogs on four hoofs” (220). This quote demonstrates how Grant made a difference in Jefferson’s life and taught him to be a man of self worth.

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1097 Words | 5 Pages

She had made Jefferson Gumbo during one of her visits, and although he had refused at first, he gave into Grant 's encouragement in making Miss Emma happy. “I wanted, too to talk about how Jefferson’s

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917 Words | 4 Pages

This makes sense however first I would like to point out how the theme of the novel is coincidences. The author parallels Jefferson with the “greats” who intentionally sought out their change while Jefferson didn’t. But what the author is trying to convey is that change is simply a response to an outer force, which here is seen with Grant being pushed by the community. Jefferson chose to open up unknowingly and then signed into growing into a man. This is similar to the path of these “greats,” whether they were lucky enough to be born with the right talents or trained after realizing what their community wants of them, it's a response to their world, and that is why Jefferson deserves the title, since he didn’t initially choose it with a goal in mind, rather changed his perspective to suit that.

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1276 Words | 6 Pages

Grant has gone to a University and is now a teacher in the quarter where he grew up. To his community, Grant is the most educated person in the quarter and is constantly being admired by them. Most of the admiration comes from Miss Emma in hopes that Grant can transform Jefferson into a man before he is executed. Miss Emma states, “I want the teacher visit my boy. I want the teacher make him know he’s not a hog, he’s a man” (pg.

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