Is Grant A Hero In A Lesson Before Dying

A hero is one who stands up for others. A hero is one who stands for you even if they do not know you. In A Lesson Before Dying, Grant is a hero every time he visits Jefferson. With Jefferson convicted of first degree murder, Grant is Miss Emma’s only hope of making a man out of her godson.
Grant Wiggins is the most educated black man in the quarter and because of this his aunt, Tante Lou, has him try to obtain visitation privileges for Miss Emma’s sake. In order to do so he had to meet with Sheriff Guidry and call in a favor. When he meets with the sheriff he is met with disrespect, for example he was ignored for two and a half hours. He did not take a seat and he did not accept a meal or drink from the servant. Grant does not know Jefferson, but for him to stand for so long just to get an audience with the sheriff is heroic in its own way. A hero would not accept defeat even if the one he is helping is already defeated, in this case sentenced to death.
Another instance where Grant acts heroically is when he prohibits Reverend Ambrose from taking away the radio he got for Jefferson. Grant argues that “Jefferson needs something in that cell.” (Gaines, 181) and defends the one thing that Jefferson has actually reacted positively to. Jefferson become so intrigued by the radio that he refused to acknowledge Miss Emma and the

Reverend Ambrose asks that Grant help him convince Jefferson that heaven is real and that he has to go to it. He does this because he himself does not know if heaven exists and he refuses to lie to Jefferson. Grant could have lied and used his influence on Jefferson to please Miss Emma but he refrained from doing so when he stated “I will never tell him another lie, no matter what.” (Gaines, 217) This is heroic because he doesn’t manipulate Jefferson into believing something he was told to believe. Grant likely did this to preserve Jefferson’s trust in