Positivity In Mark Twain's A Lesson Before Dying

Humans learn and change by listening and adapting to the opinions of the people around them. This inevitable modification of one’s thoughts and actions can be either extremely positive or drastically negative. When someone is surrounded by positivity they are likely to grow and become an individual; negativity can result in trauma and the loss of one’s self awareness. In A Lesson Before Dying, Jefferson is treated like an animal for a crime he did not commit, therefore his brain is virtually rewired into believing that he is no longer human. This harrowing change of self perception changes the way he thinks and acts. Personality is altered by the beliefs of other people, proven by Jefferson’s ability to adapt to his surroundings. At the beginning of the novel, Jefferson is accused of murder. His lawyer, ignoring the effects his words could have on Jefferson himself, compares him to a “cornered animal” (7). He tells the jury that Jefferson is “a fool… (without) a modicum of intelligence” (7). The psychological impact of being called an animal was severe enough on it’s own, but the unaffected manner the words were spoken in made it so much worse. The ease that accompanied the racist remark of him having “a trait inherited from the deepest jungle of the blackest” (7) made the words seem to have more truth. The remarks and the absolute confidence

When he was told he was an animal, he acted like one, and when he was told he was a human, he eventually began to act like one again. Although the negative commentary seemed to have more of a long-lasting and hard-hitting impact on him, the opinion that was more strongly enforced eventually defeated it. Grant’s reassurance of Jefferson’s humanity helped both of them learn the lesson before his death - people absorb what they are exposed to, and are helpless in how much it affects