Compassion In Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

When Grant asks “Why wasn’t I back there with the children?”, he does not have an answer. He had told the children to kneel down and pray while he went on a walk outside. Grant’s sacrifice for Jefferson affected him. In summary, Grant cannot stop thinking about Jefferson before he dies because he has sacrificed everything, from his teaching to his time, to help Jefferson in every way

Grant is an educated man he is charge of a school. Grant is faithful to his girlfriend and he is very insecure about changing Jefferson mind because he thinks he is a hog. Grant also has teach school at a church. A lesson before dying is really a lesson tough because Grant goes to teach Jefferson how to be a man before he die.

Dalai Lama once said “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” But how does one learn how to love or feel compassion for others? People all around the world wonder why the feel compassion for others. Most people feel compassion because it helps them understand how others are feeling so they can respond appropriately to a certain situation. Barbara Lazear Ascher, a former attorney and a current author, focused on compassion and how it is developed by people. Ascher’s purpose is to show that compassion is not something that you are born with, it is something that you have to learn and practice throughout your lifetime. A way to practice compassion is when you see homeless. Ascher’s reaches her

Setting a novel in the south during the 1940s bring upon certain racial stereotypes that are deeply rooted in the mainstream culture. While these stereotypes may not always be true, they are extremely difficult to ignore and escape from. In Ernest J. Gaines’s novel A Lesson Before Dying, Grant Wiggins struggles to break away from the social norms of Bayonne Louisiana, and finds it challenging to convince others of his own worth. Although Grant has led a successful life, and has a respectable career, his white counterparts still treat him as a second-class citizen. Jefferson is another product of the system, who is also unable to elude the oppressive justice system of the time.

Jefferson tells Grant that he is just a fat hog that they are going to kill on Christmas. He believes that Grant does not want to help him, but deep down, Grant wants to do everything in his power to help, even though he acts as though he could care less. Later, Jefferson begins open up his feelings to Grant even though he is still taking in some self-pity. If Grant were to not go visit Jefferson each day, then Jefferson would quite possibly be engulfed by his own self-pity and low self-esteem. Grant is crucial for Jefferson to learn that he needs to show who he really is, instead of just wallowing in his own

Grant holds grudges against multiple people, but having to teach someone a lesson before they die is a great way to cause change. “Do you know what happened today, honey?” Grant tells Vivian about his time with Jefferson after the bar fight, this question helps show his change towards betterness (207). Grant had no intention of telling people what occurred during his day at the beginning of the book, but he became more open and kinder from his change. Grant’s change starts, not from his first visits, but his latter visits where Jefferson started to actually talk to Grant. Jefferson’s views on life made Grant take a larger look at the world and to start to accept people for who they are and how they act. Before Grant saw the world as a completely cruel world, that was always out to get him and his people, but with Jefferson, he realized that people were still kind to him as well. Grant has swung in his mood emphasizing how temperamental he is, but these mood swings only signal the large chain of his change towards a more caring person. He shows more displays of expression and is more open about himself. Grants change from Jefferson truly starts from his meetings and his displays of

Grant’s visit with Jefferson included them having to deal with their differentiating personalities. Jefferson’s defiant persona does not make it easy for Grant to help make him a better person. Grant would end up telling Jefferson that “ I want to help those people as much as I can” (Gaines 129). Grant is trying to show Jefferson that he is a very helpful person that wants to help people in need as much as possible. It is very important for Grant to be helpful with Jefferson because it took a lot of effort to convince Jefferson that he has importance to society. By Grant being helpful in this situation, he was able to become more tolerable of Jefferson which makes him more determined to change Jefferson into a better person. This means that Grant’s helpful personality is important in accomplishing their goal. On the contrary, Jefferson has a defiant attitude that does not want to receive any help. This causes some major issues between Grant and Jefferson because Jefferson does not want to receive Grant’s help. Jefferson responded to Grant’s help by telling him, “ Keep on vexing me-bet you I’ll scream” (Gaines 130). Jefferson is trying to tell Grant that all he is doing is bugging him and that he wants to scream at him for it. At this point, Jefferson is feeling angry towards Grant for him trying to make him better. Jefferson feels as if he is not going to change at all and that Grant is just making him agitated. Also, this is a delay for Jefferson’s development into a better person because Jefferson acting agitated and stubborn would only make it harder for Grant to help him out. Thus, Grant and Jefferson’s clash of personalities makes it difficult for them to achieve their

Grant is still being sent by Miss Emma to go and teach Jefferson what it is like to be a man. Though Grant isn’t sure yet what Miss Emma means by that, he goes to talk to Jefferson. At first, Grant doesn’t know how to get through to Jefferson, because he literally thinks he is a hog, and doesn't seem to care what happens to himself. Grant, however, starts to get through to Jefferson during one of their meetings in the jail cell. On page 184, Grant says “Maybe I could bring you a little notebook and a pencil, you could write your thoughts down and we could talk about it when I come back….

This is when we see Grant’s first conflict. Should he go through with it or is it a waste of effort? Internally, Grant sees no point in the effort it will take both him and Jefferson to carry out Miss Emma’s wish. For awhile, he avoids any talk about seeing Jefferson and makes up many excuses. However, he sees how important it is to her to Jefferson the way he is with no hope.

As a teacher, Grant was a bitter person. He was bitter because he could only see the ignorant side of the situation. This was because Grant in the beginning refuses to see the optimistic side of what could happen for the better, but instead only views the side that there was no way in hoping for the better. This was demonstrated when Grant explained to the students that he was only a teacher he couldn’t change an adult into becoming a ‘man’ and that had been why he was teaching the students how to become a man so that they wouldn’t have to go through what Jefferson was going through (Gaines 39).

Most of the time life lessons are learned the hard way because nothing in life is simple, it is complicated. Jefferson learns that he has to believe in himself in order to get through obstacles in life. Jefferson is a young African-American man, who is accused of a robbery and murder. Grant teaches Jefferson that he has self-worth and that he

Grant is trying to encourage Jefferson to become a man without the self-doubt of himself interfering. “Do I know how a man is supposed to die… Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived?”. This implies that while Grant is persuaded to help Jefferson by Vivian to help a person in his community. Grant is seen developing his connection with the people of his hometown, Grant sees hope in the future and is developing a different way of

The book starts out with community judgements and perspectives. Both Grant and Jefferson believe that rather than trying to help Jefferson’s case, people choose to believe the rumor of what he has done and try to introduce him to religion so he can "die as a man" before he is sentenced to death. Because Grant does not believe

A Lesson before Dying, one of Ernest J. Gaines later works, was written in 1993. Some of his earlier works include A Gathering of Old Men and In My Father’s House. The novel covers a time period when blacks were still treated unfairly and looked down upon. Jefferson, a main character, has been wrongly accused of a crime and awaits his execution in jail. Grant, the story’s main protagonist must find it within himself to help Jefferson see that he is a man, which will allow him to walk bravely to his fate that lies in the execution chair. A Lesson before Dying captures the tale of a young teacher, who by helping another mistakenly finds his own soul. This paper explains the literary background of Gaines, facts about the novel, literary

I have just finished chapter 5 of A Lesson Before Dying. The first thing that I have observed was that I was surprised to hear that Grant was actually an adult. Something about the first chapter and the second chapter, returning to his home and avoiding conversation with the women coming from the courtroom made me think that he was a younger child. With that said, he actually has a lot of maturity, but I wish that the author had talked a bit more about Grant himself in the beginning of the novel. I understand that the novel takes place in the first person, but usually a novel such as these give a bit of introduction from the main character about themselves, their physical appearance at the least. I also think that this first part of the novel