Stangeron's Vengeance

Grant is very strict towards his students. Grant then thinks about his teacher when he was a child, Matthew Antoine, describes him to us, tells about his influence, and what they talked about. Next, Grant goes with Miss Emma to visit Jefferson in his cell, but when they talk to him, he doesn’t acknowledge that they are their and is difficult to them. During Grant’s next visit, Jefferson acts like a hog and is infatuated with the idea that he is one. Grant wants to leave town with Vivian, but there are several things holding them back. Grant and Vivian discuss the names of their future children and talk to Miss Emma and Tante Lou. The visits to the jail continue and there isn’t much progress with Jefferson. Jefferson doesn’t want to eat or talk. Grant goes to Mr. Pichot’s house and Jefferson’s execution date is set on a Friday. Another visit, Jefferson tells Grant that he wants a gallon of ice cream for dinner his last night. Grant gets him a radio to keep him company, but Reverend Ambrose, Tante Lou, and Miss Emma thing the radio is a bad thing for him. Grant also gets Jefferson a notebook and pencil so he can right down his feelings or what he’s thinking about. You start to see Grant and Jefferson start to bond and Grant leaves happy with what is happening. The next time he goes to see Jefferson, Miss Emma goes.

Jefferson is a peculiar character in that the story is centred on his existence and, although his thoughts and opinions are seldom expressed, the lessons he learnt are completely unambiguous. As the tragic story goes, he is a very young black man unjustly condemned to death for a crime he did not commit. Furthermore, he is dehumanized in his defence when he is called a “hog” and this detrimentally affects his self esteem throughout a significant portion of the novel. However, this melancholic situation he is thrust into and his initial reaction to it is contrasted against his final moment which unashamedly reveals just how much he has learnt in his incarceration period. Jefferson, through the guidance of Grant, learns about the notion of dignity, a peculiarity that drives people towards the pinnacle of human

Through Grant’s actions it is easy to see he is not comfortable with his life. He lives in a small, racially discriminated and prejudiced town, and is a college educated man treated like a man who hasn’t finished elementary school. Adding Jefferson’s situation on top of all that, it is easy to see how Grant desires to simply give up and run away with the love of his life, Vivian. But Grant realizes that the issues at hand are bigger than just him; the way Jefferson dies will have a lasting impact, much like Christ’s crucifixion, on the local community. He understands that the dignity Jefferson shows in

The fact that Grant considers himself to be better than all of the black residents of Bayonne is one of the many things that holds Grant back from being an effective coach to assist Jefferson in his quest to become a man. Another contributing factor to his ineffective teaching is his lack of self confidence. If Jefferson does not see a worthy example of how to be a man, then he will never effectively become one himself. After a few visits to see Jefferson in his cell, persevering through his own belief that he is not making a difference, being told that he was wasting his time, he realized that he was doing much more than performing a favor for Miss Emma and Tante Lou. He realized that he wasn’t only trying to turn Jefferson into a man. This was Miss Emma and Tante Lou’s way of teaching himself a lesson on how to live his life and who he really is. “I need you,” I told him. “I need you much more than you could ever need me” (Gaines, 193). This quote represents the

The Novel plays out on how jefferson even fell into such a crime. ‘’When the old man and the other two robbers were all dead, this one—it proved

The death of these two men is symbolic in many ways. First, for Jefferson it was a defeat for him standing for the blacks showing that they are equal and showing that there is not a difference between blacks and whites and that they should not be treated as less because he is still yet a man; “I want you to show them that you are as much

At the beginning of the novel, we notice Grant Wiggins is a character that does not advocate for change. Although Miss Emma, Jefferson’s grandmother, persists on Grant to visit Jefferson with hopes that he will help Jefferson will die with dignity, Grant constantly expresses his unwillingness to not get involved with Jefferson’s case, and believes that Jefferson will not change despite his encounters with him. At a pivotal moment in the text, Vivian’s love transforms Grant, as he tells Jefferson that he persists in visiting the prison not because he feels obliged to or forced to by his aunt or Miss Emma, but because Vivian encouraged him too. Through this, we see

Grant and Jefferson are on a journey. Though they have vastly different educational backgrounds, their commonality of being black men who have lost hope brings them together in the search for the meaning of their lives. In the 1940’s small Cajun town of Bayonne, Louisiana, blacks may have legally been emancipated, but they were still enslaved by the antebellum myth of the place of black people in society. Customs established during the years of slavery negated the laws meant to give black people equal rights and the chains of tradition prevailed leaving both Grant and Jefferson trapped in mental slavery in their communities.

But that is what Jefferson wants. He wants to live among rich people and be, or at least pretend to be as rich as them. So he decides “never again to speak to black people” (28) that he now considers as a waste of time and money, because they were always borrowing money from him and never pay back. Then, he used all his savings to buy a big empty house in Rosedale. What Jefferson never thought about is how he was going to fill up the house not only with furniture, but with friends and love. He found himself into an empty house, alone and lonely.

My reaction to this quote at first was surprised. Jefferson has another outburst about being a hog. I didn't understand why he didn't actually care to much about Emma's feelings and what she wants for him. Honestly I don't think Jefferson knows why she's trying to get him help to become a man. I think later in the book something may happen that will help him realize why she was trying so hard with him. I feel like Emma may pass away before his date will come and he will finally realize the good in life and will live what he has to the fullest. He probably will then appreciate everything everyone has done to help him. I also feel like Jefferson will find who he truly is mentally and he will stop calling himself a hog and will raise his standards

In A Lesson Before Dying by author Ernest J Gaines, Grant is the protagonist who is trying to do the right thing for his people. Grant is in a very turbulent situation, having to make Jefferson into a “man” by the time he is executed. This is the central plot of the story, but not the main themes and ideas of it. Grant is struggling to help Jefferson because he sees generations of injustice through him. “’We got our first load of wood last week,’ [Grant] told him. ‘Nothing changes,’ he said.” (Gaines, 53). The response Grant’s teacher gives him has a deeper meaning: he as Grants’ teacher failed to change the injustice and racism and Grant is in the same situation. “Nothing changes”, but Grant does not give up for the sake of Jefferson, his people, and most importantly, himself. At one point, Grant actually reveals that “it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind. So, he,

Jefferson started to feel lonely so he decided to look for a wife. Looking for a wife was very difficult for him because he was a shy man and he didn’t know how to talk to women so he didn’t have much luck looking for one. He really wanted to start a family, but he could not find the right person to marry. A long five years of looking for a wife seemed to payoff when he found a beautiful women named Martha Skelton. Jefferson felt really thankful for her because they bonded together and had a lot in common. They were in love so they decided to get married on new years in 1772. After being married for eight months Martha gave birth to their first daughter in September 1772. Right after their daughter was born his father in law passed away, he had to be strong for his wife because she was heart broken.

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States with a very interesting life. This book starts with the death of Jefferson and then goes into detail with his desires and accomplishments of Jefferson. The author of this book is Andrew Burstein a great admirer of Jefferson. He is a professor at the University of Tulsa and writer of many other scholarly articles about Thomas Jefferson. The original version of this book was published in 2001. Jefferson was a very mysterious person starting with his desire of being buried in Monticello to the relationships with his slaves. It is especially very interesting his case with Sally Hemings since it has been proven to of been intimate.

Throughout the novel, Jefferson exhibited various examples of never giving up. Shortly after his trial, Jefferson let the label of characterizing a hog, take over his life. A memorable but heartbreaking moment of the novel for the readers was when Grant went to visit Jefferson alone for the

Ellis' trip for truth continues in Chapter Two. He begins by perceiving Jefferson's mythic record, and after that uses learning of the past to get in contact a more nuanced perception. He uses individual unpretentious component to elucidate the conviction frameworks that were going up against each another. Finally, Ellis suggests that Jefferson's record achieved more than simply reveal his own longing to be seen as indispensable. It in like manner proposes the creating crevice, affirming that without an uncommon go between, the conviction frameworks had turned out to be too far isolated to fulfill definitive deal. This thinking is certified by the way that Madison and Jefferson reaffirmed their relationship taking after the dinner. This joint