Reflection On A Lesson Before Dying

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Recommended: Racial Discrimination in Literature

A Lesson before Dying is a story that represents how people and their hearts can change, and learn to love and respect and have faith in others again. This story is about two men, one man named Grant Wiggins and another man named Jefferson. These two men go on many rather imparticular journey’s together to find out and fully understand the meaning of life, and who they are meant to be or do while they are alive. Grant Wiggins was a young black man who was an elementary school teacher in the small town of Bayonne, Louisiana. Although He was a very smart man he was also a very bitter and had very little hope in any change of the segregated life that he has always been surrounded by. Grant Wiggins resented himself for not leaving the small, racist town when he had the chance especially after he was presented with, for him, an almost impossible task.
This task that he was faced with was presented to him by his aunt, a strong, God fearing woman named Tante Lou, and her friend named Miss Emma. They asked Grant to go and help another man, the god son of Miss Emma, named Jefferson. This man was another black man who lived in this town of Bayonne, Louisiana. He had gotten caught up in quite the predicament. One day Jefferson had gotten drunk and decided to go to a bar, but instead he ended up going to a liquor store with two other men, one of the men’s name was Brother, and the other was Bear. Once these three men had gotten to the liquor store, the two men, Brother and Bear had gotten into an argument with the store owner. This little argument quickly turned into the death of the store owner and the two men, Brother and Bear. The only one that was left alive was this man Jefferson.
Jefferson was convicted of murder, and ended up being s...

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...nity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth. They would no longer have justification for having made us slaves and keeping us in the condition we are in. As long as none of us stand they’re safe. They’re safe with me. They’re safe with Reverend Ambrose. I don’t want them to feel safe with you anymore.” (Page 192).
These two men were both influential in each other’s growth. Although both of these men had no hope in the end their journey’s together helped them face the world in their own way. Jefferson died as a man and everybody knew that he did. Everybody knew that Jefferson’s death was not in vain and that the men that killed him were wrong. Grant had regained his faith in the world. This Story is about how you cannot give up in yourself or in others there will always be a smidgen of hope that either you can elaborate on or ignore, but never ever give up.

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