A Lesson Before Dying
In A Lesson Before Dying, Grant Wiggins, an African American school teacher, finds himself being torn between "...two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings..." while living in the South. Grant is a very educated person, but is often frustrated by the way he is treated by white people throughout his town. While speaking with a prominent white person in town, he almost feels he has to dumb down his vocabulary just to fit in (48). In a community that is controlled and run almost exclusively by white people, Grant is expected to act in a certain manner because he is believed to be on a lower level because of his skin color. This belief that he is a lower being because of his skin color, as DuBois points out, causes a conflict among oneself; Grant knows he's educat
Grant is faced with the unusually difficult task of turning Jefferson into a man, and when Jefferson finally realizes that he's not what his double consciousness tells him-he's not the worthless pig he was called-he learns to "stand on his own two feet" and become a man. Grant has a difficult time seeing himself the way he really is rather than how other townspeople (mainly white people) think he is, so when Jefferson does eventually stand on his own two feet, Grant understands that the "American white" conscious he feels is incorrect, and that you are what you believe in yourself to be. He deals with the situation by working closely with a death row inmate named Jefferson. During the beginning of the novel, Jefferson is so uncooperative with people that try and help him understand who he is, that he goes on to act as if he was only meant to eat like a farm animal when offered food (83). ed and very smart, he is well aware of his situation, but is unsure about himself because other people don't always see him as a well educated African American who is trying to change the community for the better, but rather a Black person, and they treat him like a lower being because he's black instead of with the respect that he deserves. Another strong example of double consciousness in A Lesson Before Dying is the experience Jefferson-an African American who is sentenced to death-goes through inside the novel. He becomes more of a man then any of the white citizens who were there to witness his execution (253). Throughout A Lesson Before Dying, Grant both rejects and accepts the idea of having a double consciousness. Jefferson is sentenced by a white jury and judge after being defended by a condescending lawyer who attempts to play off Jefferson as nothing more than a "pig" that is only fit to do handy work (8). After being called a pig, Jefferson retreats to a state of questioning his own self worth. Through Jefferson, Grant attempts to resolve the struggle within himself by helping Jefferson "stand on his own two feet" even though white people throughout the community go as far as to place bets on Jefferson about whether or not he'll actually be able prove he's not an animal (229).
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Acceptance Essays
