A Lesson Before Dying 2
In A Lesson Before Dying, Mr. Grant Wiggins' life crises were the center of the story. Although he was supposed to make Jefferson into a man, he himself became more of one as a result. Not to say that Jefferson was not in any way transformed from the "hog" he was into an actual man, but I believe this story was really written about Mr. Wiggins.Mr. Wiggins improved as a person greatly in this book, and that helped his relationships with other people for the most part. At the start of the book, he more or less hated Jefferson, but after a while he became his friend and probably the only person Jefferson felt he could trust. The turning point in their relationship was the one visit in which Jefferson told Mr. Wiggins that he wanted a gallon of ice cream, and that he never had enough ice cream in his whole life. At that point Jefferson confided something in Mr. Wiggins, something that I didn't see Jefferson doing often at all in this book. "I saw a slight smile come to his face, and it was not a bitter smile. Not bitter at all"; this is the first instance in which Jefferson breaks his somber barrier and shows emotions. At that point he became a man, not a hog. As far as the story tells, he never showed any sort of emotion before th
Mr. Wiggins seemed to be well respected by the community, and he felt superior to other African Americans because he was far more educated than they were. That makes Mr. Wiggins guilty of not practicing what he preaches, although Jefferson probably made it clearer to him that the less intelligent are still humans with feelings. At the start of the book, Mr. Wiggins did not understand this. He went to visit Jefferson because Miss Emma and his Aunt more or less forced him to do it. He really had no motivation except that he would be shunned by his Aunt if he did not comply. The way Mr. Wiggins regarded his relationships most likely would have been different were he white. Mr. Wiggins feels, and rightly so, that several white men try to mock or make a fool of him throughout the story. This was a time of racial discrimination with much bigotry, so if the story took place in the present, it would be much different. In fact, there probably would have not even been a book because in the modern day, and honest and just jury would have found him innocent due to the lack of evidence. The whole process of Mr. Wiggins' development and the plot of this story both spawn from the crimes of two characters with no other relevance to the story. After the police found Jefferson at the liquor store with the dead bodies all around, he was of course taken to trial and the times being what they were, he was convicted with
Some common words found in the essay are:
Wiggins Wiggins, Miss Emma, Emma Aunt, Jefferson Jefferson, Rainbow Cafe, African Americans, Grant Wiggins', Tante Lou, Jefferson Wiggins, ice cream, miss emma, found innocent, smile bitter, radio jefferson, start book, visit jefferson,
Approximate Word count = 952
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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