In Ernest J. Gaines’s novel “A Lesson Before Dying,” A young man named Jefferson is wrongfully accused of being an accessory to murder when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The public defender pleaded for Jefferson’s innocence in front of the jury stating “Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.” (Gaines, 8) This statement caused an uproar with Jefferson’s Godmother, who was present at the hearing. She knew that there was nothing she could do to prevent her Godson from dying, but she didn’t want to see him die like an animal, but rather a man. She called upon the services of Grant Wiggins, who was the plantation schoolteacher and the nephew of Tante Lou, her good friend.

In the beginning, Grant was very reluctant to accept this undertaking for he felt that he held no responsibility in the matter, but after considerable pressure from Emma and Tante Lou, he regretfully accepted.

Grant had been the teacher at the plantation as long as he could remember. He was very upset with

Grant goes through several small changes in the novel, but not a transformation. He is faced with many challenges and obstacles to get around and undergoes some changes, but eventually ends up right back where he started, on the plantation. He is opposed to trying to help Jefferson, knowing that he is already a dead man, thinking it will all be just a big waste of time to try to help him.

One of the biggest challenges he faces is Miss Emma, who believes that Grant has it in him to change Jefferson’s way of thinking that he was a hog and not a man. Grant was opposed to the idea even before he was asked to do it but accepted under protest. “Now his Godmother wants me to visit him and make him know—prove to these white men—that he’s not a hog, that he’s a man. I’m supposed to make him a man. Who am I? God?” (31)

In conclusion, Grant does not undergo a transformation, but rather receives a higher consciousness about life’s lessons. He realizes that he himself helped transform Jefferson into a man, breaking the cycle for him, but Grant is still left in the same positio

Some topics in this essay:
Rainbow Vivian, Jefferson Grant, Tante Lou, Miss Emma, Reverend Ambrose, Lesson Dying”, Jefferson’s Godmother, Grant Wiggins, tante lou, Ernest Gaines’s, teaching school, visits jefferson, miss emma, help jefferson, trying help, trying help jefferson,