Incident by Countee Cullen
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
In A Lesson Before Dying, the first 4 chapters focus on the power of just one word as this poem does. Using only the first 4 chapters of the novel to support your claims, explain the power of the one word in the novel and how it is used as a catalyst for this novel. Who do you think is most affected by the word? Why? (The deadline to post a response to this question is midnight December 21,2012. Remember use only your initials when posting a response. )
7 comments:
Hog is the word used as a catalyst in A Lesson Before Dying. In order to try to get Jefferson off, his lawyer calls him a hog. This affects Jefferson significantly. He decides that he is no longer a man and won't try anymore. Although Jefferson is the one called a hog, his Aunt Emma is the one affected the most. She knows she raised him right, so she asks Grant, the school teacher, to go make him a man instead of a hog.
The word that is used throughout the novel as a catalyst is hog. Hog is first used when Jefferson's lawyer calls him a hog to win the trial. This affects Miss Emma the most because she was the one who raised him and didn't want people to think he was not a man. To fix the problem, Miss Emma asked Grant, the local teacher, to teach Jefferson how to read and write, so he can die as a man instead of a hog.
In A Lesson Before Dying, Jefferson was referred to as a hog. This term is used to describe him as less than a human, an animal without the ability to reason. While this is directed towards Jefferson, it mostly affects Miss Emma because she devoted a great portion of her life to raising Jefferson to be a good, respectable man. With this one word, officials mock Miss Emma by basically telling her that all of her work was in vain and that she failed in her attempts to raise Jefferson to be a man.
Jefferson is often called a hog in A Lesson Before Dying. Hog is the catalyst in the beginning of this novel. Jefferson is called this during his trail by his lawyer who is trying to prove him innocent. This strongly affects Jefferson, but it also affects his family as well. Miss Emma knows he is not a hog and she does not want him to die a hog, but a man. To help him become a man, Miss Emma ask for the help of Grant, a local school teacher She wants Grant help Jefferson die as a man. This one word sets the beginning of a spritual and self journey for Jefferson and Grant.
In the beginning of A Lesson Before Dying, the word hog is used as a catalyst. The reason for this is to jump-start the relationships between the main character Jefferson and his godmother Miss Emma. Jefferson's lawyer declared he was a hog in order to defeat in the trial. As the words were spoken, Jefferson soaked them in and believed he was a so called hog. However, it wasn't just Jefferson affected. Miss Emma refuses to believe it. She has shown quite a responsibility in Jefferson's childhood and believes he can die a man and show the lawyer who he really is.
The word hog in, A Lesson Before Dying, is used as a catalyst. Hog is used by Jefferson’s lawyer in an attempt to make the jury think of him not as a man but a thing. This affects Jefferson by making him think of himself as powerless or less of a man. Hog, however, most affects Jefferson’s God Mother, Miss Emma, and cannot stand see him die thinking of himself as a thing. This word causes Miss Emma to seek the help of a local school teacher to help teach Jefferson that he is not a hog and that she had raised him better than that. The word hog started the whole story.
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