Monday, August 19, 2013
The Journey to Manhood
We have discussed how HUCK FINN is a Bildungsroman (a work of fiction in which the main character encounters a series of events that help him to change his views and grow as a person). A LESSON BEFORE DYING can be considered as such as well. Select two quotes that show the progress of Grant developing into a man. Explain how the conflict within him is changed in/through these events. You may not post the same quotes/events as the posters prior to you. (The deadline to post a response to this blog is midnight, Tuesday, August 20, 2013.)
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There are two quotes that I think show that Grant is actually becoming a man. “How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? . . . Twelve white men say a black man must die, and another white man sets the date and time without consulting one black person. . . . They sentence you to death because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, with no proof that you had anything at all to do with the crime . . . . Yet six months later they come and unlock your cage and tell you, We, us, white folks all, have decided it’s time for you to die, because this is the convenient date and time"(pg.157). Grant actually cares about Jefferson, which is the opposite of what he thought at first. All true men care for each soul in the world. Grant did not care about helping Jefferson at all, but this quote proves that he has sympathetic feelings for Jefferson. “I want you to chip away at the myth by standing. I want you—yes, you—to call them liars. I want you to show them that you are as much a man—more a man than they can ever be. That jury? You call them men? That judge? Is he a man? The governor is no better. They play by the rules their forefathers created hundreds of years ago. Their forefathers said that we’re only three-fifths human—and they believe it to this day"(pg. 192). This quote shows that Grant sees Jefferson as not only the community's hero, but also his personal hero. I also think that Grant sees Jefferson as a student. A real man never gives up on a student, no matter how troublesome and distant. That shows that Grant has actually matured from a picky, selfish person into a loving and caring man.
Grant's transition into manhood can be showcased in the contrast of the two following quotes. "It was he, Matthew Antoine, as teacher then, who stood by the fence while we chopped the wood. He had told us then that most of us would die violently, and that those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts. Told us that there was no other choice but to run and run." This first passage illustrates how Grant's teacher felt and reflects how he now feels. He wants to leave. He wants to run from all his problems. However, later in the novel, he realizes how unfair to the children he has been and how he has failed to teach them more than just basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. He has failed to teach them about life. "I have always done what they wanted me to do..nothing else- nothing about dignity, nothing about identity, nothing about loving and caring....I went along, but hating myself all the time for doing so..." While talking with Jefferson about being a man, he realizes that he has not been the man he should be, especially for those he has been teaching and as a result begins his own journey toward manhood.
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