Heroes Or Not Lesson Before Dying

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Heroes or Not: A Lesson Before Dying

In Gaines’ novel A Lesson Before Dying, the reader is presented with a group of black people, dealing with racism, and struggling to help each other find peace. Throughout the book, the main character, Grant, has been assigned the duty of raising the self-esteem of a young man named Jefferson, who has been sentenced to death. It is the wish of Jefferson’s grandmother Emma that Jefferson should die as a man. In the end, Grant does succeed in helping Jefferson feel like a man, and some will consider him a hero for doing this. After reflecting on the story, and looking at Grant’s own definition of a hero, it becomes apparent that this novel is full of heroes.
In the book, Grant describes a hero in this manner:
A hero is someone who does something for other people.
He does something that other men don’t and can’t do.
He is different from other men. He is above other men.
No matter who those other men are, the hero, no matter
who he is, is above them (A Lesson Before Dying 193).
Grant gave this definition of a hero to Jefferson, while trying to make Jefferson feel like more of a man. Jefferson, a young black man with little education, has been sentenced to death for the murder of a white storeowner. During the trial for this murder, Jefferson’s lawyer attempts to convince the court that Jefferson was too dumb to commit this type of crime, and goes on to describe Jefferson as a hog. This is why Jefferson has lost his sense of manhood, and believes himself to be an animal.
Now we will examine the heroism of the novel. In my opinion, the first hero we meet is Jefferson’s grandmother Emma. This elderly black woman is near the end of her days, yet she still realizes the need for her grandson to be a man when he goes to meet his Maker. Even though she is fully aware that Grant will be against the mission of making Jefferson a man, she still asks him to do it. She a...