While reading the novel, Grant has always seemed interesting me. I mean he is the narrator of this novel, but as we get later into the book, his insights were just so profound and well thought out that I almost couldn’t compare him to the beginning of the novel when he was like a teenager. In the last few chapters that we’ve read, Grant describes the cycle that they are all stuck in with such powerful words, that I was blown away.
“So each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious circle—which he never does. Because even though he wants to change it, and maybe even tries to change it, it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind. So he, too, must run away if he is to hold on to his sanity and have a life of his own” (167).
Grant shows the endless struggle that he and many others are stuck in, and this idea is what sticks with and inspires Jefferson to “become a man”, and Jefferson begins to consciously stand up against white supremacy in his final days. This revelation is a huge contrast to before Grant starts to visit Jefferson.
Before Grant goes to meet with Jefferson in jail, he basically doesn’t care about anything. I think that he does know about the cycle in a sense, but instead of trying to fix it or push against it, he just tries to run. “‘You want to leave from here tonight?’ I asked her. ‘You want to go home and pack your clothes and get the children and leave from here tonight?’” (28-29). And it just shows a very teenager-like mentality of not facing your problems head on. So when Grant goes to see Jefferson, there are a lot of similarities between them in that they are both embodying some sort of teenager mentality. (I don’t want to take away from Jefferson’s reason for his actions or anything, because being put on death row is something that we can never really understand how it feels, but just from a standpoint of Miss Emma wanting him to be a man…) Jefferson’s reaction is very cold and he cuts off from the rest of the community. This could be seen as Jefferson not being able to handle the emotional aspect of those meetings, or wanting to make it easier when he is finally killed, but overall, he seems to be only considering his own feelings and not Miss Emma’s or the greater good that his actions could impact the community. And Grant doesn’t come to the conclusion of the role that Jefferson can have on the cycle, until after he meets with Jefferson.
Both Grant and Jefferson have made huge changes in their character from when Jefferson was first convicted to now, and I’m really interested in seeing how Jefferson handles his last day.
I was also impressed by Grant's eloquence and insight. In particular, the passage about Grant's ideas of a hero impressed me both with its sheer magnitude (I could probably muster two paragraphs before turning to fluff and repetition) and also how well everything was connected in his mind before he said it. Recognizing that Jefferson has the ability to break the cycle and wholeheartedly believing in him to do so also marked a tremendous change in Grant's character to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that both Grant and Jefferson have had huge changes in their character and attitudes. Grant definitely knew and understood the cycle of racism at the beginning of the book, but simply dealt with it by not doing anything about it and attempting to run away from responsibility, sinking into hopelessness. In a way, Grant was very similar to his old teacher Matthew Antoine at the beginning of the book. Antoine saw no hope in his students or for the future of black people in the South because he understood the cycle and believed that nothing could change it. Grant had a similar attitude, but as he started talking to Jefferson and becoming more involved in trying to make a stand, Grant started talking in a more insightful way now that he has some hope.
ReplyDelete