A Lesson Before Dying

In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, one of the major themes is man's obligations to himself, his family, and his society. The major character that this pertains to is Grant Wiggins because in the novel he is obligated to himself, his family, and his society to turn Jefferson into a man. As much as Grant wants to run away from his home instead of teaching Jefferson to become a "man" not a "hog" he still does it because if he does not then he fails everyone including himself, and the "vicious circle" of black men would continue. Term paper hint: As Grant Wiggins is educated, a teacher makes him obligated to take responsibility to transform Jefferson from a "hog" into a "man. This is a personal obligation because if he had never wanted to become a teacher and left town as his teacher Mathew Antoine had advised him to do, then he would have never been in this situation.

Grant Wiggins is obligated to his society to help change Jefferson into a "man" in order to "change this vicious circle" of black men failing to protect their women by staying in the South, or by running away and leaving the women alone to take care of the children and themselves. If Jefferson were somehow changed he would end "everything that has been going on for three hundred years." Wiggins is obliged to his community because "[He] can give them something that neither a husband, nor a father, or a grandfather ever did", and because he is able to teach them reading, writing, and arithmetic. A custom essay on this topic will emphasize that Grant Wiggins gives the people hope that they can become something more then just broken black men such as their grandfathers, their uncles, and their brothers.