A Lesson Before Dying

Word Count: 877

In A Lesson Before Dying, Mr.
Grant Wiggins' life crises were the center of the story.
Although he was supposed to make Jefferson into a man, he
himself became more of one as a result. Not to say that
Jefferson was not in any way transformed from the "hog" he
was into an actual man, but I believe this story was really
written about Mr. Wiggins. Mr. Wiggins improved as a
person greatly in this book, and that helped his relationships
with other people for the most part. At the start of the book,
he more or less hated Jefferson, but after a while he became
his friend and probably the only person Jefferson felt he
could trust. The turning point in their relationship was the one
visit in which Jefferson told Mr. Wiggins that he wanted a
gallon of ice cream, and that he never had enough ice cream
in his whole life. At that point Jefferson confided something
in Mr. Wiggins, something that I didn't see Jefferson doing
often at all in this book. "I saw a slight smile come to his
face, and it was not a bitter smile. Not bitter at all"; this is the
first instance in which Jefferson breaks his somber barrier
and shows emotions. At that point he became a man, not a
hog. As far as the story tells, he never showed any sort of
emotion before the shooting or after up until that point. A
hog can't show emotions, but a man can. There is the
epiphany of the story, where Mr. Wiggins realizes that the
purpose of life is to help make the world a better place, and
at that time he no longer minds visiting Jefferson and begins
becoming his friend. Mr. Wiggins' relationship with his Aunt
declined in this story, although it was never very strong. His
Aunt treated him like he should be a hog and always obey,
yet she wanted him to make a hog into a man. His Aunt was
not a very nice person, she would only show kindness
towards people who shared many of her views, and
therefore was probably a very hard person to get along with.
The way Mr. Wiggins regarded his relationships most likely
would have been different were he white. Mr. Wiggins feels,
and rightly so, that several white men try to mock or make a
fool of him throughout the story. This was a time of racial
discrimination with much bigotry, so if the story took place in
the present, it would be much different. In fact, there
probably would have not even been a book because in the
modern day, and honest and just jury would have found him
innocent due to the lack of evidence. It wasn't really clear
what sort of situation Mr. Wiggins was in regarding money,
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