A Lesson Before Dying

Chapter 24 → Miss Emma, Grant’s aunt, Reverend Ambrose and Grant go to the prison to visit Jefferson… Grant speaks to Jefferson. He wants Jefferson to be a hero to destroy the myth of the superiority of white people, to prove white people they are wrong and also to make black people proud.

Grant says to Jefferson that black people are not inferior to white people, that it is a lie invented by white people to justify slavery and discrimination, and then he asks him to destroy this myth and to be a hero for his community.

Grant tells Jefferson that his death is very important. He knows that the community will remember the execution for a long time and that Jefferson’s final moments will have a powerful impact on many people. He wants this impact to be a positive one and so he asks a very difficult thing of Jefferson: to die with absolute dignity. Grant wants Jefferson to show the white community that he is not an animal as they think he is (“I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be” 191). He also wants Jefferson to make Miss Emma and the members of his community proud.

To help you better understand this passage: in this novel food = love! Miss Emma never says “I love you” to Jefferson but she shows her love when she cooks for him. Likewise when Jefferson eats Miss Emma’s food it means that he loves her too but when he refuses to eat it makes her sad…