To begin, perseverance in A Lesson Before Dying leads to personal growth and strength. First, prejudice makes Grant Wiggins’ outlook on life negative and makes him self-centered. Grant’s interactions with Vivian and Jefferson changes that and Grant starts to care for others. Grant makes it known that he is unhappy in Bayonne and he does not like his life there. “I teach because it is the only thing that an educated black man can do in the South today. I don’t like it; I hate it. I don’t even like living here. I want to run away. I want to live for myself and for my woman and for nobody else” (Gaines 191). Grant feels he can not pursue what he wants to without being “babied” or judged. Grant’s way to avoid his life in Bayonne is to leave. When …show more content…
Grant feels he can share his feelings with them because he feels Truong 2 comfortable around Vivian and Jefferson, and know they will not judge him. Vivian and Jefferson’s ears for understanding and helping for Grant, allows helps him to grow while he aids others in the process. As his interactions with Vivian and Jefferson grow, he learns to care about the other characters and not just himself. In addition, Grant’s perspective and motivation changes when he visits Jefferson. His Grant’s visits to Jefferson makes him feel that he has something to prove to the white people in the jail, by being able to change Jefferson and “make him a man” before he dies. Sheriff Guidry is the main cause of Grant’s prejudice and adds to his motivation. Guidry and his associates think that visiting a soon to be dead man will not change anything, only makes things worse. This gives Grant motivation because he knows that they do not want him to succeed which is a sign of prejudice and white people’s expectations of black people. Grant tells Jefferson of the white people’s expectations they have about their reason for visiting, “The white people out there are saying that you [Jefferson] don’t have it-that you’re a hog, not a man. But I know they are