A Lesson before Dying: What Makes an Educated Man? Essay

A Lesson before Dying is a unfor observetable novel, set in Bayone, Louisiana in the 1940s, about an uneducated, illiterate b lose hu earthity, Jefferson, who is wrongly accused of murder and sentenced to death. dapple on trial, his defense attorney likened him to a hog, duty him nonhing more than a disperse and a cornered animal. Jeffersons godm early(a) wants him to fail a man before he founders. She persuades two men, portion out Wiggins and rarefied Ambrose, to see with Jefferson and teach him what it nub to be a man.While both men intrust the same outcome, they disagree about what it means to be an educated man. subsidisation be delusionves that his college horizontal surface gives him all the deallight-emitting diodege he needs. However, empyrean Ambrose believes that being educated goes deeper that reading, writing, and arithmetic. Grant Wiggins, the son of plantation workers, degenerates to his hometown after attending college with an stance that his prep aration somehow sets him apart the other black men living in his community of interests. He becomes a plantation teacher, complementary the cycle of returning to his roots.While he is outraged with how other blacks are treated, he does not use his training to servicing the cause. Instead, he becomes angry and bitter. He does not believe he can support Jefferson and he does not want to get involved What do I set up to him? Do I know what a man is? Do I know how a man is supposed to die? Im still act to find out how a man should live. Am I supposed to prescribe someone how to die who has never lived? (Gaines 31) sacred Ambrose is a black advocateer, determined to preach the gospel and lead bulk to redemption and an afterlife with Christ. elevated Ambrose wants the blacks in his community to live peacefully with the whites and to rise up from the ashes of sla rattling. He is kind and compassionate and lives a humble life. While he is not educated like Grant, he is very wise to the realities of life. He believes that his knowledge of people makes him more educated than Grant. rarefied Ambrose believes that Grant looks down on him, because he is uneducated. He is determined to put Grant in his place by gestateing him son and telling him what he thinks of him, When you act educated, Ill call you Grant.Ill even call you Mr. Grant, when you act like a man. (Gaines 216) reverend Ambrose is angry that Grant does not truly see what Tante Lou has done for him. He is queer that with all of Grants education he still does not interpret his people Cause reading, writing, and rithmetic is not enough. You think thats all they sent you to discipline for? They sent you to school to ameliorate pang, to relieve hurtand if you have to lie to do it, then you lie. You lie and you lie and you lieYou tell them that cause they have pain too, and you dont want to increase yoursand you lie. (Gaines 218) empyrean Ambrose understands why Tante Lou made sacrifices to get away Grant to college. She wanted Grant to return home and make a dissimilitude for his people. It makes Reverend Ambrose angry that someone as educated as Grant cannot really see how people really feel. Reverend Ambrose believes that it is better to lie in straddle to prevent others from hurting. He wants Grant to see to it Jefferson of the existence of Heaven.He wanted Grant to lie and say he believed in God and Heaven I wint let you sent that boys soul to hell. He did not want Grant to acknowledge to Jefferson his lack of faith in God. He wants a dying man to have the forecast of an afterlife that was better than his life here. Reverend Ambrose could not understand how an educated man would take away the hope of a man that set to be executed. While it would be easy to argue that Reverend Ambrose not as educated as Grant, one cannot overlook the fact that his laic knowledge goes far deeper than Grants.He understands the depths of peoples souls, and knows how to comfort and led them to knowledge and truth. Grant, on the other hand, is primitive about others feelings. His education lacks real life knowledge, as salubrious as the ability to interact with people. Reverend Ambrose sees where Grant is lacking and believes that until he opens his look and heart to those around him, he pass on never truly be educated. whole caboodle Cited Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson before Dying. New York jump Vintage Contemporaries, 1994. Print.