An Analysis of Mr. Grant Wiggins, a Character in A Lesson before Dying

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.

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Mr. Wiggins' relationship with his Aunt declined in this story, although it was never verystrong. 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, but hecould not have been too well off because he needed to borrow money to purchase a radio for Jefferson, and he commented about the Rainbow Cafe: "When I was broke, I could always get a meal and pay later, and the same went for the bar." I suppose he had enough money to get by, but not much extra. As the book progresses he probably had less money to work with due to the money he was spending to buy the radio, comic books, and other items for Jefferson.

Mr. Wiggins seemed to be well respected by the community, and he felt superior to other African Americans because he was far more educated than they were. That makes Mr. Wiggins guilty of not practicing what he preaches, although Jefferson probably made it clearer to him that the less intelligent are still humans with feelings. At the start of the book, Mr. Wiggins did not understand this. He went to visit Jefferson because Miss Emma and his Aunt more or less forced him to do it. He really had no motivation except that he would be shunned by his Aunt if he did not comply.

The whole process of Mr. Wiggins' development and the plot of this story both spawn from the crimes of two characters with no other relevance to the story.

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