"What do you plan on doing when you come up there —if I let you come up there?" Guidry asked me.
"I have no idea, sir," I told him.
This conversation shows how Grant does not really know what he is trying to teach to Jefferson, much less how he will go about teaching it. He has an idea of what Ms. Emma wants, but does not seem very certain about why she wants him to spend time with Jefferson. The fact that he continues on this journey despite this uncertainty is a sign of his heroism.
Grant is also the one who changes the most during this novel. In the beginning, he is an educated but sort of naive man who doesn't recognize the cycle he helps to perpetuate. However, because of the challenge that Jefferson presents him with, he comes to realize that the black community is trapped in a cycle of ignorance and oppression. His part in the oppression becomes apparent to him when the superintendent visits his school and looks at all the children's teeth while they stand in perfect lines just like he taught them to.
"Rise," Irene called to the class.
They came to their feet, their heads up, their arms clasped to their sides. But instead of feeling pride, I hated myself for drilling them as I had done.
This is when he starts to see how he himself is part of the power structure that has put Jefferson in prison on purely circumstantial evidence. In the follow chapter he begins to see what his old teacher meant when he said that attempts to change the situation were futile. Grant realizes just how continuous this cycle is while he watches his students chop wood for the winter.
And I thought to myself, What am I doing? Am I reaching them at all? They are acting exactly as the old men id earlier. They are fifty years younger, maybe more, but doing the same thing those old men did who never attended school a day in their lives. Is it just a vicious circle? Am I doing anything?It is in this moment that he makes the transition from being a passive school teacher who plays along with the system to someone outside the system who sees it for what it is. This is what sets him apart from the other characters in this book and what makes him a hero.
I think that there is certainly a strong potential for what you describe to come to pass, but I would not be so bold as to say that it has already. We talked in class a little bit about how it seemed as if Grant had actually not changed very much at all, except perhaps in the last line of the entire book, in which he cries in front of his class. However, I do think that much of the "story" behind this book is not in the book itself, but rather is implied as future events following the events chronicled. Jefferson's story will obviously have an impact on his community, and I think that a lot of that impact has not actually been felt by the time the book ends. Certainly I think that, in the future, much of what you describe about Grant and the changes in him will come to pass, although within the purview of the novel I think that Jefferson certainly is the more changed of the two of them.
ReplyDeleteI definitely see Grant more of the hero in this story than Jefferson. Despite the fact that we spend more time with Grant than Jefferson, there are some strong parallels between Campbell's hero's journey: resisting the call, overcoming obstacles, and personal change. I was going to say victory over the obstacles but I'm not sure Grant really "won" anything. Yes, he did help Jefferson become a "man" but nothing really happened to him. Grant's victory was becoming aware of the system and addressing the cycle. While people tend to think of heroes in more of a great adventure setting, Grant accomplishes a lot just being inside a cell.
ReplyDeleteI also think that he really comes off as the hero since this entire novel is in his perspective. We can see that he changes, because we can tell in his narration. We can see him coming to realizations and changing his mindset. Jefferson on the other hand, can only display his hero's journey through outward actions. And since his own journey is to "become a man", it's pretty hard for us to gage whether or not he is the hero journeying for this particular novel.
ReplyDeleteI agree that by Campbell's definition, Grant is the hero. A difficult challenge is placed in his path, i.e. teaching Jefferson to be a man, and after dragging his feet, as you say, he manages to overcome it. However, I think if we look at the examples of heroes given in the book, such as Jackie Robinson, Jefferson is much more of a hero. Although he isn't able to do anything to avoid his fate, he unites the community, and earns their pride when he walks to his death like a man.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Grant is a Campbell type hero in this book. The reader can clearly identify the different stages of the hero's journey in Grant's story, as you did through this blog post. However, although I do consider Grant a hero in his own right, I think that Jefferson is the main hero in this book. An argument can be made for both sides, but I choose Jefferson as my main hero because he is the one who actually performed the act that helped break the cycle of racism. Jefferson is the one who gave up his life to "save" his community. Because Jefferson is the one who paid the price, I consider him as the main hero.
ReplyDeleteA crucial element of Campbell's hero's-journey paradigm is the hero returning to the ordinary world, transformed in some profound ways. In this sense, Grant is the one who, at the end of the novel, is able to make such a return--but at first it doesn't look like much has changed, as he's outside walking around with his yardstick while the kids kneel in the classroom. The closing line of the novel is crucial, as, after his conversation with Paul, Grant returns to the classroom to face the children, crying. For me, this closing moment recalls the line earlier, when Grant tries to understand Jefferson's tears by paraphrasing, "I weep because I'm part of the whole." Even as he's still thinking about running away only pages earlier, this final moment suggests a hero who is returning to engage this "ordinary world" in a new way, seeing himself as *part of* it and not apart from it.
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