A Lesson Before Dying

The first character who is subjected to overt racism is Jefferson. He is in prison because of a murder which is does not committed. Everybody think that he does this violent act, everybody except some people like his godmother Emma who she tries to convinced Grant to talk to Jefferson. White people consider him like a hog. And it's a perfect example of overt discrimination. Next, we going to study the main character of A Lesson Before Dying : Grant. Indeed, this person is black and she suffers the consequences of this skin's colour. In this book a big part of the characters are black and they are considered like inferior people. Even if they are clever humans. Grant received an education during his childhood but he's still a black man in the sight of white men ! He's a teacher, very clever and quick-minded and we can see it with his kind of sarcastic humour. I think that there is a very important feeling with the one of discrimination, it's the one of injustice. It is a consequence of racism and its victim is Jefferson. So the whites are racists but the government too ! The Jefferson's lawyer compares too like a hog his client, and he uses this word to defend him. Interesting paradox, isn't ? So in the firsts chapters we can found many evidence of both overt and implicit racism which is the main topic of the book.

Grant often criticizes his society. He bitterly resents the racism of whites, and he cannot stand to think of Jefferson’s unjust conviction and imprisonment. The protagonist of the novel, Grant is the son of cane-cutters who labored on a Louisiana plantation. He grows up working in a menial job, but makes his escape and goes to college. He returns to his hometown a secular, educated man, distanced from his downtrodden black community. College has given him a more sophisticated perspective and an educated way of thinking and speaking. Yet despite the changes in Grant, white people still consider him inferior. Their