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A Lesson Before Dying Analysis

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Everyone has their one teacher whom they despise. That teacher makes their day just that much worse because of the way they walk, talk, breathe, or exist. The inverse is also true. Some teachers make every class an adventure and just seeing their face can brighten up a day. In Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying a young black man is wrongly sentenced for murder. A schoolteacher is then charged with teaching the convicted to respect himself and “die like a man.” This task takes a huge toll on the teacher’s mind, and it often falls to his girlfriend and fellow teacher to help him relax and calm down. It’s said that opposites attract. The two lovers in this tale are on opposite sides of the teaching spectrum. Vivian Baptiste is a young, mulatto lady with a self-imposed duty to teach. Grant, while not all the way at the other end of the continuum, …show more content…
Comparing Vivian’s and Grant’s characters makes it obvious that they differ in their approach to teaching, and thus help develop the idea that socio-economics greatly affect a child's education. Even though Grant is intelligent, he does not make for an amazing teacher. He is concerned for his students and, unlike Matthew Antoine, genuinely wants them to succeed. However, passion for the students is not the most important factor, which is also exemplified by Matthew Antoine. His contempt for the children only fueled Grant’s desire to educate himself and become a better teacher than Antoine was for him . Not to say dislike for the children being taught is a good thing, seeing as most of Grant’s classmates just continued the cycle which their teacher didn’t even pretend to try to break them free from, but it obviously isn’t the make-or-break deciding factor. Grant does not have the ability to keep his personal life out of his classroom which hinders his ability to teach well. It’s not uncommon for

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