61 pages • 2 hours read
A Lesson Before Dying
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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
Grant drives to Bayonne and remembers the stark racial segregation marked by establishments for “white” and “colored.” Grant meets up with his girlfriend, Vivian Baptiste, at the Rainbow Club, where he tells her about what his aunt and Miss Emma want him to do for Jefferson. At first, Grant wants her to run away with him, but Vivian convinces him that their “commitment” to teaching requires them to stay for now, especially until she finalizes her divorce, and they can truly be together. Grant questions whether he will be able to show Jefferson how to die like a man when he himself has not yet figured out how to live like one. Vivian responds by affirming the request to meet with Jefferson. She says Grant must do it for her and for them as much as for Jefferson.
Chapter 5 Summary
Grant returns to teaching at the plantation church school. He is not in a good mood and spends the day disciplining students with his Westcott ruler. He laments the futility of his job, not believing that his teaching will change the circumstances of any of the families of the students. Grant eventually tells the children a detailed account of how Jefferson will soon be electrocuted. He attempts to use the story as a lesson for what might happen to the students who don’t want to apply themselves. It turns out that Jefferson’s cousin, Estelle, is in the class, and she begins to cry at hearing Grant talk about what will happen to her cousin. Before the school day ends, Henri Pichot sends his handyman, Farrell Jarreau, to tell Grant that he can come up to the “big house” around 5:00 p.m.
Chapter 6 Summary
Grant returns to see Henri Pichot and again enters the back door of the big house to find Inez, the maid, crying. She tells Grant that Sam Guidry, the sheriff, is coming over and that Louis Rougon is placing a bet that Grant can’t accomplish the task of getting Jefferson ready to die like a man. Henri refuses to bet against Grant, but he won’t bet for him either. Sam Guidry and his wife, Edna, arrive, and Edna comes to the kitchen to get a drink and tell Inez she may start serving the guests now. She tells Grant to bring his aunt around to visit her sometime. She explains how she has not visited Miss Emma, but she is sorry for what happened to Jefferson. She did see Mrs. Gropé and put her arms around her to comfort her.
After waiting for two and a half hours, four white men enter the kitchen: Sam Guidry, Henri Pichot, Louis Rougon, and another white man. Grant is not sure if he should show how disrespected he feels by being made to wait and humiliated by using the back door, or if he should just nod and smile like he knows the white men expect him to do. He decides to see how the conversation progresses. Sam calls attention to Grant’s use of correct grammar as a way of telling him he is being “too smart,” but Grant continues hoping that the white men will dislike him enough to deny his request. Sam agrees to Grant’s request but tells him he will call it off at the first sign of “aggravation.”
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
In Chapter 4, the author introduces the word “colored” to describe the Black establishments as opposed to the white establishments that define the segregated fictional town. The word “colored” is an historically derogatory term used by white people to identify anyone or anything perceived to not be racially or culturally white. The term was commonly used in 1940s Louisiana, but it is inappropriate and offensive to use in the present day.
Grant tries to elicit sympathy from his girlfriend, Vivian, who only sides with Miss Emma and his aunt in agreeing that he must visit with Jefferson. Vivian explains that he must do it for her and for both of them as much as for Jefferson, suggesting that there is something representative in Jefferson dying like a man. This notion of representation is significant in this novel. As the story progresses, it is clear that Vivian is right and that everyone in the Black community needs Jefferson to combat the dehumanization and show that he is a man before he dies.
The theme of education appears in Chapter 5, where Grant preaches the importance of a formal education to his students. He uses Jefferson’s situation as an example of what can happen to students who do not focus on their studies. This is ironic however, because Grant went away to college and does not feel any freer because of it. He has no faith in the power of reading, writing, or math to change the circumstances of any of his students because it did not change his own. This scene suggests that Grant collides with the racist institution of education even when he knows it’s wrong—this causes the reader to question Grant’s character as either hopeless or hopeful. Later in the day at the big house, the white sheriff chastises Grant for being “too smart” and correcting his grammar. Grant intentionally tries to aggravate the white men so that they will forbid him from visiting Jefferson, even though that is the purpose for the meeting. Grant understands that his education makes him more of a threat to the white men in the room, and he contemplates using it to sabotage the situation. Grant’s correct grammar refutes the white men’s supposition that Black men are stupid and animalistic—the very claim that Grant will spend the novel trying to dispel on behalf of Jefferson.
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By Ernest J. Gaines
