Bigger vs. Jefferson
For those of you who were NOT in African-American Lit, I apologize. This post will mainly engage with the similarities and differences between A Lesson Before Dying and the novel Native Son. If you still want to read, there will be spoilers, but I'll do my best to include details that help you follow along even though you might not have the full story.
The themes of Native Son, like A Lesson Before Dying, have a lot to do with futility and the inevitability that the system creates. It seems that, from the very beginning of the book Bigger (the main character, analogous to Jefferson) is set up for failure - the political campaign sign saying "You Can't Win" is perhaps the most potent symbol that Bigger will inevitably be put to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Jefferson, Bigger's behavior is a product of the system - Max, Bigger's attorney, describes how Bigger's lack of resources, painful home life, internalized hatred, and anger at the system (and even more circumstances) led him to the position he's in now. I was struck by how much Grant's speech to Vivian in the Rainbow Club resembled Max's speech at the trial - Grant talks about how the system traps young black men, and keeps them from fully realizing their potential and contributing meaningfully to their communities. These things all suggest that Native Son and A Lesson Before Dying examine the same premise - a white supremacist system traps black men, like rats or hogs.
In a sense, however, Native Son and A Lesson Before Dying have opposite theses - they take the premise in opposite direction. Native Son blames the system for forcing black men into specific roles from which they cannot escape - it has a profoundly pessimistic ending. In A Lesson Before Dying terms, it seems to assert that men are made into hogs and cannot escape that. Nor can they be expected to try and escape it. A Lesson Before Dying asserts the opposite (so far. I haven't finished the book). In fact, people readily expect a ton out of Jefferson, that he should be able to escape the system, and change it for the other characters. That is never expected of Bigger.
If we consider A Lesson Before Dying to be a response to the themes of Native Son, it would appear that it criticizes Native Son for not calling for specific change. Grant sort of adopts the Native Son outlook - he does not think anything can be changed, and so he lives within the system without a desire or an idea of how to change it. Jefferson seems to change all that, shown through how he changes Grant's pedagogy. A Lesson Before Dying implies that not enough responsibility is put on black men to change the conditions they live in. I feel a little icky about that as a general statement. If the question they attempt to answer is "who should enact change?" Native Son certainly points to white liberals like Mary (Bigger's boss's daughter) while A Lesson Before Dying points to black men like Grant. They both seem to point at the other group and say they cannot change for various reasons. What do you guys think? Where do you think A Lesson Before Dying will take this theme? Will Grant be capable of changing?
The themes of Native Son, like A Lesson Before Dying, have a lot to do with futility and the inevitability that the system creates. It seems that, from the very beginning of the book Bigger (the main character, analogous to Jefferson) is set up for failure - the political campaign sign saying "You Can't Win" is perhaps the most potent symbol that Bigger will inevitably be put to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Jefferson, Bigger's behavior is a product of the system - Max, Bigger's attorney, describes how Bigger's lack of resources, painful home life, internalized hatred, and anger at the system (and even more circumstances) led him to the position he's in now. I was struck by how much Grant's speech to Vivian in the Rainbow Club resembled Max's speech at the trial - Grant talks about how the system traps young black men, and keeps them from fully realizing their potential and contributing meaningfully to their communities. These things all suggest that Native Son and A Lesson Before Dying examine the same premise - a white supremacist system traps black men, like rats or hogs.
In a sense, however, Native Son and A Lesson Before Dying have opposite theses - they take the premise in opposite direction. Native Son blames the system for forcing black men into specific roles from which they cannot escape - it has a profoundly pessimistic ending. In A Lesson Before Dying terms, it seems to assert that men are made into hogs and cannot escape that. Nor can they be expected to try and escape it. A Lesson Before Dying asserts the opposite (so far. I haven't finished the book). In fact, people readily expect a ton out of Jefferson, that he should be able to escape the system, and change it for the other characters. That is never expected of Bigger.
If we consider A Lesson Before Dying to be a response to the themes of Native Son, it would appear that it criticizes Native Son for not calling for specific change. Grant sort of adopts the Native Son outlook - he does not think anything can be changed, and so he lives within the system without a desire or an idea of how to change it. Jefferson seems to change all that, shown through how he changes Grant's pedagogy. A Lesson Before Dying implies that not enough responsibility is put on black men to change the conditions they live in. I feel a little icky about that as a general statement. If the question they attempt to answer is "who should enact change?" Native Son certainly points to white liberals like Mary (Bigger's boss's daughter) while A Lesson Before Dying points to black men like Grant. They both seem to point at the other group and say they cannot change for various reasons. What do you guys think? Where do you think A Lesson Before Dying will take this theme? Will Grant be capable of changing?
Great post! Though I haven't read Native Son, this post was very interesting to read. I especially liked how you explained Native Son in "A Lesson Before Dying" terms. You also did a really good job explaining how the views on racism and the system are different between the two books!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that a Jeffersonian kind of transformation is never expected of Bigger--not only among characters in the novel (Max just wants to elucidate the conditions that produced him, in order to change the conditions themselves) but by the author himself. We talked about how Max and Wright seem closely aligned in their analyses of the devastating role of environment in Bigger's fate, and Gaines makes a pretty provocative move by putting more or less that same argument in the mouth of this racist, half-assed defense attorney for Jefferson. The "he can't help it, he's been conditioned this way" argument suddenly sounds fully compatible with Jim Crow racial discrimination. Gaines seems to be saying that, for all its ideological idealism, the Communist effort to aid the civil rights cause was still predicated on some racist assumptions.
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