“Hogs don’t know anything. Only human beings know. Only human beings worry.” Grant says this to Jefferson. When I first read the summary of “A Lesson before Dying”, I was thinking if that is necessary to teach a person who will die. What is the important thing to learn for a person who will die? The answers to my questions just are what I learned from this book. It is that the reason make one be a human being is not one can stand on one’s two feet, but one has thought.
“Old hog don’t care”, When Jefferson says this and he has thought himself as a hog. When a person does not care anything and has no thought, then, this person has been a no-human being. Jefferson is living in a sad time. At that time, white people discrimination blank people, and some blank people do not like them being blank. When twelve white people say a blank boy must to die, the only thing this boy can do is accepting his fate. In his head, white people just like god there. They say he must die, then he just waiting for dying. When he was deprived of his life, he lost his thought too. This is why Jefferson becomes to a “hog”. One thing Jefferson does not know is that, even though people deprived his life, they can not deprive his thought. This is also one thing I learned. Life is not the only thing a human being get, and the thought is more important.
“A hero is someone does something for other people”. Jefferson does many things for others. When he eats for Miss Emma, he is a hero. When he asks Grant to stay for children, he is a hero. When he goes to die for the stupid myth, and for the white people’s sin, he is a hero. Just like Grant says, “I need you much more than you could ever need me”, people need a hero. For Grant, this hero let him know what he could do with his life. For other people, this hero taught them what a human being do. It is live with your grant thought.
At the last of Jefferson’s diary, he said “tell them I am strong, and tell them I am a good man.” Even though...