Something that is thoroughly embedded in A Lesson Before Dying is the question of mortality and what can be done when you know death is inevitable. This is an especially important question within the context of Jefferson's situation because not only does he know he is going to die (more so than just the knowledge that everybody dies eventually) he also knows the specific day he is going to die. That means he has a set deadline for himself to get anything he wants to get done or for anything other people want him to get done.
However, Jefferson is also in a situation where knowing he is going to die is empowers him to some degree at least. Because he lives in a place where barely stepping out of line could easily lead to severe punishment like death his ability to be free to do what he wants or what others want him to do is limited. But, because he is already facing the death penalty this threat has been eliminated because he no longer has to worry about punishments in the sense that he is already facing the harshest of them all. This is why he the the one who needs to step up in the book, not Grant. even though Grant is the one who has the education that allows him to do so. One good example of this is Jefferson's journal. The way he writes about how the sherriff told him to write about how good he treated him seems to undermine itself and allmost makes fun of the sherriff. There is no way Jefferson could have written that if he was just serving a time sentence because there could be severe consequences in the sherriff some how read that. So I think it is just interesting how the person who is in the position of least power, locked in a cell, actually holds the most power of all of them.
One thing I vaguely remember from Sophomore English with Doctor E was the day we spent talking about Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I think it was about how the "master" is only the master because the "slave" acknowledges the master's authority, thus making the "master" somehow subordinate/dependent to the "slave". In a somewhat similar way, Sheriff Guidry and the deputies have to care about what Jefferson thinks even though they hold absolute physical power over them. And Jefferson knows this, when he says "I know you". In the moments leading up to his death, he understands that he still has power.
ReplyDeleteClose to the end of the book, when Grant is waiting in the church as the children play, and trying not to cry, one thing that he tells himself is that a bunch of other people are meeting similar fates to Jefferson. It's just that these people might not know when and where their life is going to end. This example shows that Jefferson's situation is not the only example of the injustice of the system.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting about Jefferson's development to me is that he doesn't start opening up to Grant until the date of his execution is set. This seems to me like he hasn't realized either the influence he has on people or the short amount of time until it is rapidly approaching and he really takes advantage of the time he has left, having conversations with Grant and learning, up to the last minute.
ReplyDeleteGood points: and Jefferson's truth-telling moral authority in his notebook, with "nothing left to lose," is nicely reflected in his wonderful "I know you" statements, where he directly tries to "catch the eye" of these men in power who are avoiding (literally and figuratively) "looking him in the eye." Jefferson's "I know you" seems to say, "You can't hide. You can't pretend you believe this verdict and punishment is just. You'd prefer to think of me as a hog, since that makes it easier to live with yourself, but deep down you know that's not true. I know you, and therefore *you know me.*"
ReplyDeleteBut Jefferson says it better in his unique voice. This is a rough paraphrase of what I hear when he says "I know you."