Integrite Fall 2012

50 IntÊgritÊ: A F aith and Learning Journal EHWZHHQ *UDQW DQG KLV JLUOIULHQG 9LYLDQ *UDQW WULHV WR H[SODLQ ZK\ -HIIHUVRQœV aunt is so determined to see Jefferson walk to the electric chair as a man and not crawl like a hog: We black men have failed to protect our women since the time of slavery. We stay here in the South and are broken, or we run away and leave them alone to look after the children and themselves. So each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious circle²which he never does. Because even though he wants to change it, and maybe even tries to change it, it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind. So he, too must run away if he is to hold on to his sanity and have a life of his own. I can see by your IDFH \RX GRQœW DJUHH VR ,œOO WU\ DJDLQ :KDW VKH ZDQWV LV IRU KLP Jefferson, and me to change everything that has been going on for three hundred years . . . Because if he does not, she knows that she will never get another chance to see a black man stand for her again. (167) In an effort to explain the black male experience to Vivian, Grant unconsciously PHPRULDOL]HV -HIIHUVRQœV OLIH DQG VXIIHULQJ ,W LV QRW QHFHVVDULO\ -HIIHUVRQœV SOLJKW WKDW FDXVHV V\PSDWK\ IURP WKH UHDGHU EXW LW LV *UDQWœV H[SODQDWLRQ RI WKH importance of his refusal to crawl that potentially draws readers closer to Jefferson. Readers are still kept at a distance from Jefferson. First, Jefferson only allows us to see him as a hog. Yet, Grant will only allow us to see Jefferson as a symbol²a cog in the wheel of historical, systemic racism or as a potential heroic symbol of the autonomous black man. Regardless, readers are not invited to fully empathize with Jefferson as a character²a person that they cannot recognize.

6HFRQGO\ DQG LQ FRQQHFWLRQ ZLWK -HIIHUVRQœV VXIIHULQJ WKH QDUUDWRU DQG Grant compare Jefferson to Jesus Christ on several occasions in the text. And, in one scene Jefferson compares himself to Christ. When Jefferson learns that his H[HFXWLRQ ZLOO RFFXU VRPHWLPH DURXQG (DVWHU KH WHOOV *UDQW ³(DVWHU ZKHQ WKH\ nailed Him to the cross. $QG +H QHYHU VDLG D PXPEOLQJ ZRUG´ :KDW LV fascinating and troubling about this passage is that Jefferson uses the mute Christ to validate his own silence up to this point in the novel. He still believes that he is nothing more than a hog, so instead of finding solace in an already established identity, he leans on a powerful symbol of humility and submissiveness²Christ on the cross. And, even toward the end of the novel, as Jefferson begins to comprehend the weight of what Grant, his godmother, and the rest of the black community are asking him to do by walking like a man to the electric chair, he reiterates the unfairness of carrying the symbol of Christ: Me, Mr. Wiggins. Me. Me to take the cross, Your cross, nannanœV cross, my own cross. Me, Mr. Wiggins. Thisold stumbling nigger. <œDOO D[H D ORW 0U :LJJLQV <HV ,œP \RXPDQ 0U :LJJLQV. %XW QRERG\ GLGQœW NQRZ WKDW œfore now. Cuss for nothing beat for