Questions for After Reading the Story/Play 1. Who is being taught the lesson in A Lesson Before Dying? 2. Why is Grant indebted to the black community of Bayonne, Louisiana, specifically Miss Emma? 3. Why is it important to Miss Emma that Jefferson doesn’t die like a hog? 4. What are some of the hardships that Grant faces as a teacher in a rural black community? 5. How do the white and the black characters feel about Grant’s college education? 6. Why do you suppose Sheriff Guidry would rather “watch a dumb hog die in that chair than an upset, out of his mind, aggravated boy fry in it”? Does he relieve himself of any guilt if he can view Jefferson as an animal? 7. How is Jefferson and Grant’s family backgrounds similar? 8. How does Reverend Ambrose think Jefferson should be consoled? 9. Why does, Paul, the deputy sheriff, assist Grant? Is it only because he thinks Jefferson is innocent? 10. What does Grant mean when he calls the bricklayers he fought “mulattos”? Besides describing their color, what other meaning does the term have for Grant? 11. How is Vivian instrumental in convincing Grant to help Jefferson? 12. Is Miss Emma trying to teach Reverend Ambrose anything by having Grant administer to Jefferson? 13. How important was writing in the notebook to Jefferson? What do you think it helped him to accomplish? How did the gift of the radio and listening to it affect Jefferson’s state of mind? 14. Why is it important for the black community to know that Jefferson died like a man? 15. Grant describes a hero as “ . . . a man who does something for other people. Something other men can’t do.” Besides Jefferson, who are some of the other heroes in A Lesson Before Dying?
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