Is Grant the Hero of the Story?

Throughout the novel A Lesson Before Dying, the questions of what it means to be a man often gets thrown around. However, when it comes to Jefferson and people tell him to be a man (ultimately to stop acting like a hog that the white supremacists think he is), I don’t think they are trying to get him to act like a normal/ average man- I think they (especially Grant) are trying to get Jefferson to be a hero. However, still Jefferson hasn’t filled the role of the hero yet- he is still working on it which leaves the question who is the hero right now in the story?

Overall, what a hero is to me is acting in a way that can be used as an example for other people and helping and “saving” a community (no matter how big or small that community is)

So far while reading, I have thought that Grant is actually the hero of the story because he is the one who is setting up the situation where Jefferson eventually becomes the hero. He is able to get to Jefferson like no other character in this novel so far. In a sense, he himself is going through a hero’s journey himself. At first, Grant is running away and doesn’t want to go to jail to visit Jefferson. However he ends up going because he is forced to by Miss Emma. However, over time, Grant started to recognize his role in trying to help Jefferson become a hero and starts doing as much as he can to help Jefferson.

Right now in the book, Grant tells Jefferson that “a hero is something that other men don’t and can’t do. He is different from other men. He is above other men.” However soon after saying that, Grant also says that”I could never be a hero. I teach, but I don't like teaching...I want to run away. I want to live for myself and for my woman and for nobody else”. Then he goes on to tell Grant that he needs to be man so he can be the hero and prove the white supremacists wrong. I think everything Grant says in this passage is true except for the line “I could never be a hero”. Honestly, because he wants to run away and not do all this stuff, he is still doing it which makes what he is doing for Jefferson even more worthwhile, which is why so far I think Jefferson is the hero.

Anse: Hero or Not

In class we have been talking about if Anse is the hero in the book As I Lay Dying. In my opinion, I think it is an easy no. Anse so far has been portraying anything BUT hero life qualities. The first chapter he narrates we get to see in his eyes and see what he’s really thinking. The first thing that really struck me was that Anse didn’t even bother to call Peabody the doctor until it was too late, and after he called him he then complains that he has to pay for him now. Honestly, a heroic character in my eyes would try to do anything to save his wife, even if he knows it’s pointless. Instead, Anse’s attitude toward Addie dying is pretty much “it's inevitable so there's really nothing I can do and nothing I will do”.

In this same chapter we see Anse’s quality that is always portrayed whenever we see him: he is ALWAYS complaining about his life and what he has to do. He always talks about how is the man with the least luck and how everything bad always happens to him. Instead of doing anything about it, he just complains and is also portrayed as a lazy man in the book - two qualities you never see in heros. Even when they are in their journey to town to bury Addie, he still complains about things like Jewel taking his horse and how his sons are “acting up”.

This brings up another point why I think Anse is not a heroic character in as I lay Dying: the entire journey to bury Addie. Anse has made it hims mission to bury Addie with her people because it was her dying wish. As I do believe that is completely honorable (honorable not necessarily heroic) that is completely overshadowed by the fact that he has ulterior motives for wanting to go to town. He wants new teeth. As I think that is a completely legitimate reason to go into town, why hasn’t he just gone on a completely different occasion? Or on another trip? This leads me to think that a large reason Anse is desperate to go to town is for his own reasons not Addie’s. Even one of the first things he says right after Addie dies is “Now I can get dem teeth”- completely unhonorable and not heroic at all. This is why no matter all the hardships Anse is going through during the journey, he is still making the journey for his purpose and slightly Addie’s. From what I read so far, if Anse already has a full set of teeth and didn’t have any reason to go into town, I think that he would have stopped already and buried Addie with his people.

On the other hand, all the obstacles they have faced on the journey, Anse is probably the least affected by them. A good example of this is when he had to get some new mules. Although he did give some of his teeth money, he still gave away Cash’s money and Jewel’s horse without their permission. Even though they are family and Anse is their dad, well Cash’s biological dad at least, he still had no right to steal their stuff away from them. No hero would do that in my eye, it would have just been more honorable if just asked.

So no, I don’t think Anse is the hero in the book As I Lay Dying, and I still am trying to figure out who is.