From the beginning we know that Jefferson’s trial isn’t fair and we feel helpless as the only defense they can give for the child is “he’s too stupid to be guilty.” When you try to dehumanize the innocent (or at least who we assume is innocent) that says something about the regard you hold for them. Also, the trial, because he was a black boy, was not ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but ‘guilty unless proven innocent.’ And we see this replicated today, with around 43% of people in jail being black, despite black people making up only approximately 12% of the American population. It shows that race based judicial injustice didn’t end with Jefferson.
Also, Grant talks a lot about how Jefferson represents all of his students. His conversations with Antoine about how being a teacher doesn’t really matter, trying to help the kids doesn’t really matter because they’ll grow up to “be the niggers they were born to be.” They talk about a cycle and how Jefferson and Grant and everyone else in their town just fits into the cycle and you can't break it. Jefferson represents the average kid in their town pretty closely.
And symbolically he represents black people as well. The talking about Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson reference how these distant people stand somehow for the people in their town. So if Jefferson too can be a hero then doesn't he stand for the people even more because they know him? If the boy cried out for Joe, will Jefferson cry out for Jackie, will some other black boy someday cry out for Jefferson?
I agree that Jefferson is likable. There's no question that Jefferson was being screwed from the beginning and that his trial was inhumane.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Jefferson doesn't complain while he's in jail, accepting it as a reality, and moves on to rise above. This is like how Jackie Robinson was continuously hurled with insults, but he never lashed back. Both Robinson and Jefferson take the high road despite the fact that it would make total sense if they both expressed frustration under the racist system that constantly acted to oppress them.
I also found Jefferson to be a likable character while I was reading the novel, and I really enjoyed the book as a whole. Especially while reading his diary I sympathized with him even more and was able to get a detailed account of how he felt about himself and other people in the community.
ReplyDeleteThis idea of Jefferson becoming something like a local legend or mythic figure--a kind of Jackie Robinson for the Quarters--is strongly implied at the end of the novel, when Paul delivers the notebook to Grant and asks to read it sometime. He also asks Grant to teach the children about Jefferson, and Grant invites him to the class sometime to spread the story (or bear witness) himself, since he was the one who "was there." Previously, Paul had never even been to the Quarters before. We see a glimpse of a more hopeful future, where Jefferson's story is something that a white deputy might tell to a classroom full of black students--not a total "breaking of the cycle," but a hopeful sign nonetheless.
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