Morality In A Lesson Before Dying

Final Essay The three stories I will be writing about are Devil in a Blue Dress, A Lesson Before Dying, and Fences. Devil in a Blue Dress and A Lesson Before Dying are told from the perspective of an African American male. Although fences is not told from the perspective of an African American, due to it being a play, its story is centered around an African American family. All these stories focus on segregation and hatred towards African Americans in different ways. The main characters in these stories all have a sense of duty and responsibility. These are the morals in the stories that I believe are the most prominent. Firstly, I will discuss the morals in Devil in a Blue Dress. I 'll start off with the moral I believe to be the most …show more content…
It represents the moral of responsibility by showing Grant’s responsibilities to his Aunt, Miss Emma and Jefferson. Grant felt responsible in teaching Jefferson to be a man before he died. Throughout the book Grant actually learned things from Jefferson, he started to question whether he was a man himself and if he was actually living like a man. “Do I know what a man is? Do I know how a man is supposed to die? I 'm still trying to find out how a man should live” (Gaines 31). This is just one example of how Grant felt about his responsibility to Jefferson because Grant was unsure whether or not he was living how he should 've been because he was stuck being a teacher and wanted to get away. His social climate kept him from moving like he wished to. The social climate was rough for grant, most of the white people treated him unfairly. The whole reason Grant was even visiting Jefferson was because the whites called Jefferson a hog at his trial and Grant had to teach him that he was a man. The social climate was very racist in this book as it is in the other two …show more content…
In this story Troy had a sense of responsibility for his family, mainly for his son. Troy worked so he could take care of his family and keep a roof over their heads. He did not necessarily like his family as he would say, but it was his duty to provide for them. “Cory: How come you ain 't never liked me? Troy: Liked you? Who the hell say I got to like you?" (Fences, 37) Human dignity comes in to play in this story due to Troy not wanting his son to play sports because he never got to make it as a professional in his own sport. Troy was a very good baseball player, but during this time the social climate prevented Troy from playing in MLB because there was segregation and negroes had their own league and Troy was too old and washed up according to