Chapter 13-18 Summary

Miss Emma goes to church on Determination Sunday when church members sing their favorite hymns and tell the congregation where they will spend the rest of their lives. Grant recalls last Friday, when he came back from talking to Vivian. He found Miss Emma and Reverend Ambrose sitting with his aunt in the kitchen. Miss Emma asked him about his visit to Jefferson and he lied and said that Jefferson seemed to be doing well and that he ate some of the food she had sent him. Reverend Ambrose tried to determine whether or not Grant intended to teach Jefferson within a Christian framework.
Vivian has never been to Grant’s house before. He gives her a small tour and offers her some coffee and cake. She insists they wash their plates after eating, even though Grant tells her that his aunt would take care of the dishes. He asks her to take a walk with him. They walk through the plantation, past a cemetery, and onto the sugarcane fields. They make love on the field, concealed by the cane. Afterward, they discuss possible names for their future children, and Grant says he does not want to raise his children in this communit.
Grant sees Tante Lou, Reverend Ambrose, and Miss Emma returning from visiting Jefferson. They stop at Miss Emma’s house and go inside. In school, Grant finds his students planning for the annual Christmas program. He reminds them to keep just one person in mind this Christmas season, referring to Jefferson.
Guidry asks Jefferson if he would like to meet his visitors in the dayroom, and he says he would. When Miss Emma, Tante Lou, and Reverend Ambrose visit Jefferson in the day room. Jefferson sits down at the table and Miss Emma tries to feed him, but he refuses to eat.

Questions

What didn't Grant stay in California when he visited?
How did Tante Lou and her friends react when they met Vivian?
Why does Grant go to Rainbow Club?
What kind of relationship do Grant and Vivian have?
How did Jefferson react when Grant brought him a radio?

What does Miss Emma mean by saying she wants Jefferson to die like a man?

She does not want Jefferson to die like an animal, a hog specifically, because the attorney call him less than a hog, but like a man. She does not want him to give anybody the satisfaction of seeing him as less of a man and not let anyone hold that type of power over him.

Why does Grant want to leave from Bayonne with Vivian?

Grant wants to leave Bayonne with Vivian because he is tired of the community and the expectations and roles he has to play to fulfill those who desire them. He feels that his teaching accomplishes nothing and wants to get out of his hometown, leaving these responsibilities behind,He feels like he is dead and not living. He wants to go somewhere where he feels like he is living. And the only reason he has not left yet is because of Vivian.

What does Grant believe of about the idea of going to visit Jefferson?

Grant does not like or approve of the idea of going to visit Jefferson because he believes he cannot help him. However Miss Emma and his aunt Tante Lou persuade and pressure him into going having hopes that he can change Jefferson's thinking of himself and give him a lesson before dying.

Why might have made Grant's parents leave Bayonne, Louisiana and have him stay with his aunt?
Grant's parents may have left Bayonne, Louisiana to California for an escape for because they could not changed the community that had repetitive cycles of high hopes of change. His parents left to California, leaving him to be raised by his aunt who has give him opportunities to better the unequal community.

Researcher

"That jury? You call them men? That judge? Is he a man? The governor is no better. They play by the rules their forefathers created hundreds of years ago. Their forefathers said that we're only three-fifths human-- and they believe it to this day."

This book is in the time period of 1940s. The three-fifths compromise was an agreement between Southern and Northern states during 1787. This compromise established only three-fifths of the slave population was counted for taxation and representation in congress. Counting slaves as part of the population politcally favored the Northern states. However most of the Northern states did not want to count slaves at all, they believed slaves were property and held no power.

Vocab

Tante: the French and Cajun word for aunt
Creole: A a person of mixed African-American and European descent
Derrick: A crane used to lift heavy weights or hold machinery
roast nyers: The characters' way of pronouncing "roasting ears" of corn

Summary 7-12

Before visiting Jefferson in Jail, the superintendent of schools made his annual visit and the school got their first load of wood for winter. Grant trains the students how to respond and act when the superintendent arrives. When the superintendent arrives, he examines the student's hygiene instead of their education, showing how unfair the educational policy is. When Grant visits Jefferson for the first time, Miss Emma comes along with Jefferson's favorite foods to the courthouse in Bayonne for both blacks and whites. Jefferson does not respond or eat the food, leaving her in tears. And if he does speak, it is about the execution. Emma and Grant's next two visits have the same results of Jefferson refusing to eating or talking. Grant goes alone to visit him because Emma is ill. Jefferson talks and eats this time, but only rudely and like a hog. After his visit, he leaves to Rainbow Club to meet Vivian and think of a lie about Jefferson to tell Miss Emma.

Questions

What does Miss Emma mean by saying she wants Jefferson to die like a men?

Why does grant want to leave from Bayonne with Vivian?

What does Grant believe of about the idea of going to visit Jefferson?

Why might have made Grant's parents leave Bayonne, Louisiana and have him stay with his aunt ?