In Chapter 7 of A Lesson Before Dying, Grant’s school is
visited by the superintendent of the school system Dr. Joseph. Dr. Joseph is a
white man who checks over the school to make sure that it is up to standard. He
fails to check the school thoroughly, and it is clear that he is only there to
fulfill his obligation. Grant notes the double standard in the monitoring of
the black and white schools, “Dr. Joseph visited the colored school once a
year, the white schools probably twice—once each semester” (53).
Dr. Joseph tests the students on
their learning, and even though they demonstrate an unsatisfactory level of
education, Dr. Joseph turns a blind eye. He does nothing to fix the poor
quality of the school or education materials. Instead, he seems more concerned
with their physical labor outside of school. He inspects their teeth in a way
that reminds Grant of the way a slave master would inspect a slave’s mouth and
advices the students to keep up their exercise. When Grant mentions the poor
state of their textbooks, Dr. Joseph drops his façade of artificial politeness and
briskly cuts Grant off.
This section of the book is
important to the novel for many reasons. It shows the discrepancies between the
black and white schools. The black students grow up with an inadequate education.
In this way, it shows the situation that the two main characters, Grant and
Jefferson, would have experienced. Dr. Joseph’s actions also provide another
example of the white people seeing the black people as animals. His inspections
of the students are demeaning.
The part of the chapter that stood
out to me was one student’s recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Joseph
singles out Louis Washington Jr., who Grant describes as “without doubt the
worst child in the school” (55), to pledge allegiance to the flag in front of
everyone else. To the amusement of the other students, Louis fails to recite the
pledge accurately. He declares, “Plege legen toda flag. Ninety state. ‘Merica.
Er—er—yeah, which it stand. Visibly. Amen” (56). Much of the pledge is incorrectly
stated or absent altogether. These missing parts serve as a commentary on the hypocrisy
of the pledge because the ideas of the Pledge of Allegiance are contradicted in
the way African-Americans are treated.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”
United/one
nation/indivisible. The segregation and discrimination set up clear divisions
between the black and white communities. The novel shows the fragmentation that
comes as a result of the white abuse of power.
Republic. A
republic is a governmental system with equal power for all the citizens. The
novel demonstrates that the black people in the community are treated as less
than human and not given the same voice as the white people.
Liberty and
justice for all. Jefferson is the most obvious case of the absence of liberty
and justice. His unfair trial dictated by an all-white jury and a death
sentence take away both his liberty and justice. However, this also applies to everyone
in the black community. Later in the novel, Grant remarks that he feels that
everyone is on a death sentence. The system created by the white people unfairly
limits the opportunities for the black community.
I think this post really touches on the point that Antoine was trying to make to a young Grant. Antoine told Grant to leave because this town would destroy him. Dr. Joseph and the all white jury are clear examples of the forces working to destroy Grant and the rest of the community, and they are the reason why Antoine told Grant to leave.
ReplyDeleteI think it's cool that you focused on the pledge of allegiance in the book. I didn't notice the emphasis on the hypocrisy of the pledge until this post.
ReplyDeleteDr. Joseph's inspection of the black students was cursory and uncaring. It definitely stresses how poor the education is for the black students.
The Pledge of Allegiance is definitely hypocritical in this book. A country that praises liberty and justice for all has just sentenced a man to death based on shaky evidence and a racist jury. I think that the "visibly" thing also shows that the lack of justice is very visible for the community.
ReplyDeleteNicely done. Of course, the notion of these children pledging their eternal allegiance to a flag that stands for their oppression contains a built-in absurdity, and reflects the pointlessness of what Grant is teaching them (akin to emphasizing writing in a straight line rather than writing anything of substance, as in Jefferson's notebook).
ReplyDeleteBut Louis Washington's mangled performance also makes a subtle point about all such memorization/recitation exercises for children: I know I spoke these words for years with only a vague understanding of what I was actually saying (I certainly didn't consider seriously the idea that my *allegiance* to a flag had just been solemnly *pledged* every morning before school)--we mainly recited a string of syllables, with little sense of their syntactical meaning. Clearly, Louis has just (almost) memorized these sounds, with no grasp of the concepts. This is a damning reflection of Grant's teaching efforts--all surface (to impress the superintendent once a year) and no substance. Jefferson's ability to pledge allegiance should really come in handy in that jail cell.