Summary: Chapter 6
It doesn’t matter anymore. Just do the
best you can. But it won’t matter.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
A maid lets Grant into the Pichot kitchen through the
back door. She informs him that Mr. Pichot’s brother-in-law, sheriff
Sam Guidry, will arrive soon. Grant waits in the kitchen, thinking
moodily about his role in Jefferson’s affairs. After half an hour,
Grant hears Sam Guidry and his wife Edna arrive at the front door.
After another half hour, Edna enters the kitchen. She asks him many
questions, but never gives him an opportunity to answer. She drinks
bourbon and she says she feels sorry about Jefferson and the murder.
After another hour and fifteen minutes, Sheriff Sam Guidry, Henri
Pichot, Louis Rougon, and a fat man walk into the kitchen. Guidry
asks Grant how long he has been waiting, and Grant tells him flatly, “About
two and a half hours.” Grant realizes he should have grinned and
said, “Not long,” but his anger and pride prevented him from being
submissive. Guidry asks what Grant wants to do with Jefferson, and
Grant politely answers that he does not know. After a while,
the sheriff informs him that he can see Jefferson in a few weeks,
although he thinks Grant’s efforts will fail and Grant should let Jefferson
die a “contented hog.” Moreover, the sheriff says that Grant will
lose his visiting privileges if he “aggravates” Jefferson.
Summary: Chapter 7
During the next few weeks, Grant awaits the annual visit
by the superintendent of schools. He makes sure that his students
appear clean and well behaved, since the superintendent could arrive
at any moment. When the superintendent, Dr. Joseph Morgan, finally arrives,
Grant notes Dr. Morgan’s heaviness and the difficulty with which
he gets out of his car. Grant escorts Dr. Morgan to his own desk
and then stands with his class. Dr. Morgan calls up several of the
boys and girls, choosing the most obviously self-conscious or problematic
students. He checks their teeth and asks them to recite Bible verses.
He is angry yet vindicated when one young boy fails to recite his
lessons properly. Grant thinks of the similarity between Dr. Morgan’s
inspection and slave masters’ inspections. Dr. Morgan lectures the
class on the virtues of good nutrition, hygiene, and physical labor,
but compliments Grant on his class. Grant complains to the superintendent
that most of the school’s shabby books are hand-me-downs from white
schools. This grievance annoys the superintendent, who says that
white schools struggle too. Before leaving, Dr. Morgan suggests
that Grant put the children to work in the fields to earn money.
Summary: Chapter 8
The next week, the school receives its first load of wood
for the winter. As Grant’s students saw and chop the wood, Grant
recalls his own elementary school days and his teacher Matthew Antoine.
A bitter, defeated man, Mr. Antoine hated teaching and hated his
students. Grant calls Mr. Antoine a mulatto, referring to Antoine’s mixed
race. Because he was a mulatto, Mr. Antoine considered himself superior
to blacks and felt contempt for black people who wished to learn
in a society that thinks them subhuman. After Grant studied at a
university for several years, he returned to the plantation to teach
in the school. He went to visit Mr. Antoine, who advised Grant to
do his best but did not think Grant could help the situation. According
to Mr. Antoine, blacks had but one option in the South: to run away.
Analysis: Chapters 6–8
In these chapters, Gaines illustrates the racism that
plagues Grant. Sheriff Guidry agrees to let Grant visit Jefferson,
but in warning Grant against aggravating Jefferson, Guidry denies
Grant the right to elicit an emotional response from Jefferson.
Guidry wishes Jefferson to remain meek and without convictions.
Grant’s school operates at the mercy of the racist white community,
receiving basic supplies like chalk, books, and firewood at the
whim of the whites. Dr. Joseph sees the black children as physical
laborers and implies blacks should be working in the fields as they
did when they were slaves. He compliments Grant’s class by calling
it a “good crop”—racist language that suggests Dr. Joseph thinks
of the students as objects, not people. Dr. Joseph insists on the
importance of hygiene, but Grant notes the poor health of whites;
Edna drinks, a fat man grunts like a hog, and Dr. Joseph himself,
who insists upon physical exercise for the black children, is so
fat he can hardly get into his car.
While he notes the blatant examples of white racism,
Gaines also delves into the murky areas where stereotypes begin
to dissolve. While Grant despises Dr. Joseph for believing that
black children should grow up to work on white plantations, Grant
observes that the two men who bring the wood to the school truly
enjoy themselves while performing their work. He also sees how much
the children enjoy physical labor, chopping and sawing the wood.
He gets frustrated when he watches them, and he wonders, “Am I reaching them
at all? They are acting exactly as the old men . . . who never attended
school a day in their lives. Is it just a vicious circle?” He worries
that blacks are so used to their chains, they have come to like
them. Going along with the whites is easier than fighting them, and
the children’s enjoyment of the physical work makes compliance still
easier.
Gaines suggests that racism is particularly difficult
to root out when it comes cloaked in kindness. Edna Guidry feels
empathy and goodwill for Grant, but she treats him as her inferior.
She asks him questions but answers them herself. She makes observations
about his life and the lives of his friends without letting him
make his own observations. Edna acts out the role that she learned to
play. Moreover, in emphasizing Edna’s reliance upon bourbon, Gaines
implies that alcohol plays a part in preventing Edna from truly
showing compassion for Grant, or other black people, for that matter.
Alcohol also plays a role in Grant’s inability to change.
