Summary: Chapter 25
Grant cannot find Vivian at the Rainbow Club. He sits
at the bar and orders a drink. In a corner behind him, two mulatto
bricklayers talk loudly, hoping Grant will overhear them. Grant
finally catches a few of their words. They state loudly that Jefferson
should have been executed long ago. Grant tries to contain
himself, but after a few minutes he loses control. He walks over
and tells them to be quiet. A fight breaks out, during which Grant
is knocked unconscious.
Summary: Chapter 26
When Grant wakes up, he finds himself in Vivian’s bedroom.
He discovers that Claiborne, unable to stop the fight, knocked him
out, and that Vivian brought him here to recover. Despite her disapproval
of violence, Vivian softens and asks Grant to stay the night. He
knows that he should not, since her husband could return to try to
get the children. She tells Grant that she needs more from him than
he currently gives her, that she wants more consideration. Angry,
he walks out of the room and stands at the front door. He looks
out through the screen and into the darkness. He does not want to
go outside, for he realizes that everything he cares for is in Vivian’s
house. After a few minutes, he returns to the kitchen and buries
his face in Vivian’s lap.
Summary: Chapter 27
Reverend Ambrose talks to Grant about Jefferson. He wants
Grant to help him teach Jefferson about God, but Grant no longer
believes in the church and refuses to help the reverend. Reverend
Ambrose gets angry and raises his voice to Grant, calling him “boy”
and telling him that he is uneducated because he does not know or
understand people. Grant says he cannot lie to Jefferson by pretending
to believe in heaven or the Bible. Reverend Ambrose says he knows Grant
looks down on him for lying, and he admits that he does lie in order
to relieve people’s pain, but he says that people lie to themselves
and to others in order to make life bearable. He tells Grant that
Tante Lou has been lying to him all her life, telling herself and Grant
she was fine when truly she was working her fingers to the bone
in order to send him to college.
Summary: Chapter 28
When Grant next goes to visit Jefferson, he sees the notebook
on the floor, next to the radio. He opens the notebook and finds
that Jefferson has filled up three-quarters of the first page, though
he clearly erased a great deal. He has written about dying, and
about the difference between men and hogs. Grant asks him about
Reverend Ambrose’s last visit. Jefferson says Ambrose told him to
pray, but that he does not pray because he doesn’t know if heaven
exists. Jefferson asks Grant if he prays and Grant replies honestly,
saying he doesn’t because he doesn’t believe in anything. Grant
says he feels lost. He tells Jefferson that he wants Jefferson to
believe in something so that someday Grant can look to Jefferson
as an example and start believing in something himself.
Jefferson says that Reverend Ambrose told him to give
up his possessions, which confuses Jefferson because he has so few
possessions to give up. Grant says Jefferson may not have possessions,
but he still has love to give. Jefferson says that everyone asks
him to bear a cross, but no one ever bore his cross. Jefferson asks
if Miss Emma or even Grant would go to the chair to save him. When
Jefferson asks if Grant believes in God, Grant says he does. Jefferson
says he wants to go to his death wordlessly, as Christ did. He talks
of his execution, saying Grant asks too much of him. Jefferson says
that he moved through his life working and grinning to get by, pandering
to the whites, doing what he thought God asked of him, and now the people
around him want him to change entirely. When Grant lowers his
head, Jefferson accuses him of not being able to look at him. Grant looks,
and sees Jefferson standing tall, not stooped. Jefferson asks Grant
how the execution will feel. Grant continues to avert his gaze from
Jefferson, but accepts a sweet potato when Jefferson offers it.
Analysis: Chapters 25–28
In these chapters, Grant becomes not teacher but student.
Grant is lost and needs Jefferson’s help, as he admits to Jefferson.
Grant also admits to the reverend that he is lost. Reverend Ambrose
says he himself is found, for he understands that the black community
needs the church in order to bear life in the racist South. Ambrose
also says that lying is necessary in order to make life endurable
and to help others, like Grant, make progress in the world. Here
Ambrose changes his tactics slightly. Before, he challenged Grant
solely on religious grounds, insulting him as a secular teacher.
Now he talks not just about faith in God, but about kindness to
friends and family. This argument seems to reach Grant. In addressing
these subjects, Ambrose highlights the absurdity facing the black community—namely,
the fact that the community must continually compromise its own
sense of ethical behavior—honesty—in order to survive in an unethical
and racist world. Ambrose’s emphasis on lying attracts Grant because
he too has had to lie in the past—for instance, when he lied to
Miss Emma about Jefferson’s aggression. Grant can identify with
Ambrose’s words here and even puts them into practice. When he speaks
to Jefferson in Chapter 28, Grant tries to
persuade him to believe in religion whether Jefferson believes it
will be good for his soul or not.
