Ms. Gulitti
Name_______________________________________
AP Lang/Comp
Period_______________________________________
Appeals to Pathos: Arguments in
A Lesson Before Dying
Chapters 3 and 4
Directions: These chapters further characterize Miss Emma. Grant, and introduce us to
Vivian, Grant’s girlfriend. Examine the important lines spoken by these characters with
reference to Jefferson’s situation to determine the heart of the arguments presented by such
characters. How do such arguments help to characterize these characters?
Chapter 3: Miss Emma to Henri Pichot—underline the arguments that Miss
Emma asserts; highlight language that Miss Emma uses to appeal to Mr. Henri’s
pathos.
(pages 20-21):
“I want ask you a favor, Mr. Henri.”
“They called my boy a hog, Mr. Henri. I didn’t raise no hog, and I don’t want no hog
to go set in that chair. I want a man to set in that chair, Mr. Henri.”
“I’m old, Mr. Henri…Jefferson go’n need me but I’m too old to be going up there. My
heart won’t take it. I want you talk to the sheriff for me. I want somebody else take
my place.”
“I need you speak for me, Mr. Henri…I want the teacher visit my boy. I want the
teacher make him know he’s not a hog, he’s a man. I want him know that ‘fore he go
to that chair, Mr. Henri.”
“I done done a lot for this family and this place, Mr. Henri…All I’m asking you talk to
the sheriff for me. I done done a lot for this family over the years…You can speak to
your brother-in-law.”
“Reverend Mose will visit him. But no, sir, I won’t keep it at that.”
(pages 22-23)
“I’m not begging for his life no more; that’s over. I just want to see him die like a
man. This family owe me that much, Mr. Henri. And I want it. I want somebody do
something for me one time fore I close my eyes. Somebody got to do something for
me one time ‘fore I close my eyes, Mr. Henri. Please, sir.”
“Mr. Henri? I’ll be up here again tomorrow, Mr. Henri. I’ll be on my knees next time
you see me, Mr. Henri.”
Conclusions about Miss Emma:
Chapter 4: Grant to Vivian—underline the arguments that Grant asserts and
highlight language that reveals Grant’s emotion and conflict.
(pages 29-31)
“I want to go someplace where I can feel I’m living…I don’t want to spend the rest of
my life teaching school in a plantation church. I want to be with you, someplace
where we could have a choice of things to do. I don’t feel alive here. I’m not living
here. I know we can do better someplace else.”
“They gave him death…They want me to visit him…They want me to make him a
man before he dies.”
“The public defender…said it would be like tying a hog down into that chair and
executing him—an animal that didn’t know what any of it was about. The jury,
twelve white men good and true, still sentenced him to death. Now his godmother
wants me to visit him and make him know—prove to these white men—that he’s
not a hog, that he’s a man. I’m supposed to make him a man. Who am I? God?”
“What do I say to him? 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. Am I supposed to tell
someone how to do who has never lived?”
“…Suppose I reached him and made him realize that he was as much a man as any
other man; then what? He’s still going to die. The next day, the next week, the next
month. So what will I have accomplished? What will I have done? Why not let the
hog die without knowing anything?”
Conclusions about Grant:
What does Grant eventually decide to do with regard to Jefferson? Why?