Chapters 4 & 5 Discussion Questions & Answers

Chapter 4 Discussion Questions & Answers

1. In describing Bayonne, the narrator mentions that the town’s major industries include “a slaughterhouse, mostly for hogs.” How does this echo and expand on the public defender’s summation in Jefferson’s trial in Chapter 1?
When describing Bayonne, the narrator mentions that the town’s major industries include “a slaughterhouse, mostly for hogs.” This further emphasizes and expands on the public defender's summation in Jefferson's trial which occurred in Chapter 1. This also echo the public defender's summation in the trial. Just like the hogs being killed in the slaughterhouse, Jefferson which was compared to a hog earlier in the story ,will be killed or slaughtered like an animal.


2. Several times in the course of the novel, including Chapter 4, the narrator expresses the
need to get away from the town where he lives.  Explain why he feels compelled to flee and what keeps him there despite the urge to leave.
The narrator feels compelled to flee because of the burden of changing Jefferson  to a man before he dies is weighing in heavy on him and he feels like he wouldn't be able to help him nor where to start. Several times in the course of the novel, including Chapter 4, the narrator expresses the need to get away from the town where he lives. Despite the feeling and urge to flee or to leave the love of his life Vivian keeps him there.

Chapter 5 Discussion Questions & Answers

1. Grant is in a foul mood in this chapter, and he appears to lash out at the children. Why is he in such a terrible mood? To whom does he compare the students in his diatribe, and what is the point he is trying to convey to them?

Grant is in a foul mood in chapter 5, and he appears to lash out at or take his frustrations out on the young school children. I believe he is in such a terrible mood because he is thinking about how he has the duty to try to change Jefferson before he is killed. Grant compares the children or students to Jefferson in his diatribe. The point he is trying to convey is that if they don't take the opportunity to become educated and learn how to grow up to become respectable young men and women and not compared to unintelligent hogs.

2. The unspoken “rules” that govern social relations between whites and black in the segregated South require blacks to intuit signs and meanings. In writing of Farrell Jarreau, the black handyman for Henri Pichot, the narrator says, “To learn anything, he had to attain it by stealth or through an innate sense of things around him.” How does this kind of stealth undermine one group’s sense of humanity and keep members of that group in a subservient position?
The unspoken “rules” that govern social relations between whites and blacks in the segregated South require blacks to intuit signs and meanings. In writing of Farrell Jarreau, the black handyman for Henri Pichot, the narrator says, “To learn anything, he had to attain it by stealth or through an innate sense of things around him." This kind of stealth undermines one group's sense of humanity and keep members of that in a subservient position by demeaning blacks or colored people as if there are not equal or important enough to engage in a conversation with whites to deliver a proper message to others.