I don't like Grant very much, sorry
This
entire book has been an emotional roller coaster, and I can’t really describe
or place my feelings for the events surrounding Chapter 29, so putting that
aside, I wanted to talk about the other scene that affected me the most in this
novel: Grant and Vivian’s confrontation in Chapter 26. Basically, that is the
scene after the bar fight where Vivian tells Grant her husband wants to see
their children every weekend.
We
have seen Vivian throughout this novel, filling a lot of different roles. She
is a teacher, but also a girlfriend, but also an intellectual challenge. She
serves to humanize Grant in a way none of the other characters really do.
Throughout this novel, as the title suggests, I don’t like Grant very much.
Sorry. In my mind, I understand his situation sucks, that he is facing a slew
of societal hardships and impossibilities, that he is one of the unluckiest
people in the US, simply because of his location, time period, and the color of
his skin. But even knowing all of this, I can’t get myself to like Grant. He is
strangely distant from everyone around him, which is most visible during the
Christmas pageant. During that scene, he is incredibly mentally (and even physically)
removed from the community and children. His narration is critical of the play
(the whole time, he focuses on how the kid holding the flashlight is wiggling,
instead of watching and enjoying the play), and even when people eat, he sits
alone, separate from the crowd. Overall, his narration is just kind of cold and
detached – I know his situation sucks, I just wish he acted like he cared.
Vivian
kinda forces him to confront that in Chapter 26. One of my favorite parts is
when he says “All I know is I love you” and she counters with “That’s not
enough […] What is love?” (pgs. 209-210). It’s such a summary of how Grant goes
about his life – he goes through the motions of what is supposed to happen
(accept food at a community gathering, bless the food on the table, tell your
girlfriend you love her) but going through the motions is not actually enough,
and so neither he nor the people around him end up being satisfied with the
result.
In
that scene, I love the portrayal of Vivian, and for me as a reader, it grounded
me, and made me think about how obsessed with Jefferson Grant had gotten. I feel
like being in Vivians shoes that night would have truly been awful – as a
teacher, she probably deals with much of the same things Grant deals with, so
is already in a bad position, but then the night her ex-husband tells her she
can’t move far away from her bad situation, her boyfriend gets into a bar
fight, and even after she comes to rescue him and take him home, all he wants
to talk about is the man he is visiting in prison. I can really see her
frustration and I can imagine how angry and disappointed she feels. That entire
scene, it feels like Grant is giving up, and just saying empty phrases like “I
love you” to try to keep her. Even in the end, as he looks outside, what turns
him around is not some deep emotional connection, or even a recognition of his
wrongness or anything like that, it’s literally just that he has nobody else in
the world.
This post made me think a lot. Personally I think I've had a mostly favorable view of Grant throughout the book. This might partially be because the last hero I have in my mind to compare him to is Anse who I honestly couldn't stand. I don't really want to judge him for being preoccupied with Jefferson because it's a situation that I can't even imagine and it must be unbelievably hard on him. I think its understandable that Grant spends a lot of his time right now thinking about Jefferson, given the circumstances. This being said, I agree that Grant still could have made more of an effort to also be open to listening to Vivian's problems and making her a priority as well.
ReplyDeleteNice post. As someone who really likes Grant, I appreciate a post like this because it brought forth everything that I was hesitant about him. Although I think Grant does a wonderful job with Jefferson, it's definitely true that he ignores Vivian for much of the book. When you think about the situation from Vivian's point, Grant sucks. When you think about the situation from Grant's point of view, he still kind of sucks. I think criticizing him for his behavior at the Christmas play is kind of unfair though, because it's clear that the community heavily judges him for being atheistic, and thus he naturally feels lonely.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really meaningful representation of Grant's character. Though I agree he isn't a very inspiring character throughout the book, I feel like his attitude at the end gives hope that his obsessive focus on his relationship with Jefferson helped him learn about relationships and will help him become a better person in the future.
ReplyDeleteOne implication of this analysis of Grant--and the ways Vivian calls out his limitations--is that Grant still has a lot of growing up to do. We've discussed his behavior and attitude as "adolescent" throughout the book, and indeed I used to teach this novel in the Coming-of-Age Novel class--and we debated whose coming-of-age is more significant and necessary, Grant's or Jefferson's (or, Grant's is necessary in order to enable Jefferson's?). I admit to similar frustrations around Grant's character throughout, but I do see profound growth in the final pages of the novel--especially the final sentence, when he faces his class with emotional honesty for the first time, seemingly transformed himself by Jefferson's example.
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