Change is a part of life, everyone must undergo it. From newborn, child, teenager, adult and from these stages we become more mature as time goes by. Some never learn important lessons, and most never have the chance because experiencing a trial is necessary to mature. In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, the most important thing you can learn is that you can never stop changing and growing as a person. The most important lesson one could learn before dying is that as human beings we have the ability to change, learn, grow, and see things differently. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Jefferson's character embodies probably the most "change" anyone has undergone in the novel, staying true to the important lesson we all need to learn before we die. Jefferson's conviction is justified because he is not seen as a human being. The ideal of "[Jefferson] is a pig" is used to dehumanize him, making it easier to believe that he is not worth execution but at the same time making it easier to accept his death. The sheriff also adopts this when he tells Grant, "you'd rather see a happy pig go into that chair than a sore pig." (41, Gaines). The sheriff thinks "there's nothing you can put in that skull that isn't already there." (41, Gaines). This white-dominated society that condemns Jefferson to die believes that individuals like him are incapable of higher thought and incapable of change. However, Jefferson changes thanks to Grant's help and instructions. What Grant teaches him is what helps give him a broader awareness of the world and his place in it. Before Grant's "teachings," Jefferson believed that his identity was static and could not change from the expectations placed on him as a black man in that society. This can be seen in his life of crime as Jefferson was not actively assaulting/robbing the store. He had not planned the crime and, by going along with it, demonstrated that he believes he is incapable of changing and that he is a criminal through and through. “The human capacity to grow up and “be a man” is something Grant addresses in his lectures: “And that's all we are, Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of driftwood, until we - every one of we, individually, decide to become something else."' (158, Gaines). Jefferson discovers that he can change and learns his own humanity. Jefferson demonstrates this when he writes that "Man walks on two feet; pigs on four hooves." (180, Gaines). It is what he reads that allows Grant to understand Jefferson's emotions and ideas at that moment: "tell them I'm strong, tell them I'm a good man, Mr. Wigin.” (190, Gaines). By requiring Paul to convey this message, Jefferson embodied the change of “becoming a man,” which is confirmed when Paul says that “Jefferson was the strongest man in that crowded room.” Furthermore, Jefferson's final words to Grant strongly emphasized the importance of the community of their city knowing that he died as a man that the students, the rest of the black community, and his family must realize that he faced his death as something more than what the white man called him. Grant is another example of a character who recognized the importance of this lesson. Through Jefferson he learns that human beings have the ability to change their ways and therefore the way in which we perceive them. After giving a speech to Jefferson about what.