Jefferson's Diary

I've never read anything like Jefferson's Diary. It's definitely one of the most unique things I've ever come across in literature, for a multitude of reasons. This blog post will highlight what I found most compelling about the journal: his grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Reading Jefferson's entry is tough on your mind. Trying to decipher Jefferson's words and thoughts isn't easy, especially when some of his misspelled words are other correctly spelled words. However, I think that Gaines does this intentionally; by trudging through Jefferson's innermost thoughts, we can better understand and appreciate them. To be honest, if Jefferson's notebook was written in perfect prose, I probably would have skimmed over a lot of important stuff, reading this late at night before going to bed. However, because I had to consciously make an effort to understand him, I felt like I was engaging with him as a character more than any other in literature. His thoughts felt more real to me, and it also helped that some of his language was quite poetic.

Moving on to the actual content of the journal, I was very interested in his interaction with Paul. To be honest, Paul might be my favorite character in this novel, since it doesn't seem to me that he has any glaring flaws, and I think that he just comes off as a sympathetic guy trying to do his best for Grant and Jefferson, despite him being white and them being black. When Jefferson called out Paul in his journal, saying that he knew about how Paul truly felt about him, I was happy in a way. I didn't want Paul to be another white guy who just didn't care about Jefferson (like the clerk at the bank near the end of the book). When Paul approached Grant at the end of the novel and offered his hand in friendship, I felt really happy for both him and Grant. It seems to me that Grant could use another ally such as Paul. Finally, then Paul remarks that "he would be honored" to visit Grant's school, I took that as concrete evidence that maybe, just maybe Jefferson and Grant had made progress to breaking the cycle that entrapped Jefferson, Grant, and Antionne before him.

Comments

  1. David SunApril 14, 2019 at 1:04 PM

    I agree with the idea that Gaines purposefully made Jefferson's diary full of mistakes. Not only does it slow us down and make us fully take in what Jefferson is saying, it also makes the passage more powerful. It's consistent with the idea that Jefferson is uneducated, so it makes it feel like Jefferson is actually talking to us (rather than Grant narrating it, which would be second-hand).

    I found the diary extremely powerful as we got to see some of Jefferson's inner thoughts and feelings that he hasn't been able to articulate (him liking Grant, missing Mrs. Emma's cooking, or appreciating the children). It was also moving to see all the growth that Jefferson has gone through, especially when he calls himself a man.

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  2. MitchellApril 21, 2019 at 10:31 AM

    Paul is certainly one of the most dynamic characters in the novel, which is remarkable given how little "page time" he actually takes up. Our eyes are firmly fixed on Jefferson's transformation, which is the center of the plot (to the point that other characters are betting on the outcome), and we follow Grant's transformation (or potential transformation, which arguably doesn't come until the final words of the novel) as the "journey" unfolds. But in that crucial final scene, we see Paul (who is "good people," understood to be something of a rarity among local law enforcement) not only show humanity to Jefferson and Grant, but to understand the 'meaning' of Jefferson's transformation--to "testify" to its truth and value, and to make an offer of "friendship" with Grant (symbolically, an alliance between law enforcement and the education system). And he hasn't even read the notebook yet (another sign of his "goodness")--imagine what he'll think when he hits the passage where Jefferson is saying "i kno you paul"!

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