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The defense attorney
The wealthy, bigoted white man who reluctantly agrees to the sheriff to allow Miss Emma Glenn and Grant to visit Jefferson. For many years, Pichot employed both Tante Lou and Miss Emma in his mansion; Emma reminds him of this fact when she begs him for the right to visit Jefferson. Pichot is revealed to be a cruel, bloodthirsty man near the end of the novel, when Gaines makes it clear that Pichot made a bet with his friend that Jefferson would kill himself before the day of his execution—he even offers Jefferson a penknife, thinking that Jefferson will use it to hurt himself. In many ways, Pichot stands for the racist white establishment: he’s openly hostile to Black people, but also strangely weak in his need to see Black people demonstrate their own weakness. For Jefferson to stand proudly on the day he dies, then, is a major victory against Pichot.
Henri Pichot Quotes in A Lesson Before Dying
The A Lesson Before Dying quotes below are all either spoken by Henri Pichot or refer to Henri Pichot. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
Before I left for the university, my aunt sat me down at the table in our kitchen and said to me, “Me and Emma can make out all right without you coming through that back door ever again.” I had not come through that back door once since leaving for the university, ten years before. I had been teaching on the place going on six years, and I had not been in Pichot’s yard, let alone gone up the back stairs or through that back door.
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Henri Pichot Quotes in A Lesson Before Dying
The A Lesson Before Dying quotes below are all either spoken by Henri Pichot or refer to Henri Pichot. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3
Quotes
Before I left for the university, my aunt sat me down at the table in our kitchen and said to me, “Me and Emma can make out all right without you coming through that back door ever again.” I had not come through that back door once since leaving for the university, ten years before. I had been teaching on the place going on six years, and I had not been in Pichot’s yard, let alone gone up the back stairs or through that back door.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
