Chapter 8 Summary

The first load of firewood is delivered to the school. Grant observes the deliverymen joking with each other, as his students do. He wonders if his teaching will impact their futures at all. Grant recalls the childhood peers and notes that some have left the community, some remain and some are dead.

Grant's teacher, a mulatto named Matthew Antoine, predicted that most of his students would die violently, or be "brought down to the level of beasts." Grant remembers that Antoine had contempt for himself and his students. After obtaining an education, Grant visits Antoine, but still sees the hatred in him. On one visit, Antoine tells Grant that he will come to feel the same, when he sees that his teaching is a waste. He reminds Grant that he told him to get out of the community.

Grant admits to himself that...