What role does it play in the chacaters' lives and the life of the community?

Grant's job as a schoolteacher puts him in the middle of many debates that raged at the time about what and how African-Americans should be taught. Grant greatly values his status as an educated man, and believes that literature has the power to help people understand the world around them. Nevertheless, he is doubtful that public education as it works in the quarter is very effective. "Reading, writing, and 'rithmetic" seem inadequate to the needs of Grant's students, who must overcome poverty and prejudice to scratch out even a meager existence. Grant also frets that he is being required to impart white values, and that even as it helps people, education might also be eroding African-American culture