Given the global climate crisis and the ubiquitous use of literature in Swedish upper secondary schools to raise various values-based issues, this essay examines the didactic potential of Jefferson and how to utilize the novel's aforementioned potential in relation to value-based work in a classroom context. Special emphasis has been invested on the environmental aspect of the value-based work, more precisely: how the relationship between humans and animals affects the environment and how this relationship can be problematized by using Jefferson in the Swedish subject classroom. Malin Alkestrand’s concept of didactic potential has been used in combination with a critical anthropocentric perspective to investigate the didactic potential of Jefferson in relation to the value-based work, and how this potential can be converted into didactic gains for students. Moreover, in addition to the concept of didactic potential, Alkestrand’s theory of alienation and Martha Nussbaum’s theory of narrative imagination have been applied to sections, themes, and literary devices in the book; furthermore, the results of the analysis indicate how Jefferson possesses the didactic potential to address numerous aspects included in the value-based work. The results also show that Jefferson, because of its content and literary devices, provides an especially favorable springboard to address the relationship between humans and animals from an environmental perspective.