...In the story “A Lesson Before Dying” written by Ernest J. Gaines, The 1940’s in Louisiana had a great number of slaves and racism. Jefferson was one of those African-American given a death penalty. Grant who helped Jefferson to become a man instead of a hog didn’t go to Jefferson’s execution. Instead Grant stays at his school to wait for the news that shows Grant’s weakness towards Jefferson. Also is strength. Grant has accomplished so much with Jefferson more then anyone can do i that time but Grant doesn’t go to jefferson’s own execution and regrets it ,has we see it in chapter 31 “ where was he at this very moment? At the window, looking at the sky? Lying on the bunk, staring up at the gray ceiling? Standing at the cell door, waiting? How did he feel? Was he afraid? Was he crying? Were they they coming to get him now, this moment? Was he on his knees, begging for one more minute of life? Was he standing?” The confusion of Grant shows his weakness that he is finally realising the day has come. The moment finally arrived.If we continue looking into chapter 31 we see Grant’s guilt “ Why wasn’t I there? Why wasn’t I standing next him? Why my arm wasn’t around him? Why?” Grant showed a lot of compassion for Jefferson and that showed a lot of Grant’s weakness....
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...Throughout the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, a variety of themes, motifs, and other literary devices are used to develop character and/or advance the plot. Albeit not the most profound or meaningful device, the idea of communion and sharing of food as described in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster, is immensely powerful in characterizing relationships. The denial of, acceptance of, or even just the food itself are all used to describe everything from mutual hatred to sense of community to the state of character’s personality or relationship with another character. It can even be observed in the literal biblical notion of communion such as Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. The refusal of...
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...A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines reveals many fundamental and universal ideas. The book gives a reader a lot of mental pabulum. It makes people think about life and its value, about people’s relations and behaviors, and about the past and the present. The book teaches people to recognize injustice in the society and to take responsibilities to improve it; it teaches to accept the past as it is and to face problems; it teaches that a lie can be constructive, and that it can decrease people’s sufferings. Grant Wiggins, the protagonist of the novel, often criticizes and bitterly resents racist society. He tends to run away and escape the society he feels will never change. Like Professor Antoine, he believes no one can change society without being destroyed in the process. Jefferson’s trial reinforces Grant’s pessimistic attitude. Grant sees the wickedness of a system designed to uphold the superiority of one race over another. He sees a man struck down to the level of a hog by a few words from an attorney. During the course of the novel, however, Grant comes to realize that cynicism like his is akin to lying down and dying, and that even small victories can accumulate and produce change. Rather than looking at Jefferson as a hopeless stranger, Grant accepts Jefferson’s plight as his own and begins to fight for Jefferson’s salvation. He accepts his duty to the society he inhabits, thereby taking the first step toward improving that society. Alongside with the theme of...
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...In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines, there are several central symbols to the novel. Throughout the end of the novel, the central symbol is kneeling/ crawling, it is used to show a deeper meaning and the theme. The central symbol of kneeling/ crawling ties back to one lowering themselves to help another stand. Kneeling/ crawling represents the self-sacrifice of the person, as they have to lower themselves and degrade themselves for another by kneeling/ crawling. Also, kneeling/ crawling can also represent strength in a way, by being able to lower your pride and putting yourself down to put another person first. Many of the characters in the novel kneel/ crawl for the benefit of another to stand. Kneeling/ crawling is the...
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...“I saw the transformation,” the prison guard tells Grant near the end of the novel, declaring himself a witness to Jefferson’s extraordinary progression. In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, written by Ernest J. Gaines, the main character, Jefferson had to overcome all odds against himself, and try to become a man in a very short period. This may not look very tough though, but this is especially hard for Jefferson, as he was sentenced to death by electrocution, and was called a hog by his own defense attorney, and believes this for much of the time until weeks before the execution date. Grant, the teacher, Reverend Ambrose, family members, and even God, have to help this man become a man in the little time he has left on this earth. Through...
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...Grant’s Understanding of Justice In Ernest J. Gaines historical fiction novel A Lesson Before Dying justice is one of the key elements in this book and is shown through the character Grant who is also the protagonist. Grant is the character in this novel responsible for carrying out the meaning of justice and help the character Jefferson to “die like a man” or to not “die like a hog.” Grant will pursue “justice” until it is won and Grant sees “justice” as letting Jefferson “die as a man” and not “dying like a hog.” Grant is an African American man who is in his twenties and teaches a class of kindergarten through sixth graders on a plantation in Louisiana. The author uses Grant as the protagonist as if he is the only one that can help save Jefferson. Although Grant doesn’t want to help Jefferson Grants aunt wants him to and seeing how the novel is based in Louisiana in the nineteen-forties Grant is one of the few educated African American people that can and will help Jefferson “die like a man.” The author set the location of the novel in Louisiana in the nineteen-forties where not many African Americans were as well educated as Grant was. This gave Grant the role of helping Jefferson not because he wanted to but because his aunt wanted him to. Jefferson is dipicted as an ignorant African American youngman who has no chance of being shown any mercy or any chance of being shown innocent in trial and Grant knows that but Grant sees justice as Jefferson “dying like a man” so...
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...Racial Injustice In ancient times Romans and Greeks didn’t classify people by race. They classified people by religion, class, and language. In today’s society, race is a big part of how people classify others. During the early 1900s, racial segregation and injustice were much worse, especially in the south. In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest J. Gaines, a young man named Jefferson is convicted of murder. Grant Wiggins a school teacher is requested to help Jefferson understand he is a man and not a hog like he thinks. Racial injustice influences Grant, Jefferson, and Miss Emma, which keeps them from achieving success in their lives. To start, Grant is faced with racial inequality by important people in his life. Grant’s...
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...A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines explores racism and reveals the deep prejudice against African Americans in the city of Bayonne. The first example of racism in Bayonne occurs when Miss Emma, Tante Lou, and Grant go to Henri Pichot’s home to speak to him about Grant going to see Jefferson. In the book, they walk through the back door to the kitchen, and Grant acknowledges that he never wanted to walk through that back door again after he left for college. It symbolized the deep prejudice between whites and blacks because all of the white guests were welcomed through the front door and could move throughout the house. When Pichot comes to speak to Miss Emma, he is with his guest, Louis Rougon. Both of the men continue to drink while Miss Emma begins her speech. Soon, they rudely raised their glasses for Inez to fill them while Miss Emma is talking. This lack of attention for Miss Emma shows their lack of respect for blacks. Grant recalls, “I looked at the two white men, who raised their glasses. Henri Pichot finished his drink and stuck out his hand. Inez knew what it meant, and she came forward to get the empty glass. (pg 20, ch 3)” Soon after, Pichot begins to get impatient with Miss Emma when she asks him when he would talk to the sheriff. Again, his disrespect for blacks is shown. He did not even acknowledge Grant, Tante Lou, or Miss Emma as guests, because he soon after asked to turn his attention back to his guest, Rougon. Another...
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...Not Your Everyday Hero Firefighters save lives, so they must be heros. Hercules has strength and courage, so he must be a hero. Superman saved a whole city, so he has got to be a hero. What about the everyday hero? The hero that doesn’t expect a reward for their good deed. The hero that does something because it’s just the right thing to do. Who determines who a hero is? Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Tall or short, skinny or fat, and even black or white. In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, the hero of the story cannot fly, he does not have the most strength or courage and he hasn’t saved any lives, much less a whole city. The hero in this story is a black man - charged for murder. Throughout A Lesson Before Dying Jefferson, an uneducated black man, is found guilty of murder for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A white man died, so the logical reasoning during the 1940’s must be that a black man is guilty. From the moment Jefferson’s defense attorney stated, “‘Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this’,” Jefferson and the majority of all the white men living in the Bayonne, Louisiana believed Jefferson was a hog who was going to die in the chair (Gaines 8). While Jefferson is sitting on death row, Grant Wiggins is sent by Jefferson’s godmother, Miss Emma, to make Jefferson walk to “the chair” as a man - not a hog. During the first few visits by Grant to Jefferson, the responses and actions Jefferson says and does are not very hopeful...
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...He is walking towards the chair, walking towards his death, the death he did not deserve. This is exactly the case of Jefferson, a main character in Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying. Jefferson is falsely accused of murder and sentenced to death by electric chair. His godmother, Miss Emma, assigns Grant Wiggins, a young educated man, to teach Jefferson human dignity. Although she has given the job to Grant, she takes part herself in the teaching of Jefferson, along with the local reverend, Reverand Ambrose. Grant and Miss Emma both care about Jefferson’s fate, but they have different views on how to approach him, therefore, it takes a combination of different views to teach human dignity. While Grant cares about Jefferson, he thinks that...
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...also true. Some teachers make every class an adventure and just seeing their face can brighten up a day. In Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying a young black man is wrongly sentenced for murder. A schoolteacher is then charged with teaching the convicted to respect himself and “die like a man.” This task takes a huge toll on the teacher’s mind, and it often falls to his girlfriend and fellow teacher to help him relax and calm down. It’s said that opposites attract. The two lovers in this tale are on opposite sides of the teaching spectrum. Vivian Baptiste is a young, mulatto lady with a self-imposed duty to teach. Grant, while not all the way at the other end of the continuum,...
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...with one prisoner are in a conflict about education and personal identity. Reverend Ambrose and Grant, two characters presented in A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines are both trying to help Jefferson, the prisoner, to die with pride. Reverend Ambrose is educated culturally, knowing his roots and his cultural background very well. He is considered the cultural center of the town in the Cajun society. He believes that the Grant is not using the right methods to teach Jefferson. On the other hand, Grant is academically educated. Grant Wiggins went onto college to further his studies in arithmetics, reading, and writing. He believes that his methods are more logical due to his further education in academics. This leads...
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...when he dies so nobly. I like that he changes in the story, but he doesn’t change entirely. It made him lose faith in society. People don’t change overnight, even when you go through life experiences. But in Grant’s case, the slight change he maid had an impact on his life. This spoke to me because it shows that the events of our lives can truly change who we are. Another reason I like this book is that it realistically reflects how African-Americans are treated, especially in the 1940s. The reason Jefferson received the death penalty was because he was African-American. We still see injustices like this today, such as the Ferguson Case, Trayvon Martin, or Michael Brown. A Lesson Before Dying took place before the civil rights movement, but still after the civil rights movement, not much has changed. The book was written after the civil rights movement, so the author wrote a story about how characters change, but our society hasn’t much. After reading A Lesson Before Dying, I asked myself if there any hope for the black community in America. We do have a black president after all, yet it seems like there hasn’t been enough change in our society since the story took place. Even though we have come along way since 1940s, it does not seem like far enough. A Lesson Before Dying is one of my...
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...What does it mean to be human? Is it how we look? Our intelligence? Our minds in general? All of these are true in some sort of way, in both negative and positive ways. However, African Americans were thought of as different in all of those ways, and not for the positive reasons. A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940’s. In this book, a man by the name of Jefferson is wrongfully convicted for murder, and a teacher, named Grant, is forced to convince him that he is a man and not a hog like the people in the court told him he was. Although it seems easy to understand whether you are a human in general or not, it is quite difficult to understand it when everyone around you constantly tells you otherwise. “Oh pardon me, pardon me, I surely did not mean to insult your intelligence by saying ‘man’—would you please forgive me for committing such an error” (Gaines 8). This extremely derogatory statement was a gibe from no other than Jefferson’s own attorney at his trial in court. Not even the people fighting for...
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...In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, the main character Grant does not leave his small town because he is afraid to leave. Grant is afraid of failure and change. The character Grant is stubborn and self-centered. He does not face his problems as he metaphorically runs away from his problems. Even though Grant metaphorically runs away, he is afraid to leave because he has so much to lose, showing his fear of failure. In town Grant is a school teacher, he is afraid to leave because he is afraid of losing his power as a teacher. He is afraid he would fail as a teacher for himself and fail as a teacher for his students. Also, Grant is afraid of change because right now Grant has it good. He’s worked hard to get to where he is...
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