Nathan Richer
May 22, 2018
Bewick/Conner
English 3 Final Essay Throughout this semester we read three novels that had the same overlaying themes. The themes portrayed in the novels are truth, judgement, and justice. In case you do not know a theme is an overlaying message or statement that is portrayed throughout a piece of writing. The books we talk about having these themes of truth, judgement, and justice are Lesson Before Dying, and Monster. In these novels we are introduced to two characters who happen to be in the similar situations. The novel Monster we are introduced to our main character Steve, who is in jail for a crime he was accused of being a part of and is currently on trial. The other text we are given is Lesson Before Dying,
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And we are not talking about how each text has truth in it, we are talking about how truth is called into question in each of the stories, Lesson Before Dying and Monster. Let's start with the question, what is truth? Truth is a matter of perception and is a factual state of being, as well as having to be backed by facts and evidence. How is this addressed in Lesson Before Dying. To start off at the beginning of the novel the police catch Jefferson red handed, with a bottle of alcohol he took off the shelf of the convenience store and his hand full of money from the register, in a store that was just robbed and a murder committed during the robbery. When the police catch him they assume he was the one who committed the crime but in fact Jefferson states that he took the bottle and drank it to ease his nerves after what he just witnessed and he was taking the money because he was not thinking straight. This is where we implement truth being a matter of perspective, from Jefferson's perspective he is telling the truth of what happened and why he was caught how he was, but from the laws perspective he is trying to cover up what happened by lying. This is a similar circumstance in Monster, but Steve was not caught in the act, he was arrested after the police connected him to the crime that was the robbery and murder at the convenience store. Truth is called into question throughout Steves story because the …show more content…
Obviously both novels deal with people being in jail or prison. Let’s start with the story Monster and the main character Steve, he is on trial throughout the novel for felony murder and being connected with the robbery. He isn’t being judged just by the jury and the judge, he is being judged by the prosecutor Petrocelli, his attorney,O’Brien , as well as his own father. The question we addressed is why he faces judgement and the answer to that is because he on trial for a crime and no one knows what the truth is and whether he is telling people the truth or not. But the result of Steve’s trial is a positive outcome in which he is found not guilty, and he reacts with shock and overwhelming relief. The other story, Lesson Before Dying, the main character, Grant, is the one who faces the most judgement throughout the novel. He is judged by numerous people in the story including his aunt, Vivian, the sheriff, along with others. The reasons he faces judgement by all of these individuals is for a variety of reason. His aunt, Tante Lou, judges him for an amount of things such as not wanting to teach Jefferson, turning his back on his family, and having a love affair with a married woman, Vivian. Grant's love interest, Vivian, judges Grant for being close minded, after he said that he wants to run away from his home with her even though she has told
The most important conflict in the story A Lesson Before Dying, written by Ernest J. Gaines is the person vs society conflict . This conflict is essential for the story’s themes of racism, ignorance and inequality. As well as the black man vs a racist society conflict is the entire reason for the events in the story to take place, and ties into many of the other conflicts in the book. A quote that demonstrates this type of conflict is this quote said by Professor Antoine : “Don't be a damned fool. I am superior to you. I am superior to any man blacker than me” (Gaines 65).
The novel, “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, portrays a teacher named Grant and how he was given the task to teach Jefferson, a man who might have been wrongfully accused of murder and attempted theft, that he is to die a man when he is to be executed. Before he was given the verdict, Jefferson’s lawyer compared him to a mindless hog and over time began to believe it himself. Grant now had to not only teach him how to be a man, but also a human being. He didn’t like the idea of teaching Jefferson, when he himself was struggling to figure out what being a man really means. In the end, the two of them found their answers. However, Jefferson clearly learned more than Grant could ever grasp. Though Grant was the one who was assigned
Grant Wiggins from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines and Dee Johnson from Everyday Use by Alice Walker are two similar individuals who both steer away from their families’ traditional way of life, but are different in some aspects. Both characters are unique due to their personality, their education, and their appearance. Dee is a college student in rural Georgia who comes back to visit her mother and sister with her new boyfriend. Dee contradicts herself in trying to reclaim her heritage, but actually steers away from it. Grant is a plantation teacher who is recruited by Ms. Emma to help Jefferson die like a man. He feels that cannot help his family with their present issue because he is not a man himself, therefore he tries to detach himself from the problem.
The author of the article “A Call to Service in Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying” is Beatrice McKinsey. In McKinsey’s introduction, she stated her thesis statement: “whatever one’s social class, race, or education maybe, we have a purpose or a call to service. Ernest Gaines uses the main characters, Grant and Jefferson, to demonstrate how men can achieve manliness through service” (McKinsey 77). By stating this thesis statement, McKinsey shows her audience that she will be discussing the main characters, as well as their journey to becoming manly. Overall, this is seen as the purpose for her article.
In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, Grant Wiggins is asked to turn Jefferson, a young man on death row, into an honorable man before his execution. Grant faces many difficulties when Jefferson is unresponsive and refuses to comply with Grant and Aunt Emma’s request. Throughout the story, Grant struggles to find motivation to keep working with Jefferson as he faces the difficulty of racism and prejudice. The author of the novel, Ernest J. Gaines, uses characterization to prove the theme that a lack of compassion in individuals can prevent people from uniting to form a better society, because they do not try to understand one another. In the beginning of the novel, Miss Emma and Tante Lou are threatening Grant into going to visit Mr.
In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, Grant and Jefferson are black men in the era of a racist society; but they have struggles with a greater dilemma, obligation and commitment. They have obligations to their families and to the town they are part of. They lived in a town were everybody knew everybody else and took care of each other. "Living and teaching on a plantation, you got to know the occupants of every house, and you knew who was home and who was not.... I could look at the smoke rising from each chimney or I could look at the rusted tin roof of each house, and I could tell the lives that went on in each one of them." [pp. 37-38] Just by Grant’s words you can tell that that is a community that is very devoted to each other.
Over the years education has been one of the challenges in the African American Community, in the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines time period focused on education; which was very involved in work and labor instead of education. Learning in the south due to segregation became terrible for African Americans to afford education however the north in urban communities also experience the lack of education. Why does the south have little to no education more than the north in black communities? Education in the south has been inferior to the north due to the lack of funds, discrimination and social differences which is shown in graduation rates.
Life is short and it is up to you to make the most out of it. The most important lesson that everyone should follow and apply to everyday life is “never give up”. In the novel, “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, the important lesson can be shown in the characters Jefferson, Miss Emma and Grant Wiggins.
These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on. Theme is the underlying power beneath a story; the “force” that makes the whole experience worthwhile. Theme is “an idea or message that the writer wishes to convey” (Holt 874). A theme can be either stated or implied.
Throughout the hundreds of years, individuals have pondered the impact of heavenly or insidious force, environment, hereditary qualities, even excitement, as deciding how free any individual is in settling on good decisions. Fate, a result of the past, is often described as the advancement of occasions out of man 's control, dictated by an extraordinary force. In any case that someone may utilize their freewill can reflect upon their outcomes, decided upon a supreme force, whether they are positive or negative. In the novels “A Lesson Before Dying,” Ernest Gaines and “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck, the authors explore the trials and tribulations of self influenced fate controlled by an higher force.
Some of his journal entries lead to the idea that he feels guilty for something. Could he feel guilty for committing a crime that turned into a murder? ON page 61 Steve writes “He said when he gets out, he will have the word monster tattooed on his forehead. I feel like I already have it tattooed on mine.” Why would Steve feel like a monster if he knew he was not guilty for any crime? just because the prosecutor said it? If Steve was truly innocent he would not feel like a “monster”. On page 62 Steve says “In a way he was right, at least about me. I want to look like a good person. I want to feel like I’m a good person because i believe I am. But being here with these guys makes it hard to think about yourself as being different.” In this quote Steve is stating that he feels like all the other “criminals”. If he was truly innocent wouldn’t it be easy for him to realize that he is truly a good person and different from all the other people around him? Steve is lying to himself about how he is innocent and his journal entries clearly show this.
The topic at hand for both of these stories is simple, but has many opinions. That being a black man was accused as a murder/murder accomplice and was put on trial for it. Both, Monster and Murder on a Sunday Morning, deal with racial issues and being judged for the color of their skin; their cases are very similar but also have some key differences.
In the world today, there are many people who make bad decisions. For example, talking to a friend when the teacher is teaching, drinking soda before playing a instrument, or even forgetting to eat breakfast. One must understand that for every action there are consequences, some worse than others. In the book ‘Monster’ Steve Harmon was indeed the lookout for the robbery, but was not responsible for the murder of Mr. Nisbet (the store owner). How is this so apparent? While reading the book there are several clues as to why Steve was the lookout but not the murderer. For example there’s a scene where Steve is talking to James King about being the lookout, a scene where he lies under oath, and he was at the scene of the crime just before it went
Ernest Gaines was born during the middle of the Great Depression on January 15, 1933. He was the oldest of twelve children. At the age of nine Gaines worked as an errand boy on the River Lake Plantation, the same plantation his book A Lesson Before Dying was set in. Gaines was raised by his Aunt Augusteen Jefferson, much like Grant, the protagonist in the novel, was raised by his Aunt Tante Lou. At the age of fifteen Gaines rejoined his immediate family in Vallejo, California because there were no high schools for him to attend in Louisiana. Gaines also wanted to enter a public library which was illegal for people of color to use. At this time in U.S. History, books about colored people were scarce and so Gaines decided to try and write his own novel. The desire to write led him to San Francisco State and Stanford University where he took creative writing courses. His first book, Catherine Carmier, was published in 1964. He finished his most famous novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, in 1971. The success of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman prompted Gaines to write more about the black communities of southern Louisiana. The most successful book dealing with the colored people of southern Louisiana, A Lesson Before Dying, was penned in 1993 (“About Ernest Gaines” 1).
In A Lesson Before Dying, one of the most pronounced themes or issues in the book is regarding people’s natural longing for power. The author uses the character of Grant Wiggins to reveal the need most encounter for authority over their peers. It is through Wiggin’s character that the audience truly understands how little remarks and condemnations significantly shape a person’s outlook and personality. Not only through comments made to Wiggins is the theme, a desire for power, exemplified, but also through dominance driven remarks made by Wiggins himself. The struggles of Wiggins and Jefferson to free themselves of a racist and power operated society displays a natural desire for dominance, how the power of the individual is greater than what society believes, and how continuous subjugations have an overwhelming effect or influence.