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religion influence on society
importantance of the African American literature
essay on african american literature
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Ernest J. Gaines once said, “We all know- at least intellectually- that we are going to die. The difference is being told, “Okay, it’s tomorrow at 10 a.m.” How do you react to that? How do you face it? That, it seems, to me, is the ultimate test of life.” Throughout literature, a common pattern of allusion directly relating back to Jesus Christ, his death, and the Bible is found. One such novel, A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest J. Gaines, follows the story of a poor, black working man and his journey of self- significance and realization in a series of Jesus Christ symbolism. Although most pieces of didactic writing share little relationship with religion, it can be seen through religious imagery in A Lesson Before Dying that Jefferson …show more content…
Bryant said it best when he depicted Ernest J. Gaines as a “contemporary American novelist whose work has produced in me…the sense of depth, the sense of humanity and compassion, and the sense of honesty that is only found in [Gaines’s] fiction.” (Curley 245). Because Gaines grew up in a similar town as the fictitious Bayonne, he has the firsthand point of view that his characters in A Lesson Before Dying had, such as picking cane, severing ties between other blacks to each other, and going to a church functioning as not only a place of worship but also a place of education (Curley 246).In an interview regarding religion within his writing, Gaines said, “…the church play[s] the role of making people complacent with their lot on earth and offering them rewards in the hereafter. The ministers [and Grant] are seen as the major perpetrators of this belief, as well as the major beneficiaries.” (Nash 347). It is apparent that the church maintains this significant position of power in the novel as church’s school teacher doubling as the protagonist, Mr. Wiggins, collaborates …show more content…
Ernest J. Gaines’s literature’s primary role is to expand the societal normalities of African American history from a religious perspective. Shown as an isolated and persecuted figure, Jefferson can be considered a symbol of hope, victory, and freedom from oppression as his transition to manhood comes with the ultimate price- death, just as Jesus Christ’s life did. It is clear that the significance of religion in writing serves the purpose of providing the reader with an opportunity to relate to the story. Jefferson is meant to be the small and helpless character, who eventually develops into a man with power, power to change the world. It is only through the didacticism of Gaines’s literature in which a myth that white people are “better than anyone else on earth” that Jefferson is more than what his modern society made him to be. From Mr. Wiggins to Jefferson, “You can be bigger than anyone you have ever met.” Jefferson is able to overcome his societal and racial boundaries through his physical awakening on the day of his death. In the everlasting words of
Thomas Jefferson, an educated, well respected career man, served as governor of Virginia, secretary of state, and president of the United States. The Revolutionary era, during the 1770's, proved to be one of America's most victorious times. Despite the casualties the American colonies suffered, they proved to be stronger than their ruling land, Britain, and won the right to be a free land, becoming the United States of America. Living through this difficult turning point in history inspired Jefferson to write "The Declaration of Independence." Once again, nearly two hundred years later, America faced yet another turning point in history. Watching America struggle through racial integration in the 1960's, King was outraged by how Blacks were being treated, not only by citizens, but by law enforcement. Police brutality became increasingly prevalent, especially in the South, during riots and protests. As a revered clergyman, civil rights leader, and Nobel Prize winner, King's writings sprung from a passion to help America become the land Jefferson, among many people, had promised it to be. ...
Piacentino, Ed. “The Common humanity that is in us all”: Toward Racial Reconciliation in Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying.” Southern Quarterly 42.3 (2004): 71
Grant does something that other blacks can not do he goes to college. Most blacks do not get the opportunity to go to college, but Grant went as soon as he was old enough. When he returned he was a well-educated man, but he was still treated the same way as he was before he went to college. Grant is able to teach Jefferson how to be a man, and Jefferson learns that he is somebody. " ... I cry cause you been so good to me mr wigin an nobody aint never been that good to me an make me think im somebody"(Gaines 232) No one else is qualified to help Jefferson they all depend on Grant to teach him, and Jefferson appreciates it so much it brings him to tears.
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 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.
Summary: This story is about racism in the south and how it affects the people it concerns. It starts out with Jefferson being sentenced to death for a crime that he did not commit. He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and because he was black, they assumed he did it. Grant Wiggins is told to go up to the jail and convince Jefferson that he is a man. At first he doesn’t know how to make Jefferson see that he is a man, but through visiting Jefferson, talking to Vivian and witnessing things around the community, he is able to reach Jefferson, convince him that he was a man.
While Grant taught Jefferson to feel like a man, Jefferson gave Grant hope as well, both in black men and Jefferson himself. Grant didn't even go to Jefferson's trial at the beginning of the book because he knew that Jefferson will be convicted, despite being innocent. Grant told himself, "I did not go to the trial, I did not want to hear the verdict, because I knew what it would be" (3). As time passed and the two grew closer through Grant's trips to the jail, both of them learned. Jefferson learned self-respect and self-worth, and that he could have an impact on the black community. Grant learned to put his trust in Jefferson because he would follow through. Grant came to understand that death isn't the end for Jefferson, and that his memory and impact would carry on long after his death. He even told Jefferson this at the end, saying, "You have the chance of being bigger than anyone who has ever lived on this plantation or come from this little town" (193). Grant accepted his death better this way, knowing that he helped Jefferson to make a difference in the lives of the people he interacted
The ending of A Lesson Before Dying gives the reader a sense of despair and then portrays a sense of optimism. Gaines’ writing is unique because the reader feels this hope for the future and optimism without Gaines having to say it. Instead, he wrote about the execution and the hope was picked up from the “little things.” At the reader feels disappointed because Jefferson has died. The optimism comes into play through Grant and the fact that he has learned his lesson(s) from Jefferson. It is also uplifting because Jefferson has died with dignity on the day meant for him. I think that Gaines also throws a curve in at the end through the character of Paul whose purpose seems to stress the hope for the future of Blacks in a white society.
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
The struggles of Grant and Jefferson share a common theme, man’s search for meaning. Grant has the advantage of a college education, and while that may have provided some enlightenment, he remains in the same crossroads as Jefferson. Grant sees that regardless of what he does, the black students he teaches continue in the same jobs, the same poverty and same slave-like positions as their ancestors. Grant has no hope of making a difference and sees his life as meaningless. Though Jefferson’s conflict is more primal, it is the same as Grant’s struggle. Jefferson is searching for the most basic identity, whether he is man or animal. It is this conflict of meaning and identity that bring Grant and Jefferson together.
Using his personal experience, persuasive arguments and a polite but firm tone, Banneker was able to offer Jefferson and unique and powerful perspective on the plight of the African Americans living both in captivity and freedom. By using Jefferson’s own words, he heightened the impact of his argument and could more easily point out his hypocrisy. By maintaining his tone throughout, he created the opening to continued discourse on this important subject matter. He knew he had to walk a fine line in his communication with someone in a position to make changes in this brand new
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
Lewis’s viewpoint is not without it’s truths. The Harlem renaissance was overseen by a number of intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Dubois. Booker T. Washington‘s, a highly influential speaker of the age, words appealed to both Caucasians and African-Americans. Washington forged an interracial bridge of communication through his unique tactics in the quest for equality. He believed in more subtle ways of gaining equality through hard work, cunning, and humility. He stated, “The wisest among my race understands that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing.”(Salley, 15) With this statement, Washington himself denies that this new awakening in equality and arts could be forced,...
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.
Firstly, Jefferson is an example of a person who never gave up. He is young black man that is sent to jail under the false charges of murdering. During the court session, he was referred to as a hog. This made him believe that the word “hog” defines him as a person. However, after a few long talks with Grant Wiggins he started to stand up for himself as a proud black person. We begin to see this happen when Jefferson did not refer