Analysis Of Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

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A Lesson before Dying, the 1994 novel by Ernest J. Gaines, is the gripping and evocative story of a young man accused of a crime and sentenced to death by electrocution. In the fictional town of Bayonne, Louisiana, the narrator, Grant Wiggins, attends the trail of Jefferson, a twenty-one-year-old uneducated black field worker who is charged with the murder of a white storekeeper. Jefferson claims that two of his acquaintances, Brother and Bear, shot Alcee Grope, the storekeeper. Jefferson’s lawyer rest his argument on the idea that Jefferson lacks the intelligence to commit the murder and sentencing him to death would be like putting a “hog” (18) in the electric chair. In malice of the so called defense, the all-white jury finds Jefferson guilty.

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