Earnest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying

Earnest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying

A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines is set in a plantation community in rural Louisiana. The two main characters in the novel, Grant and Jefferson, are engaged in a struggle to achieve self-respect in society, which allots them none. The story takes place at the end of the 1940s, a time when Louisiana and many other southern states were practicing segregation. The second college edition of the American Heritage Dictionary defines segregation as, “…The policy and practice of imposing the social separation of races, as in schools, housing, and industry…” (1111). Mr. Gaines employs a variety of settings to illustrate how this cruel practice invades every aspect of Grant and Jefferson’s lives; from religion and legal process to love.

In the courtroom, the defense lawyer insinuates that Jefferson is less than a man because of his physical characteristics and apparent lack of intelligence. He asks the jury, “…do you see a man sitting here? Look at the shape of this skull, this face as flat as the palm of my hand…do you see a modicum of intelligence?” (7). He further degrades Jefferson by referring to him as a thing, “What you see here is a thing that acts on command”, and finally as an animal, “…I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.” (7-8). Evidently, discrimination and stereotyping based on the degree of skin pigmentation exhibited existed as a hierarchy with the lightest skin pigmentation on top and the darkest on the bottom, with the each individual cluster discriminating against the one beneath them.

Grant’s former schoolmaster, Mathew Antoine, may have been a male role model for him. However, professor Antoine was bitter, he loathed himself ...

... middle of paper ...

...grained the principles of slavery and its progeny (segregation) were in Louisiana society. It is unfathomable that people (i.e., the Creole) exposed to unjust discrimination based simply on their pigmentation, would in turn discriminate against others for similarly unfounded and irrational reasons. From the courtroom to the jailhouse, Grant and Jefferson faced discrimination. However, when they finally realized that the stereotypes being forced upon them were only physical confinements, not mental or spiritual confinements, they were able to identify their own self-worth and achieve self-respect. “Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free.” (251).

Works Cited

American Heritage Dictionary. Second College Edition. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin

Company.1982.

Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.1993.