A Change for The Better
Born in 1933, Ernest J Gaines is an African-American author whose many novels share a common theme: “the search for dignity and masculine identity in a hostile, racist environment.” (Cliffs Notes) The focus of this essay will be on his 8th piece of work, A Lesson Before Dying, and this fictional novel is no exception. Published in 1993, Gaines brings us to the fictional community of Bayonne, Louisiana, in the 1940’s where the story of Jefferson, a convicted black man, is told. The conviction was solely an act of discrimination and Jefferson quickly feels worthless and apathetic. In any case, Jefferson “still has one freedom left, and that is the freedom to choose how he accepts death;” he can either choose to die like
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To help Jefferson cope with this, Grant gives him gifts to keep his mind distracted from thoughts of mortality- one of which is a notebook and pen which Jefferson is told to write his thoughts. Although it is difficult to comprehend, what Jefferson writes is very powerful because with every paragraph the reader can witness his transformation: he is slowly regaining his dignity as a human being. After receiving visits and recognition from the community, he begins to believe everything that Grant had previously told: he does have a lot of people in his life who love him. When the time comes for his execution, Jefferson is fully prepared to walk to the electrocuting chair like the man he has chosen to become, even looking at the preacher and saying “Tell Nannan I walked.” (254) Grant, who wasn’t there at the scene, sits by a large oak tree observing a butterfly. This is a great example of Gaines’ innocent and symbolic writing style- although on paper, the butterfly is simply a common insect, it is the meaning of something much greater: evolution. Jefferson, like a butterfly, must go through many changes before reaching his final form. Grant, too, undergoes evolution …show more content…
Both Jefferson and Grant suffer heavily from thoughts that come from their own nature and they must first come to terms with their mental hindrances before they can advance and improve; however, to do so, “the two men must support each other, for neither is able to stand alone.” (Cliffs Notes) In other words, they rely on each other to achieve their goals: Grant relies on Jefferson to acquire the hope for his society, and Jefferson relies on Grant to assist him in perishing with fulfillment. Despite being criticized for his inadequate portrait of the struggles in a black society, readers can still grasp the harsh realities the black community had suffered during this era. All things considered, just as Grant was inspired by Jefferson’s profound growth, readers alike will too- furthermore because of Grant’s improbable transformation likewise. In conclusion, the simplistic diction of Gaines used in conjunction with the complex character development creates a balanced, rustic story that is certain to inspire and enthrall potential
The Emancipation of the once enslaved African American was the first stepping stone to the America that we know of today. Emancipation did not, however automatically equate to equality, as many will read from the awe-inspiring novel Passing Strange written by the talented Martha Sandweiss. The book gives us, at first glance, a seemingly tall tale of love, deception, and social importance that color played into the lives of all Americans post-emancipation. The ambiguity that King, the protagonist, so elegantly played into his daily life is unraveled, allowing a backstage view of the very paradox that was Charles King’s life.
In Ernest J. Gaines novel A Lesson Before Dying, a young African-American man named Jefferson is caught in the middle of a liquor shootout, and, as the only survivor, is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. During Jefferson’s trial, the defense attorney had called him an uneducated hog as an effort to have him released, but the jury ignored this and sentenced him to death by electrocution anyways. Appalled by this, Jefferson’s godmother, Miss Emma, asks the sheriff if visitations by her and the local school teacher, Grant Wiggins, would be possible to help Jefferson become a man before he dies. The sheriff agrees, and Miss Emma and Mr. Wiggins begin visiting Jefferson in his jail cell. Throughout the book, Jefferson has two seemingly opposite choices in front of him; become a man, and make his godmother and other relatives proud by dying with dignity, or, remain in the state of a hog with the mentality that nothing matters because he will die regardless of his actions. The choices Jefferson is faced with, and the choice he makes, highlights the book’s idea of having dignity ...
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
It also deals with the emotions that this black boy faces because he has been treated unfairly by the white people. Major Characters: Jefferson, black boy who is accused of a crime and sentenced to death; Grant Wiggons, teacher sent to help Jefferson. After he went and obtained a college degree, Grant Wiggins went back to live with his grandmother. Being that he is a very educated person, Grant was elected by his grandmother to try and get Jefferson to realize that he was a man and not an animal like the white people had led him to believe. Throughout the entire novel, Grant is battling this idea in his head because he doesn’t feel that even he knows what it is to be a man.
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.
Egerton, Douglas R. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
The novel A Lesson Before Dying is about a young, college-educated man and a convict, Grant Wiggins and Jefferson. Grant is asked to make a man out of Jefferson who is convicted of killing a white man during a robbery in which he got dragged along to. Grant is asked by Emma Lou to make a man out of Jefferson, so if anything, Jefferson can die with dignity. Something that he was striped of when he was tried and his attorney used the defence that he is a hog. While trying to get through to Jefferson, Grant struggles because he is so far and separated from his own community. He holds resentment toward the white man and wants to get away from his town which he thinks is an on-going vicious cycle of misery. The novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines depicts the social and racial injustices faced by African Americans in the South in the late 40...
Vancil initiates the criticism of A lesson Before Dying in an old-fashioned, excessive religious genre of attitudes. He claims that Grant Wiggins is reluctant to atonement for guilt to uphold the Christian faith belief system within the Quarters, the small community of Wiggins’ residence. Wiggins has just evolved into the Diaspora of African-American people whose adapted a new way of thought and forever changing lifestyle alterations ranging from the southern to western regions in America. It may not be in complete agreement and acceptance by the matriarchs and patriarchs of the community but it progresses into a unique character identification tool for oneself. Black Americans were unwillingly detached from the true African tribal culture and therefore must attempt to gain a bountiful knowledge on one’s own heritage, current, and future life expectancies for the average home grown man or woman.
In the early twentieth century, the United States was undergoing a dramatic social change. Slavery had been abolished decades before, but the southern states were still attempting to restrict social interaction among people of different races. In particular, blacks were subject to special Jim Crow laws which restricted their rights and attempted to keep the race inferior to whites. Even beyond these laws, however, blacks were feeling the pressure of prejudice. In the legal system, blacks were not judged by a group of their peers; rather, they were judged by a group of twelve white men. In serious court cases involving capital offenses, the outcome always proved to be a guilty verdict. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the plot revolves around a Depression-era court case of a black man accused of raping a white woman. The defendant Tom Robinson is presumed guilty because of one thing alone: the color of his skin.
9. Gordon-Reed, “3 of the 4 children Sally Hemings reared to adulthood lived successfully as white people among other whites, free” (page 285) As historian Herbert Sloan put it, “Jeffersons attitudes toward his debts, his belief that in time things would right themselves, his certainty that, if allowed to do things his way, everything would turn out for the best, had significant consequences for others” (page 631).
Today, blacks are respected very differently in society than they used to be. In “The Help”, we see a shift in focus between what life is like now for the average African American compared to what it was like for them to live in the 1960’s.“The Help” teaches readers the importance of understanding and learning from our history. The novel is a snapshot of the cultural, racial and economic distinctions between blacks and whites in a particularly tumultuous time in American history. “The Help” encourages readers to examine personal prejudices and to strive to foster global equality.
The story starts off by Jefferson being accused of a crime that he did not commit, he was forced into being with the criminals and was the only person in the store who was not shot and killed. Jefferson, being an African American, was discriminated against by the jury and was sent to jail. “The judge commended the twelve white men for reaching a quick and just verdict”(Gaines 8). This is one of the first events to take place in the novel revealing quickly that the story is taking place in a time of racism. Jefferson was sentenced to death by electrocution, not only causing depression in Jefferson and his family, but also causing many internal conflicts in Jefferson and Grant.
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.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.”-MLK Jr. In the book A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines explores the relationship between a student and a teacher in Bayonne, Louisiana, in the 1940s, and how their actions affect the society they are living in. Jefferson, a young black man, is accused of a murder, and is sentenced to death because of his race. Miss Emma, Jefferson’s godmother, wants Grant Wiggins, an educated black teacher to “make him a man” before Jefferson dies. Even though Grant was reluctant that it would amount to anything, but he gave his word that he would try, and soon after a couple of visits to the jail, Grant starts to develop a bond with Jefferson. As the book progresses, Jefferson learns that you need to take responsibility for your own actions, you should always be humble, one should never submit their dignity no matter the circumstances, and always remember that even heroes are not perfect.
———. The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch. New York: Viking Press, 1937.