Life, Death And Racism In A Lesson Before Dying By Ernest Gaines

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Life, Death and Racism In the book, “A lesson before dying”, by Ernest J. Gaines he tells a story that 's set throughout the late 1940’s. The story is targeted on the interaction between Jefferson, a young and barely literate African American man, who is sentenced to death for an unjust crime, and Grant Wiggins, a university graduate and teacher that desires to assist Jefferson, however doesn’t have the skills to help him. The story is told through the perspective of Grant. The focus during this book was Grant and Jefferson’s relationship to remodel every man throughout the story and teach every a lesson concerning human dignity. The most important character is Jefferson’s defense lawyer as he was the man that allowed Jefferson to lose his dignity and self-respect. Jefferson’s lawyer is the image of society’s racism and because of him, Jefferson is referred to as a “hog” and as a result of this it sees him automatically assumed he’s guilty due to his race. Even though the lawyer is assigned as a lawyer to “protect” him, he does not care concerning the person one way or another. During the 1940’s times were ruled by segregation and racism. Throughout that time period, African Americans had no say in society. For …show more content…

He doesn’t contemplate him as someone, instead he sees him as an “it” who implies you as a thing instead of a human. When you defend somebody as an “it” or a “thing” it provides a clear image on what level of respect you 've got for somebody that the lawyer failed to show throughout the whole case defending Jefferson. It additionally shows that the lawyer isn 't on Jefferson’s side as a result of himself working for the government being a lawyer therefore it won’t come to the lawyer if he 's guilty or not. Overall from both the prosecutor and the lawyer, they showed similar traits in their case on Jefferson because they degraded him, with the intention that he 's so

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