A Lesson Before Dying

2 Pages 402 Words

A Lesson Before Dying, is a complex novel about life’s various lessons. It was written by a Louisiana native, Ernest J. Gaines and published in 1993. The story takes place in the Pre-Civil Rights South in the fictionous rural town of Bayonne, Louisiana. The major focus of story lies between Jefferson and Grant Wiggins. Grant, a schoolteacher chosen to help Jefferson become a man. Jefferson is a young man wrongfully accused of killing a white man and is sentenced to death. Gaines takes the reader through the journey of a man’s quest to help another man to become a man. I will show various ways Gaines help the reader to realize the real “lesson” to be learned. Gaines begins his novel with Jefferson’s trial, verdict and sentencing, but doesn’t provide specific names of any of those involved. By doing so Gaines is able to focus the reader’s full attention on the narrator’s thoughts and the main character, Jefferson. If Gaines had given details about the other characters involved the reader would not have been able to focus his full energy on the importance of the things said during the trial and the effects these things had on Jefferson and the other characters. At this point it is important for the reader to take in and digest all the cruel things Jefferson’s attorney says about him. His attorney refers to him as “a boy”, “a fool”, “a cornered animal”, and “ a hog”. Jefferson accepts and internalizes this degrading image of himself. From this the reader will understand why Miss Emma’s insistence that her godson die like a man is such a powerful issue. Gaines presentation of the information helps the reader to better accept the events that are to follow the trial. Gaines narrates the novel through the voice of Grant Wiggins. Grant is a black teacher at the local plantation school. The novel opens with the statement, “I was not there, yet I was there.” In this statement the reader enters the mind of Gr...