A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines An Introduction

The Author: Ernest J. Gaines He was born on a Louisiana plantation in 1933 during the Great Depression He was raised by his courageous Aunt Jefferson, perhaps the reason the hero of the novel carries the same surname. At fifteen, his family moved to Vallejo, California where he discovered the public library, inspiring his love for literature and later indulgence in writing. Many of his stories are based on memories from his own childhood. Gaines worked in the fields digging potatoes just like the schoolchildren in this novel.

Literary and Historical Background Published in 1993; winner of the 1993 National Book critics Circle Award for Fiction and the 1994 YALSA Best Book for Young Adults awards. A Lesson Before Dying connects directly with the Civil Rights Movement in the Postwar Era, the perfect context for a contemporary novel. The series of laws that create the segregated society in the novel represent real circumstances. Following the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws were passed, a series of laws which legalized the separation of whites and blacks. Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 determined that separate facilities for blacks and whites was acceptable, introducing the term “separate but equal”.

A Brief Introduction The setting is the 1940s in a small Cajun community in Louisiana, not dissimilar from Gaines own upbringing. Two men, Jefferson and Grant, are brought together through twisting life circumstances. As they develop a friendship, they learn lessons over time that demonstrate many themes of the novel. Jefferson is a young African American wrongly convicted of murder, now on death-row. Grant, the narrator, is an African American man who returns to teach in the tiny Cajun town after leaving to attend college. The characters are realistic and represent recurrent themes in American literature. A somber mood is maintained through self-pitying central characters, continually pulling down those around them.

Major Themes Explored Racism Obligation Redemption Heroes Freedom as a State of Mind

The Central Conflict Fatalism vs. Individualism: the debate over Jefferson involves whether people can change their own nature and by doing so effect their own environment. Protagonist - The individualist faction, which included Vivian, Tante Lou, Reverend Ambrose, believed that a man is capable of determining his own destiny. Antagonist - The fatalist faction, which included Sheriff Guidry, Henri Pichot, and Mathew Antoine, believed that race determines your fate. Outcome - By the time Jefferson’s hits the climax in the novel, he understands his own importance as a symbol of pride and dignity for the entire black community.

“We black men…stay here in the South and are broken, or we run away and leave them alone to look after the children and themselves. So each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious circle—which he never does. Because even though he wants to change it, and maybe even tries to change, it, it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind… I can give them something that neither a husband, a father, nor a grandfather ever did, so they want to hold on as long as they can. Not realizing that their holding on will break me too.” (pp.166-177) “I was not there, yet I was there.” (first sentence ) “I suppose every man wonders about death sometimes in his life.” (p.126) “A hero does for others. He would do anything for people he loves, because he knows it would make their lives better.” (p.191) Quotations…

“I need you much more than you could ever need me “I need you much more than you could ever need me. I need to know what to do with my life. I want to run away, but go where and do what? I’m needed here and I know it, but I feel that all I’m doing here is choking myself. I need someone to tell me what to do. I need you to tell me, to show me. I’m no hero; I can just give something small. That’s all I have to offer. It is the only way that we can chip away at that myth. You – you can be bigger than anyone you have ever met.” (p.193 – Grant speaking to Jefferson) “Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free.” (p.251 – Rev. Ambrose speaking) Quotations…

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines An Introduction