A Lesson Before Dying

Ernest J. Gaines

9/25/2005

It is 1948 in rural Louisiana, St. Rafael parish. Grant Wiggins, the narrator of the tale, is the teacher of the small black school that meets in the church of their small community. The nearest city and telephone that a black person can use is in the county seat of Bayonne. Slavery has been illegal for over 60 years, but racism and prejudices are firmly in place.

Jefferson is a young black who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was convinced to join some drunk friends to go to the liquor store to buy wine. When the two men didn't have the money to pay, the white store owner tried to kick them out. Guns came out - when it was done the two friends and the store owner were dead. Jefferson, who had come along for the ride, was arrested and convicted for the killings. In the final statements, Jefferson's defense attorney describes him as less than a man, less than a boy - Jefferson is compared to a hog. With his conviction he is given the death penalty.

Jefferson was raised by his godmother. Miss Emma knows he is worth more than a hog. But that is the description both Jefferson and she hear in the courtroom. She asks Grant to visit Jefferson and convince him that he is a man and should die like a man. She believes Grant will have influence because Grant is an educated black man that Jefferson can look up to. Grant doesn't want to take the task. Between Miss Emma and his aunt, he knows he has little choice. He agrees to visit Jefferson in jail and try to convince Jefferson that he is a man.

Grant has some status in the black community because of his college education. He is still black, though, so has no status in the white community. He is still expected to say "sir" to any white man he meets, is still expected to be subserviant to any white person. If anything, he is considered to be uppity because he doesn't talk like the other black people in the community. He will look a white man in the eye - a sure sign of trouble.

My above description touches on the storyline of this many-layered novel. The lesson before dying isn't just for Jefferson. Grant will learn about himself as well. The reader will understand and feel the hopelessness and helplessness Grant feels. There is an excellent speech just past the middle of the book when Grant explains to his lady friend about the powerlessness of the black men and the hopes of the black women for their men. It is an excellent reflection of the frustration of the black man in the United States South before the Civil Rights movement started in the 1950's.

A Lesson Before Dying is written in the tone of someone who accepts the situation as it is. Grant is frustrated and angry. Yet he doesn't see any way to correct the situation in his community. He and one white sherriff make a small connection - yet neither can admit it around anyone else. He has to convince Jefferson that Jefferson is a man when he hasn't convinced himself that he is one.

This is a powerful novel. There is hopelessness throughout the story, but because of Grant's acceptance of the culture, the tone is not hopeless. Rather, it is matter-of-fact. Even at the end, after Jefferson's execution, there is no uplifting ending. What there is, if looked for carefully, is the possibility of things changing.

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