Essay Lesson Before Dying

The story takes place at the end of the 1940s, a time when Louisiana and many other southern states were practicing segregation.

The story takes place at the end of the 1940s, a time when Louisiana and many other southern states were practicing segregation.

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Make it quite relatable to modern day african americans.

For example, Ernest Gaines’ novel: A Lesson Before Dying.

After Grant answered a question intelligently, Guidry stated, “Maybe you’re just a little too smart for your own good.” (49).

After earning a college degree, Grant was still unable to earn any respect from the whites in the community.

But Jefferson’s aged godmother resolves that, if Jefferson must die, he will first come to know that he is a man.

She enlists as her reluctant instrument Grant Wiggins, a university graduate who teaches the children in the black quarter during the months when they are not working in the fields.

This slap in the face echoes throughout the black community. When grant get there Jefferson is cold and unreceptive when Jefferson finally does talk he gets on the floor and buries is head in the food like a hog. During this whole time grant despises being at the court house.

If Jefferson dies like a hog it will prove their white counterparts right. Emma ask grant to take the responsibility of teaching Jefferson to die like a man. He feels that this isn't going to help his community at all.

He is at his best in his nuanced observation of the ironies and intricacies of negotiation between races and between generations.

Readers who have waited ten years for a new novel by Gaines will find in A LESSON BEFORE DYING further confirmation of his assured, self-effacing, spiritually generous art. “A Lesson About Manhood: Appropriating 27 (Spring, 1995): 74-78.