A Lesson before Dying

A Lesson before Dying

A Lesson before Dying depicts rural Louisiana in the 1940s. A young African American named Jefferson has been accused of killing a shop owner during a robbery and is confined in prison. In fact, he was in the shop, accompanying two of his friends, when a violent argument between the two and the proprietor erupted, as a result of which the three fighting men shot each other to death. Jefferson's court-appointed attorney compares him to an animal and calls him a "hog," indicating that the defendant's racial inferiority incapacitates him from acting with premeditation. These words do not influence the jury's verdict, which is a death sentence, but they have a powerful effect on the black people in Jefferson's community. The convict's elderly godmother, Miss Emma, asks the teacher from the plantation school, Grant Wiggins, to talk to Jefferson and help him recover his sense of dignity. Initially, Grant's visits to the prison are fruitless; he is reluctant to carry out his task, while Jefferson reacts to him with anger, impatience, or indifference. However, in the course of time, the young convict begins to appreciate the gestures of goodwill from the teacher and finds reassurance in the "lessons." He discovers the meaning of his suffering (Meyer, 45).

One of the central concerns in Gaines's novel is the attachment to place and the extent to which the place and the time of a person's birth determine the entire course of his or her later life. The narrator is Grant Wiggins; from his point of view, the necessity to live on the plantation where he had grown up and where he returned after his studies is literally a curse. In his native region, racism is the overwhelming historical legacy that underlies the existing social relations. Racial segregation is a law, therefore it sustains, if not aggravates, the inequalities between white and black people. It is not surprising that Wiggins's narrative is permeated by a sense of hopelessness mixed with anxiety. He is acutely aware there is no force that would change the present state of things. However, even if the external conditions cannot be improved, people's consciousness can still be transformed. The death sentence for Jefferson provides an impetus for the entire community to acknowledge the value of sacrifice for the sake of others. It is not only Jefferson who learns an essential lesson, but also his kinsfolk from the plantation. This is primarily a lesson in dignity. On the one hand, A Lesson is a story of disillusionment and desperation, on the other, a tale of endurance and transformation. The narrative and thematic aspects of the novel combine the issues of alienation and community. The historical context highlights the problems of race and identity (Gaines, 10).

Alienation in 'A Lesson before Dying'

Grant Wiggins is a very ambivalent narrator because, on the one hand, he has been virtually forced by his aunt to become involved with Jefferson as a distinguished member of the black community, but on ...