A Lesson Before Dying Racism Analysis

Racism proved to be an enormous issue in the American South. People were treated unjustly because of slightly more pigmented skin tones. In the novel A Lesson Before Dying, racism causes many problems for the characters. Jefferson is sentenced to death, Grant must teach in a segregated school, and the characters face lots of gossip due to living in a small town. The reason setting becomes important is because this was in the area that was extremely racist. Since the book is centered around the theme ‘Racial prejudices were impactful on the lives of people in the American South’, the setting is important because the South was once fighting for the right to own slaves, and was still holding those prejudices against different races. Therefore the setting is very important to the theme of this novel due to large racial problems in Southern America because people were segregated, lived in small towns away from white society, and were faced with unfair penalties.

Without the setting, the theme would probably still make sense, but because the South was one of the most racist places in North America, it makes the theme of the novel presented with more strength. The novel provided great insight to the pains of living in the South. The theme of ‘racial prejudices were impactful on the lives of people’ is true because Jefferson died because of racism, and the people of colour were taught that they were not as worthy as whites, which impacted the way they lived their lives. One can understand that if this book was set somewhere else, the racial prejudices would have still been present, but would probably not cause someone to die due to bias in the justice system. In conclusion, the setting in “A Lesson Before Dying” was very impactful on the theme because the problems that they characters faced were best represented in the South, since it was one of the most racist places in the