How Does Gaines Use A Monologue In A Lesson Before Dying

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is historic novel about the wrongful conviction of a black man in the South. It is centered around how to get the black man, Jefferson, to believe that he is more than what the white man believes he is. Grant, the protagonist, helps Jefferson do this by convincing him of it. In A Lesson Before Dying, Gaines uses monologues and actions between people to emphasize the importance of one's commitment to others. To begin, Gaines uses his word choice to capitalize on what he is trying to get through to look into the commitment and show it to the reader. Grant uses a monologue to show Jefferson what he must do to commit himself to others. An example of this is when the author writes,

“Do you know what a myth is, Jefferson?” I asked him. “A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they’re better than anyone else on earth-and that’s a myth. The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand, and think, and show that common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth.

The passage is included in the novel because it helps explain the main themes and truly speaks to the reader on a different level. Mostly everyone knows about the injustice that was served in the South in this time. No one has said it in the way Gaines was able to. It makes the reader think about things differently and apply it to their own lives. This passage helps break down the capacities of the moral system and brings other to another level of understanding some of what black people had to live with and how they managed. Gaines is able to push the boundary of what will get people offended. He is able to put a sense of urgency in the reader’s mind that gets them thinking about problems in the present after educating them about problems in the