ipl-logo

Lesson Before Dying Themes

1335 Words6 Pages

A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest Gaines is set in a small town called Bayonne, Louisiana. Lesson Before Dying was written in the late 1940s around the period when segregation was taking place, where people were treated based on the color of their skin. Jefferson, a poor young black man, was a part of a liquor store shootout where three men were killed; the only one who survived, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, a school teacher, has been asked to persuade Jefferson into feeling like a human. Despite the fact that Jefferson’s execution date was set, Grant has to go through many complications to make a hog into a human again. There are a lot of themes in the book and one of them revolves around Jefferson …show more content…

“Food can enliven social relations, enrich spiritual affairs, and enhance an individual’s sense of well-being, it can be used to threaten, reward, cajole, or punish and in other ways manipulate behavior” (Ramsay). Miss Emma, Tante Lou and Grant visit Henri Pichot to ask if he would be able to make Jefferson into a man before he gets into that chair. On the way back, Grant and Tante Lou get into fight and instead of staying for her cooking he rejects it to eat in town. She felt hurt when he turned down the offered food. “By rejecting food, one also rejects the person offering it” (Ramsay). This was also the case when Jefferson rejected Miss Emma’s food whenever Grant brought it to visit him. “Food in its acquisition and its preparation provides nourishment and a means by which love is expressed” (Ramsay). When Grant first started going to visit Jefferson, Miss Emma made him a home cooked meal. Miss Emma felt as if, since she couldn’t make Jefferson feel like a man again by talking to him, she could by cooking for him. Food symbolizes the love that Miss Emma has for Jefferson to show him how much she cares about him to make him feel like a human

Show More
Related
134 Words | 1 Pages

Grant Wiggins and Jefferson are protagonists. Their individual survivals depend on their mutual support. It’s Jefferson's story, but it is narrated by Grant. Miss Emma and her friend, Tante Lou, are inseparable. Sometimes they seem too close that it is hard to tell which one is speaking.

Read More
77 Words | 1 Pages

Jefferson’s Sons is about Thomas Jefferson and his seven children he had with his slave Sally Hemmings. The whole story talks about how Marriet, Beverly, Madison, and Eston having to live their whole lives a big secret. Having a father with such power did afford them the privilege of new shoes, clothes, even violin lessons. The book focuses on the complications they went through as kids and leads into them leaving at the age of twenty one.

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

One generally invites one’s friends to dinner, unless one is trying to get on the good side of enemies or employers. We’re quite particular about those with whom we break bread.” (Foster, 9) Through the breaking of bread, or in this case the laborious cleaning, cooking, and finally the eating of chitlins is representative of a communion, between the almost sacred bonds between a mother and her daughter. Throughout the exposition of the short story, we constantly see that the other members of her family reject the chitlins for being “country” or smelling strange.

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

In Ernest Gaines’ novel, A Lesson Before Dying, the author uses a third person point of view to assess the issue of racial injustice in the South during the 1940’s. Grant understands that justice is evaluated unfairly and knows that it does not favor the poor and uneducated black man. Due to Grant’s ability to be able to understand others, he successfully learns how to bring justice, while assisting Jefferson. This presents the audience the significance of the novel as a whole, embracing responsibility and facing injustice. Grant feels as if he shouldn’t feel obligated or pressured to help bring justice to Jefferson.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

He is different from other men. He is above other men.” (pg. 191) This quote shows that Jefferson has the ability to challenge the white people’s small minded opinions and be a symbol of hope to his community. It is clear that Grant was able to make his point when Jefferson accepts the food given by Miss Emma.

Read More
90 Words | 1 Pages

The young prophet, Imam Hussein once said, “death with dignity is better than love with humiliation.” In Ernest Gaines novel A Lesson Before Dying, presents the importance of dignity through the journey of a young black man and his wrongful conviction. The lesson that dignity comes from loving and being loved through the actions and thoughts of Grant Wiggins, Reverend Ambrose, and Jefferson is taught. Who these characters love, who they care for, and how and individuals that love them, define the dignity they feel and experience in their lives.

Read More
749 Words | 3 Pages

Rotting in a cell. Counting down the days. Trying to learn how to be a man before the big day. In the book “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines: Grant Wiggins a school teacher tries to help a falsely convicted black man named Jefferson. During this time Grant release what can do to not only change Jefferson but change himself as well and he achieves redemption.

Read More
670 Words | 3 Pages

A Lesson Before Dying: An Analysis of the Definition of Manhood A Lesson Before Dying is a historical novel written by Ernest J. Gaines. The novel is set in the late 1940s on a plantation in Louisiana. A young, black man known as Jefferson is wrongly convicted for murdering two white men. The main character is Grant Wiggins, a teacher at a church school. Grant is being forced by Jefferson’s Godmother, Miss Emma, to convince Jefferson that he is a man.

Read More
1214 Words | 5 Pages

Jefferson was quickly sentenced guilty after being the only man left at a crime scene. After hearing the lawyer say that Jefferson was a hog, Miss Emma, who was Jeffersons godmother, needed to make sure that he knew he was dying a man, not a hog. Jefferson had taken these words to heart and it had not only hurt Jefferson but the African American society. It attacked their intelligence. The book teaches from a different perspective, unlike textbooks.

Read More
1620 Words | 7 Pages

He claims nothing matters and doesn’t want to talk or eat. Jefferson has a very low sense of self-worth, this is connected to the way he was treated at his trial, but also probably his whole life growing up in a racially segregated town. Jefferson believes he may really be no better than a hog, just like his lawyer stated during his trial. He states, “’I’m a old hog…Just a old hog they fattening up to kill for Christmas” (83 Gaines). Jefferson believes the idea that he is less human than a white person and has become obsessive with the idea he is no better than a

Read More
2126 Words | 9 Pages

The other example is when Grant goes to Bayonne and continues to ask Vivian over and over again if she wants to leave. As the story continues, Grant begins to accept his responsibilities a little bit, but not completely yet. The two examples used to support this argument were when Grant visits Jefferson in the jail and tells Jefferson that he is going to lie to Miss Emma by telling her that he ate the food even though he didn’t. The other example is when Grant asks Paul how Jefferson is doing. This shows that he cares but not completely.

Read More
853 Words | 4 Pages

Grant did his best to teach Jefferson that he had worth and it paid off. “If I ain’t nothing but a hog, how come they just don’t knock me in the head like a hog? Strab me like a hog? More erasing, then: Man walk on two foots; hogs on four hoofs” (220). This quote demonstrates how Grant made a difference in Jefferson’s life and taught him to be a man of self worth.

Read More
971 Words | 4 Pages

May/16/2023 Gareth Richer Essay Assignment Mr. Lee The three books Fredric Douglass, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and A Lesson Before Dying all have problems with race and the search for freedom. This wouldn't be possible if the power of literacy, education, and knowledge wasn't a huge drive for the characters. The three themes gave the characters the ability to expose new ideas when they learn to read and write, the ability to find their sense of humanity and to expose themself to the same reality but with a deeper meaning. The power of literacy is a strong theme throughout not only the three books but also African American history.

Read More
1097 Words | 5 Pages

The historical fiction novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, features a falsely accused black man on death row in a small Cajun community during the late 1440s. Grant Wiggins, a college educated teacher of the black community, visits Jefferson in prison, an African American convicted of murder. During his trial, he was given a death sentence while referred as a hog. With the love of his godmother, Miss Emma, who sends Grant to teach him in proving himself a man, Jefferson receives the opportunity of representing his community as he dies. Tante Lou, a close friend of Miss Emma and Grant’s aunt, provides the assurance that Grant would prove Jefferson worthy a human.

Read More
1276 Words | 6 Pages

Grant has gone to a University and is now a teacher in the quarter where he grew up. To his community, Grant is the most educated person in the quarter and is constantly being admired by them. Most of the admiration comes from Miss Emma in hopes that Grant can transform Jefferson into a man before he is executed. Miss Emma states, “I want the teacher visit my boy. I want the teacher make him know he’s not a hog, he’s a man” (pg.

Read More

More about Lesson Before Dying Themes

Related Topics

Open Document