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Lesson Before Dying Themes

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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