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Symbolism In Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

165 Words1 Pages
Throughout America’s history, African-Americans have been significantly oppressed and made to undergo hardship. A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, details how the family and friends of Jefferson, a young African-American man made into a victim of this racism, when he is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, react to their oppression. Gaines paints a realistic portrait of their lives, and how they are shaped by their oppression, by using symbols intertwined in the text to represent the hardships faced by their community. The key symbols used in A Lesson Before Dying are food; which symbolizes the unbreakable bonds that support Jefferson, albeit his pending execution, and Grant Wiggins, a schoolteacher who must assist Grant,
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