What Are The Themes In A Lesson Before Dying

The society a person grows up in and the actions of that society mold the destiny of a person. Ernest J. Gaines, the author of A Lesson Before Dying is a prime example of this perception. Gaines uses two of the preeminent characters in his book to display this idea, Grant Wiggins and Jefferson. Jefferson is convicted of murder and sentenced to death, albeit he was innocent and was just at the crime scene at the wrong time. A majority of the other characters visit Jefferson while he’s in jail, with one of those characters being Grant Wiggins. Grant is an disciplinarian who is additionally going through a predicament of his own. That predicament is his futile attempts to leave Bayonne, due to Grant’s girlfriend having to remain in Bayonne in

Grant never wanted to stay in Bayonne, but elements outside of his control kept him there. The main one being Grant’s girlfriend didn’t want to leave until she had a divorce and her kids were protected. Grant realized that he needs support outside Bayonne, and he can’t leave without her, thus leaving him stuck in Bayonne. Pages 29 and 30 support this by stating “ ‘I’m still married,’ Vivian said. ‘A separation is not a divorce. I can’t go anywhere until all this is over with.’ … ‘I want to go now, and I want you to go with me.’ … ‘After the divorce I’ll do whatever you want me to do…’” (Gaines 29-30) Without Vivian in Grant’s life, he would be somewhere far away from Bayonne, but thanks to Vivian, Grant is forced to stick around. The differences between Bayonne and anywhere else are crazy, from the opportunities to the treatment of people. It can also be compared to the world today, such as the differences between Buffalo, NY and Switzerland. There are so many different things to do and achieve based on where you are in the world. Grant can’t experience these new things due to the fact that he can’t leave Bayonne, so he is therefore having his destiny controlled by uncontrollable

Jefferson was only standing in a store, and the next hour he was in custody and was being sentenced to death for murder. Jefferson didn’t do anything wrong, he couldn’t have prevented the 3 people from dying in the store. However, Bayonne’s community views Jefferson as a African American male who was at the scene of a 3 person murder. Jefferson couldn’t control how the other people would react to him being at the crime scene. Page 5 takes this more into depth by stating, “Grope moved quickly toward the cash register, where he withdrew a revolver and started shooting. Soon there was shooting from another direction. When it was quiet again, Bear, Grope, and Brother were all down on the floor, and only Jefferson was standing.” (Gaines 5) Jefferson had nothing to do with, nor could do anything to prevent this from happening. It didn’t matter because Jefferson was still arrested. Jefferson couldn’t control the fact that this happened, but his destiny was controlled by the uncontrollable forces around