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"I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be..." So begins Grant Wiggins, the narrator of Ernest J. Gaines's powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, A Lesson Before Dying. If young Jefferson, the accused, is confined by the law to an iron-barred cell, Grant Wiggins is no less a prisoner of social convention. University educated, Grant has returned to the tiny plantation town of his youth, where the only job available to him is teaching in the small plantation church school. More than 75 years after the close of the Civil War, antebellum attitudes still prevail: African Americans go to the kitchen door when visiting whites and the two races are rigidly separated by custom and by law. Grant, trapped in a career he doesn't enjoy, eaten up by resentment at his station in life, and angered by the injustice he sees all around him, dreams of taking his girlfriend Vivian and leaving Louisiana forever. But when Jefferson is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man.
As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. Populated by strong, unforgettable characters, Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying offers a lesson for a lifetime.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
I WAS NOT THERE, yet I was there. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A Lesson before Dying,
By Jessica (Santa Barbara, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel (Paperback)
This year, i really havent read much, but i've found a book that i really enjoyed, A Lesson before Dying. The book had a really good beginning, it grabed my attention right away. It starts of in the court, some one has been killed, and their trying to figure out if the "man" is really guilty of robbery and first degree murder. Their is also these two main characters that they call them Brother & bear, and they go to court to support their friend, telling them thir side of the story, because they were there with him. Later on the story, the mother is really upsset, but believes that her son is inocent of all charges. When the court is finally over, after all the convincing storys from both sides, the man was guilty with all charges of robbery and first degree murder. The man claims that he didnt kill the worker at the liqior store, and that he dindt take any of the money.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing,
By
This review is from: A Lesson Before Dying (Audio CD)
This is the story of Jefferson, a youn man living in rural Louisiana about 1948, who has been erroneously convicted of murdering a white shop keeper. Once his white lawyer has referred to him as a hog, his behaviour reverts to that of an animal. His Aunt Emma, who raised him, asks the local school teacher, Grant Wiggins, to speak with him and to help Jefferson to regain his humanity and to face his future with dignity befitting a man.The school teacher has his own challenges. He hates living in the south, being reminded daily of the poor circumstances of the black man and the mean way in which they are treated. He longs to leave and work elsewhere, but he can't just walk away from the request of Aunt Emma as she was one of the people who helped pay for his college education. I down loaded this from my library and listened to it on my ipod while driving. Unfortunately I had it set to shuffle and I listened to the second half of the story first and then the first half. Yes, I was a bit confused at moments, but it made me listen all that more intently. I think I might have even gained more listening to it this way. This was an incredibly moving book. Yes, it was bad that an innocent man was railroaded into a convictions for a crime where he was a bystander. For me this book was more about the actual people of Jefferson and Grant Wiggins. They had the power to chose the type of man they were going to be, the type of man they would present to those surrounding them. Jefferson could be dragged to the electric chair or he could walk there with his head up and show that he was a better person than those who put him on that path. He was able to chose to ignore all those who said he was nothing better than an animal. He lived up to the expectations of his Aunt Emma and to the many others in his community who were supporting him. Grant asked Jefferson to become a hero to his people. To walk with his head up. Even the teacher is able to learn from the student. I really enjoyed listening to this play and look forward to reading the novel. Author Ernest J. Gaines has written at least eight books and many more short stories and articles. He has won numerous awards for his writing. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette has a good biography of Mr. Gaines.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not To Be Missed!,
By Lily Bartels (Saugerties, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Lesson Before Dying: A Novel (Paperback)
We have read this book before. We have heard these lessons taught and we have seen what happens when we refuse to learn them. We heard the voice of innocence lost in To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout realized that racism for the sake of tradition is still racism. Now, in A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines, gives us a voice from the other side of the tracks.Grant Wiggins is a young man in the south, during the days of "Separate but Equal". He's six years out of University, a little too educated for most white folks' taste, but he keeps his learning in line by teaching at the black school in the quarter (short for ex-slave quarters) on the old plantation where he lives with his Aunt. He's resigned himself to his fate. He knows the rules and he plays by them. He ends sentences addressed to white men with "sir", and he doesn't look a white man in the eyes unless the white man is speaking to him. He'd be angry if he thought it wasn't pointless. Then comes along an event that changes everything. Not so much his world, as much as the way that he sees it. His old Aunt's friend's godson, has the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This puts him on trial for the murder of a white man. His court appointed defense attorney appeals to the jury of 12 white men, that Jefferson, guilty though he may be, should not be put to death. "What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this." Even with such a strong argument, the jury gives him the death penalty. These are the words that changed the course of Grant Wiggins' life. Jefferson's godmother wants "the teacher make him know he's not a hog, he's a man. I want him know that 'fore he go to that chair...". But for Grant to do that, he's got to know it himself. The teacher has much to learn from his former student. A Lesson Before Dying is a novel of such striking poignancy, that long after the last page is read, the story goes on and on in your mind. You grow to love the characters BECAUSE of their humanity, as much as IN SPITE of it. Your breath catches when you realize, as Grant does, that maybe it was Jefferson all along that was the man, and Grant that learned what being a man really means. A wonderful book, but try it for yourself! Pick up a copy. Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition," an odd, compelling little novel I can't stop thinking about.
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