A Lesson Before Dying is a 1993 novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The novel is based on the true story of Willie Francis, a young Black American man best known for surviving a failed electrocution in the state of Louisiana, in 1946. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

thumb|[[Ernest J. Gaines, author of A Lesson Before Dying]]

Plot

Part 1

Set in Louisiana, this novel is set in the late 1940s backdrop, of a small Cajun community during the Jim Crow Era. Jefferson, a young black man, is accused and convicted of a murder for perpetrating a shoot-out in a liquor store which left three men killed. Being the sole survivor of a crime that occurred unwittingly, Jefferson is sentenced to death. The story unfolds his search for justice as within his trial, Jefferson's attorney explains to the jury "What justice would there be to take his life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this."

Jefferson

An African American man who at the start of the novel goes to trial for a crime he did not commit. Jefferson, who is called “a hog” in court, got sentenced to the death penalty. Jefferson, with the help of Grant and his concern for his family, learns to die “like a man.”

Identity

Identity is a major theme in the novel A Lesson Before Dying. Identity is the driving force of the novel. Identity is trying to be discovered by the main two characters of the book, Grant and Jefferson. Jefferson’s search for identity, prompted by Miss Emma, is to find how to die “like a man.” The search for Jefferson’s identity brought on the help of Grant. Throughout the book, Grant realized his need to find his own identity and sense of purpose. Though Grant is asked to help Jefferson find the meaning of his life, Grant also had to discover what it meant to live as a man.

Importance of community

Importance of community is shown throughout the novel. Community rallies together in support of Jefferson and his family. One way the importance of community is shown in the novel is through Grant traveling around town collecting money to pay for a radio for Jefferson. Additionally, the importance of community is shown through Jefferson’s last visit from Grant where Grant brings his students. The students bring Jefferson gifts, some give him hugs, and others kind words. All of these examples show how the importance of community is shown throughout the novel.

Background

Social context

The book provides perspective on the status of African Americans in the South after World War II and before the Civil Rights Movement. It shows the Jim Crow American South through the eyes of a formally educated African-American teacher who often feels helpless and alienated from his own country. In the novel, Grant is the only educated black man in the area and the only member of the black community who might be considered capable of becoming free of overt oppression. The character feels his life and career choices are severely limited due to racial prejudices, an example of this in the novel being his instinct to refer to white male authority figures as "Sir". In order to break away from his social conditions, Grant's yearning to escape this situation heightens over time throughout the story. Grant feels that he is cornered by myriad forces: his aunt's incessant desires, pressures to conform to a fundamentalist religion that he does not believe, the children's needs to fulfill his role as a teacher, and the community's craving for proper leadership.

Setting

thumb|[[Riverlake Plantation, located in Louisiana, in Pointe Coupee Parish. This Plantation is Ernest Gaines' childhood home and serves as inspiration for A Lesson Before Dying.]]

This novel is set in a fictional town called Bayonne, located in the rural south of Louisiana. Ernest Gaines uses his childhood home, town, and surrounding areas as inspiration for the novel. Riverlake Plantation, Ernest Gaines childhood home, was used as a setting for part of the novel. In order for Grant to be able to show Jefferson how to 'become a man,' he must understand the meaning himself before imparting his learning to another person. In the novel, the butterfly acts as a symbol towards the end as proof that both of these men have succeeded in their goals to be spiritually transcended.

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"...I watched it fly over the ditch and down into the quarter, I watched it until I could not see it anymore. Yes, I told myself. It is finally over."

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At this point Grant realizes that Jefferson truly did learn a 'lesson before dying.' When he says "It is finally over," he is not only referring to Jefferson's life, but states it as a double entendre that also acknowledges his cowardly nature before enlightenment is "finally over". The character has fully taken a stand for what he believes in. This insures that he, too, has benefited from this entire experience. Jefferson's life is sacrificed in order for the white people in the community to gain a better understanding of the value of the black members in all societies.

Film, TV & theatrical adaptations

On May 22, 1999 HBO premiered A Lesson Before Dying, which subsequently received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Mini-Series or Movie (South African screenwriter Ann Peacock) and a Peabody Award. Don Cheadle portrays Grant, Mekhi Phifer portrays Jefferson, and Cicely Tyson is featured as Tante Lou.

A play by Romulus Linney and a Southern Writers' Project, based on the novel and having the same title, had its world premiere at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in January 2000 and Off-Broadway in September 2000. Rooted Theater Company (East New York, Brooklyn) staged a production of A Lesson Before Dying in June 2017.

Awards and nominations

  • 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
  • October 1997 choice of Oprah's Book Club

References

  • Article/essay on "Women and Community in A Lesson Before Dying
  • Ernest J. Gaines: A Lesson Before Dying, Stuttgart 2008;
  • A Lesson Before Dying at SparkNotes
  • Ernest J. Gaines : The biography of a famous black author, Thinkquest.org
  • Ernest Gaines, African American Literature Book Club
  • [https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/race-relations-in-1930s-and-1940s/], "Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s", Library of Congress