a lesson before dying
Set in the fictional community of Bayonne, Louisiana, in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of Jefferson, a twenty-one-year-old uneducated black field worker wrongfully accused and convicted of the robbery and murder of a white man, and sentenced to death by electrocution. At his trial, Jefferson's court-appointed defense attorney argues that Jefferson lacks the intelligence to plan a robbery, and that, even if he had been involved in the killing, sentencing him to death would be like putting a hog in the electric chair. In spite of this so-called defense, the all-white jury finds Jefferson guilty. To compound the horror of his situation, Jefferson internalizes the attorney's racist depiction of him as a dumb animal.
Week one.
During this week we have started to read a book called a lesson before dying. The characters in this book include Jefferson, the man that has been accused for murder and is on death row and Grant, a man who is being begged to talk to Jefferson and get him to be killed with pride instead of just being killed. Jefferson's grandmother is the one who asks grant if he could teach Jefferson to be a man and not a hog.
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Four by four
Jefferson went to jail.
Gets sentenced to death.
He is called hog.
should die a man.
a teacher is called.
to show Jefferson pride.
grant starts to stall.
didn’t deserve to die.
he is a man.
not a filthy hog.
decides to help Jefferson.
Grant knows the truth.
discrimination still goes strong.
black loses against white.
wrongs keep coming up.
justice is so corrupt.
Gets sentenced to death.
He is called hog.
should die a man.
a teacher is called.
to show Jefferson pride.
grant starts to stall.
didn’t deserve to die.
he is a man.
not a filthy hog.
decides to help Jefferson.
Grant knows the truth.
discrimination still goes strong.
black loses against white.
wrongs keep coming up.
justice is so corrupt.
Novel notes
- title and author: a lesson before dying by Ernest Gaines
- Protagonist: Grant Wiggins
- Major Characters: Jefferson, Grant, Tante Lou, Miss Emma, Vivian, Reverend Ambrose.
- point of view: first person
- Setting: 1940's; Louisiana
- tone: shift in judgement,
- irony:
- symbols: the notebook, the chair, the church, food and drink, the hog symbolizes how immature and ignorant Jefferson is prior to being killed.
- theme: facing responsibility