A LESSON BEFORE DYING BY ERNEST J. GAINES

A Lesson in Overcoming Adversity and Resisting Oppression

“Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free.”

DO YOU HAVE THE WILL TO FIGHT FOR WHAT IS JUST?

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL The setting is the 1940s in a small Cajun

community in Louisiana, similar to that of Gaines’ own upbringing.

Jefferson is a young African American wrongly convicted of murder, now on death-row.

Grant, the narrator, is an African American man who returns to teach in the tiny Cajun town after leaving to attend college.

Grant begrudgingly agrees to “teach Jefferson he is a man” when he has been told and believes he is a hog. He helps Jefferson to use writing as a tool for expression and resistance to injustice.

MAJOR THEMES EXPLORED THAT ARE CONNECTED TO HOW THE NOVEL CAME TO BE WRITTEN

Racism (connected to Gaines) Obligation (connected to Gaines) Freedom as a State of Mind (connected to

Gaines) Imprisonment

Redemption Heroes

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ERNEST J. GAINES

He was born on a Louisiana plantation in 1933 during the Great Depression

He was raised by his courageous Aunt Jefferson, perhaps the reason the hero of the novel carries the same surname.

At fifteen, his family moved to Vallejo, California where he discovered the public library, inspiring his love for literature.

Many of his stories are based on memories from his own childhood.

Gaines worked in the fields digging potatoes just like the schoolchildren in this novel. He eventually bought the very plantation he worked on.

PICTORIAL TIMELINE OF ERNEST J. GAINES

THE SOUTH BEFORE CIVIL RIGHTS - LITERARY AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

Following the Civil War, Jim Crow laws were passed. They were a series of laws which legalized the separation of whites and blacks. Focus: How has the legacy of slavery and Jim

Crow laws impacted our society? A Lesson Before Dying takes place in the

1940s, before the Civil Rights movement that sought equality for African-Americans.

Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 determined that separate facilities for blacks and whites was acceptable, introducing the term “separate but equal.”

Read and take notes on the handout on sharecropping and life the pre-Civil Rights South.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A map of where he lived and his other works of literature:

AN INTERVIEW WITH ERNEST J. GAINES

Could you tell us a little bit about the environment in Louisiana that shaped him

When he was a very small child, he was already working. What exactly was he doing?

Who inspired him? What did the library mean to him?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE READING:

Do you think your life is more determined by your life circumstances or by your own will to achieve and your efforts toward that?

How have you responded when you were punished for something that you did not do or you were mistreated based on a stereotype?

What inherent injustices in society and barriers to equality still exist today and what power do we have to change them?

Do you think the prison system benefits society as a whole or just certain segments of society?

Do now:Compare and contrast the two images of sharecroppers working in the fields.

READING CHECK #1

1. How does Grant view himself and his community? Describe his existential crisis.

2. How does both a history of oppression and current racism affect Grant and the others in the community?

SHARECROPPING AS OPPRESSION:

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: DISCUSS, WRITE A PARAGRAPH AND PRESENT YOUR FINDINGS WITH SUPPORTING QUOTES:

How does Grant view himself and his community? How does it develop over the course of the novel? Describe his existential crisis.

How does both a history of oppression and current racism affect Grant and the others in the community?

How do both Jefferson and Grant attempt to defy or escape the restrictions placed on them by a racist society? Consider both clear and subtle methods of defiance of prejudice.

Is Jefferson or Grant the hero of the story? What evidence supports this?

What examples do you see of Jefferson as a martyr or Christ figure?

Images of life on the sharecropping plantation: “The Big House”

LIFE ON THE PLANTATION: LABOR IN THE CANE FIELDS

Fatalism vs. Individualism: In A Lesson Before Dying Grant struggles with the

notion of whether people can change their own nature and by doing so effect their own environment. Different characters represent the two views. Protagonists - The individualist faction, which

included Vivian, Tante Lou, Reverend Ambrose, believed that a man is capable of determining his own destiny.

Antagonists - The fatalist faction, which included Sheriff Guidry, Henri Pichot, and Professor Antoine, believed that race determines your fate.

Jefferson struggles to overcome his fatalist attitude and to understands his own importance as a symbol of pride and dignity for the entire black community.

HERO ARCHETYPES:EPIC HERO, ANTI-HERO AND TRAGIC HERO

List the specific traits for each of the prototypes of the hero.

Consider the hero archetypes and how books you have studied fit into particular categories.

Consider which categories Grant and Jefferson fall into. Support your response.

EPIC HERO:

Hero is of national or legendary significance. Hero often refuses at first to begin his quest. Hero undergoes many adventures on a long

journey to unknown places. Hero receives supernatural aid or

intervention. Conflict is in the form of battles or feats. Hero is handsomely rewarded and/or

mythologized.

ANTI-HERO:

Hero has a dark and troubled past. Hero is in some form an outlaw or has no status in

society, so he must wander on fringes of society. Hero rejects values, rules, attitudes of society and

political establishment. Hero seeks to establish his own rules and ethics.

He often does “the wrong thing for the right reasons.”

We are sympathetic with the hero despite distinctly negative character traits—he is often angry, crude, selfish or even dishonest.

Hero goes on a (sometimes obsessive) quest for self-actualization.

TRAGIC HERO Hero is of noble stature and be highly regarded. Hero commits a tragic mistake due to a character

weakness, also known as tragic flaw or hamartia. He usually falls prey to his own hubris or

overarching pride. Hero’s error in judgment leads to his/her demise. Hero experiences a reversal of fortune and

eventually has an epiphany in which he takes responsibility for causing his own misfortune.

The story culminates in catharsis or emotional outpouring, in which audience feels pity for

the hero and fear that we may be like him.

MODERN TRAGIC HERO: Hero is a person of lower status or less worth or

consideration. Hero commits a tragic mistake due to a character

weakness, also known as tragic flaw or hamartia. Hero’s error in judgment leads to his/her demise. Hero may die without any epiphany of his

destiny. Hero may not have the needed catharsis to bring the story to a close. Hero may suffer without the ability to change the events that are happening to him.

QUOTES…

“I was not there, yet I

was there.” (first

sentence )

“I suppose every man wonders about death sometimes in his life.” (p.126)

“We black men…stay here in the South and are broken, or we run away and leave them alone to look after the children and themselves. So each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious circle—which he never does. Because even though he wants to change it, and maybe even tries to change, it, it is too heavy a burden because of all the others who have run away and left their burdens behind… I can give them something that neither a husband, a father, nor a grandfather ever did, so they want to hold on as long as they can. Not realizing that their holding on will break me too.” (pp.166-177)

“A hero does for others.

He would do anything for

people he loves, because

he knows it would make

their lives better.” (p.191)

QUOTES…

“I need you much more than

you could ever need me. I

need to know what to do with

my life. I want to run away,

but go where and do what?

I’m needed her and I know it,

but I feel that all I’m doing

here is choking myself. I

need someone to tell me

what to do. I need you to tell

me, to show me. I’m no hero;

I can just give something

small. That’s all I have to

offer. It is the only way that

we can chip away at that

myth. You – you can be

bigger than anyone you have

ever met.” (p.193 – Grant

speaking to Jefferson)

“Only when the mind is

free has the body a

chance to be free.” (p.251

– Rev. Ambrose speaking)