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Introduction: Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying
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11136 |
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BOOK WORLD
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10 / 1993 |
376 Words |
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A LESSON BEFORE DYING
Ernest Gaines
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993
An ineluctable sadness pervades A Lesson before Dying like the moisture-laden air rising off the bayous and rivers of Ernest Gaines' mythically real St. Raphael Parish, Louisiana. The year is 1948, and Jefferson, a young black man, awaits execution for a murder he did not commit. Yet the triumph of this novel, lauded by some critics as an instant classic of modern American literature, is that tragic circumstances constrain but do not contain the black community, which does not stand idly by.
Grant Wiggins, the local schoolteacher, is goaded by a devoutly Christian aunt to become Jefferson's tutor and counselor during his last days. The honor and dignity of the black community is at stake. Jefferson's court-appointed attorney has insinuated that the condemned man is subhuman, and even Jefferson himself appears to believe it. By novel's end, both teacher and student discover their own humanity in surprising ways, as Jefferson ultimately stands tall and puts the lie to the racist indictment. But the victory is not for Grant to claim alone. In inimitable fashion, Gaines shows how the two men are brought together through the pressures of two black matrons who know exactly what Wiggins must impart to Jefferson, although he cannot see it clearly himself.
Three commentaries explore the meaning and background of this novel. The subtle ways in which the black community attempts to claim the soul of the condemned man before his execution is the topic of New Orleans literary critic Susan Larson
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