A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club) by Ernest J. Gaines
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.95 You Save: $10.00 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: a lesson before dying
Summary: 5 Stars
A lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J Gaines, is a moving novel about a black man, Jefferson, who sits on death row. I, an eighth grade student at San Francisco Day School, read this book alongside To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I found that the ideas explored in A Lesson Before Dying, such as discrimination, prejudice, pride and death, were very similar to those introduced through To Kill a Mockingbird. Although the ideas explored were the same, the point of view taken by the narrators in the books differ greatly, as one author is white (Harper Lee), and the other is black (Ernest J. Gaines). These contrasting views are shown best through the narrators expectations for the outcomes of the two trials, which take place in each book. To Kill a mockingbird is about the trial of a black man, Tom Robinson, after he has been accused of raping a white woman. Although it is quite obvious that Tom did not commit the crime, the jury reaches a guilty verdict, as could be expected in the racist time and society in which the book took place. Atticus, (Tom Robinson's lawyer and the father of the narrator, Scout) however, has a very optimistic view in both the start and finish of the case, and believes that as time progresses racism will be diminished through the progressive generations. His views, and the views of Harper Lee, are expressed through his closing argument, which makes it apparent he believes change will come. In the beginning of his closing argument Atticus states that the courtroom is the one place that all men are created equal, "...a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president." He finishes his closing argument with: "I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty." The events which take place in A Lesson Before Dying, are very similar to those occurring in To Kill A Mocking bird: a young black man (Jefferson) is put on trial for a crime he didn't commit, and although it is apparent he is innocent, the white jury returns with a guilty verdict. The view of the narrators Grant Wiggins, an educated black school teacher, is much more pessimistic than that of Harper Lee/Scout. Grant believes that society will never change and he has no hope that blacks will he treated as equal as time progresses. This is shown through the opening lines of the book, "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." Grant thinks, that even though Jefferson did not commit the crime, the white jury will find him guilty. He has no hope that this racism will change, not with this case, and not ever. Reading A Lesson Before Dying taught me not only about the ideas of racism and justice, but also made me realize how strongly an authors background and personal feelings reflect upon their writing. It was very clear how differently the two authors felt about racism and the future of blacks in this country. Ernest J. Gaines felt less hopeful because he himself had experienced racism, and he understood how hard it would be to break out of this mold which people followed. Harper Lee, on the other hand, being white, was more hopeful that this mold would be broken, not realizing how severe discrimination really was. Had A Lesson Before Dying been written by an author of a different race, particularly a white person, it would have turned out to be a very different book, and I therefore realize how deeply an authors personality and beliefs impact their writing. A Lesson Before Dying was a very well written and realistic book which helped to broaden my view on the issues of discrimination, the death penalty, and many others.Book Review: The Product of a Brilliant Mind
Summary: 5 Stars
Capital punishment, segregation, and acceptance have been a part of past and present times. Those issues along with tragedy, injustice, and accomplishment are part of the fascinating story, A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gaines. The setting for this novel is a small town in the south during the 1940s where the two main characters are Jeferson and Grant. Jefferson is condemned to death by electrocution for a crime he did not commit. When his godmother realizes that nothing can be done for his freedom, she asks Grant to help him die like a man. After being called a hog by his defense attorney, Jefferson looses the little dignity he had and it's up to Grant to restore it. Grant doesn't like the idea, but he's forced to comply to it by his aunt. In return, Grant learns about the soul and spirit. Gaines writes this tragic story and reveals his feelings of capital punishment, segregation, and the difficulty of acceptance in a unique way, which thus makes this novel a 1993 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Ernest J. Gaines was born into the world he describes in A Lesson Before Dying. "Though the places in my stories and novels are imaginary ones, they are based pretty much on the place where I grew up and the surrounding areas where I worked, went to school, and traveled as a child..."(Vintage Books) depicts Gaines. Although what he says, Gaines has a special way of letting the reader know what his opinion is on capital punishment. He describes his feelings about this form of punishment through Grant. When the date for Jefferson's death is set, Grant thinks about the way someone can plan a man's death. "How do people come up with a date and time to take a life from another man? Who made them God?" Those were the thoughts going through Grant's mind, and they showed the billiance of an author who expresses his feelings in a unique manner. Grant and Jefferson convey to the reader the true meaning of soul and spirit by teaching each other those values. Grant shows Jefferson to die with dignity. Then, conversely, he is learns a few things about the soul. The way they respond to each other is described so clearly, it's as if the reader is in that lonely and desolate cell. Gaines also wrote about the mulattos to tell the reader about the struggle with acceptance. He teaches the reader about segregation and acceptance through his other characters. Bars in the back of town for "blacks only", "blacks only" restrooms, and the school where Grant teaches for "blacks only" are only some of the examples of segregation Gaines so explicitly places in the novel. A Lesson Before Dying is a touching and powerful novel that reaches out to the reader and portrays a time of injustice, inequality, and struggle. Gaines does an exquisite job of describing thoroughly the pain of enduring those issues. That description makes the story powerful enough to change some readers' thoughts. By comprehending the struggle these main characters go through, the reader gets a broader view of society which makes him/her a better person.Book Review: Gaines' Lesson: It Works Both Ways
Summary: 5 Stars
Those who read A LESSON BEFORE DYING hail it as a classic of how one condemned black inmate stands up to racial prejudice before he is executed for a crime of which he is innocent. Indeed it is surely that but it is also the intertwined tale of how this inmate, named Jefferson, reaches out for the help of a black teacher, Grant Wiggins, who learns that for him to help Jefferson accept his fate, he himself must first learn that those who preach the value of courage must possess that same courage. Grant Wiggins is a young black teacher who seems to have it all. He has a responsible teaching post in a grammar school, a loving girlfriend, and the external trappings that mark him as one who has successfully lifted himself from a deep South ghetto. It is too easy for him to overlook that his tenure as an educated black teacher in a white-dominant school system is a flimsy thing, one that is totally dependent on the whims of his white school superintendent. It comes as a shock both for him and the reader to realize that when he left the slums of his childhood for the cleaned orderliness of the classroom he is merely exchanging one ghetto for another. He might have spent his entire teaching career oblivious to this had it not been for the great bad luck of a foolish young Jefferson to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was a store robbery gone sour, with the result that both the robbers and the store owner were killed, and there was Jefferson right there with the store's cheap liquor in his hand. During Jefferson's trial, his defense lawyer called him a 'hog,' one who was so incompetent and lowborn that he could not possibly have had the mental competence to participate in a robbery. The jury, of course, does not buy this appalling rationale and sentences Jefferson to death. Enter Grant Wiggins, who is sent by his elderly aunt to speak to Jefferson and make his last days on earth dignified.
What Wiggins learns during his several visits to Jefferson's jail is that the sullenness that Jefferson reveals is not the mark of the grunting, squealing 'hog' that his lawyer had crudely drawn, but is really the only sane approach that one could have if that man had been treated as a metaphorical hog all his life. As Wiggins probes into Jefferson's past, he learns that his present refusal to communicate hides a desperate need to communicate. Slowly, Jefferson's rationale for living, then for dying, becomes evident. The climax of the book is not the death day, but Wiggins' reading of Jefferson's diary that reveals that the abuse that Jefferson heaped on both Wiggins and those who loved him was not abuse at all, but the only way that a man in Jefferson's state could leave his mark on the world. It is Earnest Gaines' writing talent that lets him express one of the supreme ironies of the human condition: that the man who was supposed to heal the agony of another found that the healer was not the one wearing the business suit but the one in the bright orange prison suit. A LESSON BEFORE DYING is an unforgetable reminder that some lessons need to be learned even as they are being taught.
Book Review: LESSONS OF LIFE YOU'LL NEVER FORGET
Summary: 5 Stars
Among the "must read" novels of all times, "A Lesson Before Dying" ranks at the very top of the list in that literary category. It is the type of reading that expands the bounds of the mind, strokes the soul, and tugs at the heart strings. At its conclusion you are left with a plethora of emotions and thoughts that linger for days and remain in your repertory of thought forever. It's one of those novels that you read and say,"Unbelieveable" as you wonder, when will the sequel be published? Ernest Gaines truly solidifies his position as one of the greatest writers ever with this novel.Gains transports you back to a time when the lines between justice and injustice, right and wrong, fair and unfair are obscured and ultimately crossed and broken by race, socio-economic status, prejudice and segregation. The reader is drawn into the lives of the characters on an intimate level through Gaines' masterful dialogue and vivid descriptive details. This is a novel that challenges the idea of "accepting the things you cannot change" and places a very original spin on the concept of "dying with dignity."
"A Lesson before Dying" is a story that unfolds around the main character's final months on death row after being falsely accused of killing a white store owner during a time when the color of one's skin dictated just how "blind" justice will be. The lessons and realizations he, and those persons who hold a significant place in his life, must come to grips with before his death are heart-wrenching and life-altering.
From the teacher who, under great duress, is forceably assigned the awesome task of "teaching" the main character the "lesson," to the reverend who collaborates with the teacher but from a completely different viewpoint on how the "lesson" should be taught, and the various other characters that vicariously impact upon and influenced the way in which the main character internalizes his plight, each of these characters are left with "lessons" that escalate to the riveting conclusion of this story. Ultimately each of these pivotal characters' lives are altered as a direct and proximate result of the main character's death sentence and the manner in which he learns to die with dignity.
This is a story about self-respect, self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-esteem and self-defeat. It is a story of family, friends, authorities, and enemies and how they are integrally entwined to shape each other's lives. Written in a time when the constraints of racism and economic status divided and at the same time, drew together a community whose heartbeat came to pulsate in conjunction with the heart beat of the main character. Reading this novel in and of itself will prove to be "A Lesson" of memorable magnitude.
Book Review: Glimpse into the Human Potential
Summary: 5 Stars
A human's life, woven from the threads colored by the decisions we make, has the potential to create works of art that impact the lives of those around us. Ernest Gaines creates such a masterpiece in his portrayal of 1940's racial struggle, in his novel, A Lesson Before Dying. This portrait of life,captured with the stinging reality of an inborn racial injustice, portrays the limitations of the social cage Americans have crafted over the years. Grant, one of the few educated black citizens in his community, is faced with the challenge of teaching a convict, already destined for execution, and devoid of hope. Driven only by his aunt, he faces Jefferson, the inmate, and the imbedded message, voiced by society, of the man's worthlessness and inequality. Grant is slowly able to open his eyes to the potential Jefferson's education holds as a beacon of resistance to the white man's restrictive role of ignorance for the black community, begins to fill the Jefferson's void of ignorance with the knowledge of his own capability.
Gaines incorporates many of his own experience as an African American growing up I a repressive society. Such social setbacks, he says, "have spurred (him) repeatedly to look for the truths and lessons of life....in the depths and mysteries of the human heart", because, "that's where each of us discovers who we really are."
Jefferson's own heart, frozen by his own self- doubt, was warmed and made fertile for growth, aided by Grant, who arguably benefited equally from the whole experience. Although Jefferson's mortality was predetermined by suppression , his community was better able to live their lives as true people.
Aware of the fact that much of his audience will never be able to fully appreciate the horror of American racial subjugation, Gaines crafted the book in such a manner that a very thorough level of understanding can be reached. Touching upon one of his themes, Gaines utilizes the power of genuine empathy between the readers to his characters, to drive his message of awareness. As one of his final words captured in the novel, Grant says, "(you) must believe, if only to free the mind...(because) only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free."
Though to foresee a complete freedom from such binding ideas, like racism, is irrational, a beginning to the process is needed. Gaines ignites the possibility within each of his readers and helps to create the belief in personal capability, despite the setbacks one can face. In short, Gaines eloquently bestows upon every one of his pupils an invaluable message. One that will hopefully serve to brighten the tapestry we each weave and impart to those who live in our footsteps; our own lesson before dying.