A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club) by Ernest J. Gaines
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Book Reviews of A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: A thought-provoking book
Summary: 5 Stars
When I first saw this book in a garage sale ~~ I grabbed it without reading the back of the book. It was an Oprah book and one of my goals in life is to read all the books on her list. However, when I read the excerpt of this book, I have to admit, I was a little disconcerted. I didn't want to read another depressing book. But this book is more than just depressing. It is a thought-provoking book based on the African-American lifestyle down in Mississippi. Jefferson was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was falsely accused of murder and sentenced to death. Grant, a teacher at the plantation near Bayonne, was asked to talk to Jefferson during his last days. Because the prosecuting attorney said that Jefferson was a hog, Jefferson took it in mind that he is nothing more than a hog and should die like one. And Grant was sent to persuade him otherwise. Grant didn't go willing. Jefferson's godmother and Grant's aunt pleaded with Grant to help Jefferson die with dignity ~~ to walk "like a man" to his deathbed.
This is such an insightful look into African-American relations with one another and with the whites and the rest of the world. As Jefferson nears his death, Grant spends his time soul-searching for the meaning of life, and asking those deep questions of why it was ok for a jury of 12 white men say it was ok for one black man to die. It goes on with other questions and statements. It is a book that will make you stop and think just about what the author is trying to prevail to you, the reader.
This is one of the most interesting books I have read this year. I did have a problem getting into the story line, but once I got into it, the story itself grabbed me by the eyes and soul ~~ and I couldn't let go. It is still haunting me as I write this review. There is so much I want to discuss ~~ but one needs to read the book in order to know what I am talking about. And I can't give away the story either. So grab this book and learn a lesson that may change your whole perspective on things. If you can get through the first few chapters, you will be rewarded by this awesome book!
Book Review: A Story of Courage
Summary: 5 Stars
A Lesson Before Dying is a story of the courage it takes to learn how to die. Right away the author, Ernest Gaines, puts you in the courtroom where Jefferson is recieving his sentence. It is a powerful part where the matter of death is taken so strongly by Jefferson that you can see how his courage will contine until the end. Gaines does an excellent job of writing so as a reader, you feel right there, wherever he decides to take you, that is where you go. The descriptions are short, yet powerful and never seem redundant. Conversations tell the story and keep the book moving at a fast pace. Justice is questioned throughout the text. Grant, the school teacher who is to turn Jefferson into a "man" seems to question the idea of justice the most. " Twelver white men say a black man must die, and another white man sets the date and time without consulting one black person. Justice?" Grant is a smart man with a big job, seeing things though his eyes is perfect writing to see the effects Jefferson's death has on the surrounding community. Jefferson and Grant form a bond that is never acutally brought up, but its obvous in thier actions. They count on eachother for the little things in their lives which makes it so special. They are eachother's heros. "A hero is someone who does something for other people. He does something that other men don't and can't do. He is different from other men. He is above other men. No matter who those other men are, the hero, no matter who he is, is above them." Jefferson is Grant's hero because he is able to open his eyes a little wider, and Grant is Jefferson's hero as he teaches him the meaning of manhood. Their friendship is not too common the lessons they teach eachother will have you laughing and crying 'til the end.Book Review: A confrontation of equality
Summary: 5 Stars
Of all the powerful messages portrayed in Ernest Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying, perhaps the most universally influential was the humanisticly equal description of the towns Christmas play. In his description, Gaines drops the ever-present racial "titles" and instead describes the people...as people. I for one found this message to be quite powerful; due to the cruciality of its being there. By giving the description of an all-black, racially discriminated community gathering and doing the basic joys in life that make us human, Gaines, one of countless times, confronts the negative stereotypes that are still all too present in our current society. The message projected from Gaines, though written as a witness to more ignorant times, can and should be used to help us with the fallacies in thought many of us are still quite capable of having. Though not the only example of the deservance of human equality expressed in the novel, the warm description of the Christmas play (minus the looming fate of Jefferson) and the gathering of what ultimately are just people, spreads quite clearly the message that since no one group of people are able to enjoy life more than another, no one group should have the right to enjoy life more than another. To be put more clearly, no particular type of man is more deserving of happiness than another.
I believe this message, though written in the confrontation of racism, far transcends the purpose for which it seems to have been created. By expressing the message so justly, Gaines has seemingly created a personal standard for man kind in its entirety. Its almost as though Gaines is saying, that despite race, wealth, or nationality, no one group is more deserving of happiness than another. This is a powerful message. One could almost call it, "universal."
Book Review: "...that's what we all are...all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we-each one of us, individually-decide...
Summary: 5 Stars
...to become something else."
It's late October of 1949 (p 87) when, grudgingly, a 28-year-old teacher named Grant Wiggins agrees to his septuagenarian aunt's request on behalf of her (similarly elderly) friend, that he meet with her imprisoned 21-year-old godson, Jefferson, to make a man out of him in preparation for his execution (p 20), "I want a man to go set in that chair..." in spite of his initial defeatist feelings about the situation (p 14) "There's nothing I can do anymore, nothing any of us can do anymore." Since obtaining his degree, Mr. Wiggins, a teacher at the same church school he attended as a child, has gained the respect of blacks, but resentment from whites. He has his work cut out for him in trying to transform this simple young man, who is understandably upset at his defense attorney's choice of words during closing arguments (he describes him as being less than human, going so far as to compare him to a hog) and holds on to that feeling in disregarding the efforts of the visitors to his jail cell. Jefferson is guilty of little more than being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong era in American history, and, in the confusion of criminal circumstances, making a foolish, and ultimately fatal, decision.
Over a period of about six months, Wiggins helps change Jefferson, local persons both black and white, and, unintentionally, himself for the better due to his efforts on behalf of the condemned man. A Lesson Before Dying, a book about capital punishment and the ruinousness of racial injustice, is a better book than Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking (which I read just prior to this one). Also good: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell.
Book Review: Dying With Dignity
Summary: 5 Stars
This compelling novel written by a wonderful author, Ernest Gaines, changed my perspective on the world as I once viewed it. Life was very uneasy for the African Americans back during the time in which this book was to be taken place, and I feel that Gaines emphasizes that point as he displays the story of an innocent black man on death row for a crime that he did not take any part in. Jefferson, the man being charged for the murders of a storekeeper named Mr. Grope and Jefferson's two friends "Bear" and "Brother", was not only going to be sent to his early death for a crime that he didn't committ, but he was about to walk to the electric chair thinking that he was nothing but a "hog." Luckily he had a very loving godmother named Miss Emma who convinced an educated black schoolteacher by the name of Grant Wiggins to visit Jefferson until the day of his death and teach him to die like a man, not a hog. Although Grant Wiggins was one of the lucky victims of racism who got a high education, he hated his career, for he felt that his race would not amount to their fullest potential if the world continued to treat people with so much disrespect for living. He formed a close bond with Jefferson, but most importantly, he was able to serve his purpose: He taught Jefferson that a man must walk confidently toward his death knowing that he is a man and nothing less. This novel inspired me to believe that everyone must stive to their fullest potential and hold their head up high despite the riticuole that others might give out to them. Ernest Gaines' novel "A Lesson Before Dying" was probably one of the most emotional books that I have ever read.