List About Books A Lesson Before Dying
| Title | : | A Lesson Before Dying |
| Author | : | Ernest J. Gaines |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | September 28th 1997 by Vintage (first published December 1st 1993) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. African American. Academic. School. Literature. Adult Fiction |
Ernest J. Gaines
Paperback | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 3.95 | 49754 Users | 3270 Reviews
Narrative During Books A Lesson Before Dying
A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who left his hometown for the university, has returned to the plantation school to teach. As he struggles with his decision whether to stay or escape to another state, his aunt and Jefferson's godmother persuade him to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson before his death. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting and defying the expected. Ernest J. Gaines brings to this novel the same rich sense of place, the same deep understanding of the human psyche, and the same compassion for a people and their struggle that have informed his previous, highly praised works of fiction.Point Books In Pursuance Of A Lesson Before Dying
| Original Title: | A Lesson Before Dying |
| ISBN: | 0375702709 (ISBN13: 9780375702709) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Louisiana(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1993) |
Rating About Books A Lesson Before Dying
Ratings: 3.95 From 49754 Users | 3270 ReviewsPiece About Books A Lesson Before Dying
Jefferson, a simple black laborer, found himself in a liquor store during an armed robbery. The innocent man was in the wrong place when the owner was murdered, and he was convicted of the crime in the late 1940s. The public defender had tried to convince the jury that Jefferson was not intelligent enough to plan the crime. The teacher Grant Wiggins described the trial: "He said it would be like tying a hog down into that chair and executing him--an animal that didn't know what any of it was allSomeday I will die. That I am sure of. But I do not think about it, at least, not consciously. I wouldn't want to think that a time will come when light, breath, and little breezes are things I will not experience. And never again see that little, oh, so beautiful smile in her eyes. But it will come, all the same. When? Tomorrow? Next year? Fifty, a hundred... well maybe say seventy years at the most. That was a passing thought. Sad it was caught on record. Well, think of a man who knows that he
With raw, unflinching honesty and a brilliant depiction of time and place, this is the story of a young, black man sentenced to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A white man was shot to death, the other two perpetrators dead, someone must be held accountable.A young school teacher, returned to the quarters to teach the black school children, and now enlisted by his aunt and the condemned man's nana to help the man go to his death as a man, not as an inhuman man, not much
I dare you to read this and not be moved. Jefferson, a poor, uneducated twenty-one-year-old Black was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time--in a small-town liquor store outside of Bayonne, Louisiana. It is the 1940s. Three men are killed. He is the only survivor. He is tried, convicted and sentenced to the electric chair. His nannan has one request. She asks that Grant Wiggins, a teacher at the church school, be allowed to speak to him. Let him die not as a hog but as a man. Those are
Jefferson is a young man who finds himself in a situation which wrongly leads to his criminal conviction and ultimately his execution. Grant is a school teacher who is having an internal struggle with whether to stay or leave the state to pursue more opportunities and a better life. The plot unfolds around Jeffersons godmothers request which will require Grant to visit Jefferson regularly in prison.Grant grapples with the enormity of the request thats been made of him. His insecurities and the
What a powerful story. This goes to my classics shelf immediately. This is the kind of great book that makes you wonder how you could have passed it over for so long. Instant respect for Ernest Gaines.
How did I feel at the end of this book....uplifted and beaten down, both. All the love and all the hate and all the even more stultifying indifference. All the indignity and indignation. So many very heavy feelings spread through this sad story, but there are moments of redemption if you watch carefully for them.Many already know of the story...the teenaged boy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up sentenced to death. His family wants him to die as a man...and wants--no
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