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A Lesson Before Dying

by Ernest J. Gaines, Jay Long (Read by)

3.76 · rating details · 12,064 ratings · 1,092 reviews

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 strug

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Published May 17th 2005 by RH Audio (first published January 1st 1994)

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Feb 06, 2008

Natalie rated it

· review of another edition

A lesson Before Dying is a very MOVING book. By reading most of the other reviews I'm sure everyone understands what this novel is about. I'm not positive if I would have appreciated this book in High School had I read it 10 years ago. I would like to thank Mr. Gaines for his lessons!! I've typed out a few powerful passages that moved me...There were more but these are just some I made sure I highlighted!

A hero is someone who something for other people. He does something that other...moreA lesson Before Dying is a very MOVING book. By reading most of the other reviews I'm sure everyone understands what this novel is about. I'm not positive if I would have appreciated this book in High School had I read it 10 years ago. I would like to thank Mr. Gaines for his lessons!! I've typed out a few powerful passages that moved me...There were more but these are just some I made sure I highlighted!

A hero is someone who 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.

"Do you know what a myth is, Jefferson?" I asked him. "A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they're better then anyone else on earth -and that's a myth. The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand, and think, and show that common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth. They would no longer gave justification for having made us slaves and keeping us in the condition we are in. As long as none of stand, they're safe.

Please listen to me, because I would not lie to you now. I speak from my heart. You have the chance of being bigger then anyone who has ever lived on that plantation or come from this little town. You can do it if you try. You have seen how Mr. Farrell makes a slingshot handle. He starts with just a little piece of rough wood- any little piece of scrap wood- then he starts cutting. Cutting and cutting and cutting, then shaving. Shaves it down clean and smooth till it's not what it was before, but something new and pretty. You know what I'm talking about, because you have seen him do it. You had one that he made from a piece of scrap wood. Yes, yes - I saw you with it. And it came from a piece of old wood that he found in the yard somewhere. And that's all we are Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood. until we - each of us, individually- decide to become something else. I am still that piece of drifting wood, and those out there are no better. But you can be better.
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Jul 02, 2008

Kathy rated it

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Recommends it for: everyone

This book is set in Louisiana in the 1940s. Grant Wiggins is a teacher on a plantation school, disillusioned with his life and his career.
"When you see that those 5 1/2 months you spend teaching each year are just a waste of time. You'll see that it'll take more than 5 1/2 months to scrape away the blanket of ignorance that has been plastered over those brains in the past 300 years."
"I felt like crying, but I refused to cry. There would be many more who would ...more

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Jun 05, 2008

Susan rated it

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Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: advisory-books-07-08

summer book; 07- *A Lesson before Dying* is an realistic non-fiction novel. It involves the story of a man named Ernest Grants, he helps to defend the rights of a black man who was accused of murder in a liquor store with two other men. This book is a very breathe-taking novel because it expands on the idea of how Jefferson (the victim on trial) should be sentenced to death a "man". However, everyone in the courthouse thought that he was a hog and shouldnt be treated as an human ...more

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Sep 23, 2007

Trishv Valenteen rated it

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Recommends it for: Everyone

I still think about this book, even after reading it months ago. It’s a very simple story about two African-American men in 1940s Louisiana; one is a teacher and the other is a uneducated man waiting to be executed for a murder he witnessed, but didn’t commit. Both of them have given up hope for their lives, and for humanity in general. They live by the rules of the white majority, and both face a bleak future that’s beyond their ability to change. They are forced to spend time together, and e...more

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Mar 10, 2009

Jeanette rated it

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This is one of the best books I have ever read. I especially liked the development of Grant. I like the fact that he questions the problems and situations around him. He's not content to stay where he is in life and within himself.

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Dec 27, 2008

Heather rated it

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I enjoyed this book. Very good writing on the authors part. I am however just completely shocked and appauled at the way the black people were treated in this book. It takes place in the 1940's in the south. I know I was taught in history and in school about this but never have actually read a book or I guess paid much attention to it. WOW! Our country has come a long way I am proud to say! I am just so overhelmed I don't have much to say or its hard for me to find the words to describe how i fe...more

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Jul 18, 2008

Mary Alice rated it

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Shelves: fiction, favorites

Absolutely incredible book. I was on my couch sobbing during parts of it. And it takes a lot to make me shed tears. Great writing. Brings you right into the moment.

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Jan 02, 2009

Sandra added it · review of another edition

Shelves: advisory-08-09

Grant Wiggins is a young African American teacher that teaches in a segregated school in Bayonne, Louisiana where he grew up. As the most educated black person in his community, he is asked to help Jefferson, a teenager who is sentenced to death. During Jefferson’s trial, his lawyer tries to defend him by convincing others that Jefferson is a hog and didn’t know what he was doing, but he lost the trial anyway. After the trial, Jefferson only thinks of himself as an animal and acts the same way a...more

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Dec 28, 2008

Julie rated it

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This story is set in Bayonne, La. in the late 1940s. It concerns Jefferson, a mentally slow, barely literate young man, who, though an innocent bystander to a shootout between a white store owner and two black robbers, is convicted of murder, and the sophisticated, educated man who comes to his aid. When Jefferson's own attorney claims that executing him would be tantamount to killing a hog, his incensed godmother, Miss Emma, turns to teacher Grant Wiggins, pleading with him to gain access to th...more

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May 20, 2009

Ann rated it

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I reread this book recently after many years and was surprised by nearly everything - but not how good it is. I had forgotten most details of the plot, the narrative structure, the characters, so it was almost like reading it for the first time; and the shock and power of the book hit me anew. This book, about a young black man condemned to die for being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the pre-Civil Rights era South and the young black teacher who is asked to teach him to die like a ma...more

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Sep 26, 2008

Kellie rated it

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Shelves: 2007-reads, bookclub-books

There are so many lessons learned when reading this book. This is the story of Jefferson. Jefferson is at the wrong place at the wrong time and is accused and convicted of robbery and murder. He is referred to, by his own defense lawyer, as a “hog”. The reader knows he is innocent. He is convicted by a jury of 12 white men. He is sentenced to death by electrocution. Even though he is innocent and all of the black people know it, it is accepted. This is the hardest thing for me to unde...more

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Jun 05, 2008

Katie P. added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Teens, Adults

Grant Wiggins resides in Bayonne, Louisiana where he teaches at the local plantation school. Grant is one of the first members of his family to attend college. He is very driven and strives for success. He is the protagonist of the novel.
At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Jefferson, a young African American that gets into a bad predicament as he is caught in the middle of a robbery and the murder of a white shopkeeper. (To me, the first few chapters were confusing becau...moreGrant Wiggins resides in Bayonne, Louisiana where he teaches at the local plantation school. Grant is one of the first members of his family to attend college. He is very driven and strives for success. He is the protagonist of the novel.
At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Jefferson, a young African American that gets into a bad predicament as he is caught in the middle of a robbery and the murder of a white shopkeeper. (To me, the first few chapters were confusing because of this, but I eventually caught on.) At his trial, Jefferson’s attorney tells the courthouse that Jefferson would have been incapable of anything as drastic as a robbery because he is no smarter than a hog. Although Jefferson is innocent, he is convicted of these crimes and sent to jail, where he will await his execution.
Jefferson’s godmother, Miss Emma, asks Grant to visit Jefferson in jail and teach him how to become a man before he dies, rather than have Jefferson truly believe that he is nothing better than an animal. Grant is hesitant about this situation at first, but eventually he faces the challenge of turning Jefferson into a true man. I believe that this was a very brave thing for Grant to do. In the beginning he really didn’t want to help him out, but he did the right thing in the end.
On his first visit, Jefferson remains silent and refuses to eat the food which Grant and Miss Emma brought for him. Miss Emma becomes emotional at this and tells Grant that she no longer wishes to come to the jail with him. To get through to Jefferson, Grant buys him a radio and a notebook, with which he can write his thoughts in. He tells Jefferson that if he can face his execution with dignity it would be a great accomplishment. Jefferson writes about how so many more people seem to care about him now that he is on death row than ever before.
In my opinion, this book had many highs and lows. There would be parts in the story that deeply interested me such as when Grant visited Jefferson in jail and tried to help him become a man. There were also parts that weren’t as interesting as I hoped they would be like when Grant talked about his teaching and schooling. Overall, I was happy with the book and thought that it was very good.
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Aug 12, 2009

jo rated it

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Shelves: african-american

i reread a lesson before dying. i remembered it not at all. all i remembered was that there were many conversations between someone and someone else, the latter of whom was about to be executed.

but i remembered wrong. there aren't many conversations between the two. in fact, they barely exchange a few hundred words. and, in the balance of the book, the scenes in which they meet take very little space.

which saddened me at the beginning, because i was in the mood for some g...more

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Jan 29, 2009

Ashley (cnthrdlywt2bwz) rated it

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Shelves: year-2009

This book was beautiful. It was emotional and I couldn't control my nose from running as I read the end at work. One of my top ten of all time reads.
Here's a very good review by another goodreads member: "It’s a very simple story about two African-American men in 1940s Louisiana; one is a teacher and the other is a uneducated man waiting to be executed for a murder he witnessed, but didn’t commit. Both of them have given up hope for their lives, and for humanity in general. They live...more

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Sep 08, 2011

Irene rated it

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Shelves: gave-away

An intensely vivid view of 1940's Southern racial injustice in a small Louisiana town. Grant Wiggins endeavors to impart his greatest lesson and gift to Jefferson in his struggle to face a death penalty he neither deserves nor is willing to accept...dignity and personal redemption.

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Jul 23, 2008

Katy Meldau Cummings rated it

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A tragic but grippingly powerful story. At the request of the accused grandmother, a school teacher attempts to help a young, innocent, but ignorant black teenager prepare to die in the electric chair in the Jim Crow South. Literature has long grappled with the reality of our mutual doom, death. But no other story so bravely and resolutely stares down the most bitter of fates, to die unjustly, in youth, in oblivion. The ancient greek and norse heros had the solace of their fame, the revolutiona...more

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Jun 01, 2008

Ben rated it

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The book is placed in the 1940s in a time of racism and segregation. A black man named Jefferson happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and was arrested because he was black and of other false accusations. He is sentenced to death but his aunt does not want Jefferson to die a "dog" or in his current state, but to die as a man. Grant Wiggins, who returns to his hometown after finishing school, comes back with surprising and unexpected requests. This book is interesting and ...more

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Dec 11, 2008

Teresa rated it

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Shelves: classics

Very emotional, had me tearing up at the end and i kept wanting to read. The chapters are short do you don't get bogged down.

I have to be honest, the main character sometimes seems unbelievable. When I first started reading it I couldn't tell how old he was or what race he was,which is important for a novel based in the south when racism was still VERY big. Hes a full grown man but acts like a ten year old. Maybe that's the point of the novel, his coming of age, and I missed it, but ...more

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Feb 14, 2009

Sean rated it

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(Review taken from National Endowment for the Arts' website. --SR)

Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying (1993) poses one of the most universal questions literature can ask: Knowing we're going to die, how should we live? It's the story of an uneducated young black man named Jefferson, accused of the murder of a white storekeeper, and Grant Wiggins, a college-educated native son of Louisiana, who teaches at a plantation school. In a little more than 250 pages, these two men named f...more(Review taken from National Endowment for the Arts' website. --SR)

Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying (1993) poses one of the most universal questions literature can ask: Knowing we're going to die, how should we live? It's the story of an uneducated young black man named Jefferson, accused of the murder of a white storekeeper, and Grant Wiggins, a college-educated native son of Louisiana, who teaches at a plantation school. In a little more than 250 pages, these two men named for presidents discover a friendship that transforms at least two lives.

In the first chapter, the court-appointed lawyer's idea of a legal strategy for Jefferson is to argue, "Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this." This dehumanizing and unsurprisingly doomed defense rankles the condemned man's grief-stricken godmother, Miss Emma, and Grant's aunt, Tante Lou. They convince an unwilling Grant to spend time with Jefferson in his prison cell, so that he might confront death with his head held high.

Most of the novel's violence happens offstage in the first and last chapters. Vital secondary characters punctuate the narrative, including Vivian, Grant's assertive yet patient Creole girlfriend; Reverend Ambrose, a minister whom the disbelieving Grant ultimately comes to respect; and Paul, a white deputy who stands with Jefferson when Grant cannot.

White, black, mulatto, Cajun, or Creole; rich, poor, or hanging on; young, old, or running out of time-around all these people, Gaines crafts a story of intimacy and depth. He re-creates the smells of Miss Emma's fried chicken, the sounds of the blues from Jefferson's radio, the taste of the sugarcane from the plantation. The school, the parish church, the town bar, and the jailhouse all come alive with indelible vividness.

In the tradition of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966), Gaines uses a capital case to explore the nobility and the barbarism of which human beings are equally capable. The story builds inexorably to Jefferson's ultimate bid for dignity, both in his prison diary and at the hour of his execution. That Ernest J. Gaines wrings a hopeful ending out of such grim material only testifies to his prodigious gifts as a storyteller.(less)

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Jan 18, 2009

Jessica Ng rated it

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Shelves: advisory-books-junioryr

What caught my eye is that this book had the Oprah Book Club logo on the cover. The title, A Lesson Before Dying is also something that caught my attention. The book starts off with 3 black men who are going to the liquor store. Two black men start arguing with the store owner and then they started shooting. Everyone died except the only man left, Jefferson. He stayed in the store while police arrested him and he was then tried for murder. Grant Wiggins tries to help Jefferson with his case, how...more

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Jan 08, 2009

Debbie rated it

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Shelves: historical-fiction

Set in the fictional town of Bayonne, Louisiana in the late 1940s. Two African American men, proundly different, are both struggling to be men in a racist society.

Uneducated Jefferson witnesses the murder of a white storekeeper during a robbery. The perpetrators are also killed, and Jefferson is put on trial for murder. In Jefferson's defense, his lawyer says not that Jefferson is innocent, but that killing him would be like slaughtering a hog. The all white jury is not swayed ...more

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Jan 05, 2009

Pgao rated it

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Recommends it for: People who have low self-esteem.

It is a great book just like the cover said. In page 223. the part that Wiggins discussed God with Jefferson, it is pretty powerful.
"I think it's God that makes people care for people, Jefferson. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. I believe it's God that brings loved ones togethere. I believe it's God that makes trees bud and food grow out of the earth."
As one can see in the previous part of the book, Wiggins had abandon his religious belief, even in t...more

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Dec 12, 2008

Erin rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. this was another class for my ethical leadership seminar. my critique, related to integrity (core component of my class) follows:

A Humbling Part of the Whole
I leisurely read A Lesson Before Dying in 2006, but I did not feel comfortable with my rudimentary memory of the book—nothing beyond its gist—so I re-read it. And I'm glad I did. Much, though not all, of my analysis centers on some surprising similarities I found between Wiggins and Meursault and how these two very diff...morethis was another class for my ethical leadership seminar. my critique, related to integrity (core component of my class) follows:

A Humbling Part of the Whole
I leisurely read A Lesson Before Dying in 2006, but I did not feel comfortable with my rudimentary memory of the book—nothing beyond its gist—so I re-read it. And I'm glad I did. Much, though not all, of my analysis centers on some surprising similarities I found between Wiggins and Meursault and how these two very different men, who led very different lives, were both, in their own rite, still examples of integral characters.
In keeping with Carter's integrity trinity, of word, thought, and action, as Wiggins portrayed his rational and emotional trajectory he endured throughout his six-month interaction with death-bound Jefferson, Wiggins had many opportunities to act without integrity; specifically, he could have stopped early on and deserted his school, his class, and Jefferson. Wiggins, an educated African-American who returned to his hometown to teach a plethora of uneducated African-American primary school students, knowing full well that his limited time with them would likely not have the impact that he yearns for, grapples each day with giving up, moving away, and foregoing teaching altogether. In fact, on several occasions he asks his girlfriend, Vivian, to desert with him. She, of course, always refuses, citing a variety of reasons, but the most important was that, as she says, if Wiggins wouldn't later hate her for allowing him to make such a rash decision, she'd hate herself for it.
Additionally, Wiggins doesn't pretend to be the Bayou's best, most influential teacher, nor does he publicly profess that he has devoted his life to perfecting his profession; instead, quite the opposite is true. He openly admits that he feels trapped by teaching, by virtue of his race and position in society (revealing some Weberian and Marxist undertones), but he never stops teaching. He is mobile; he has the means to act on his desire, but he doesn't. Unlike Meursault, about whose educational prowess we readers know little, we know that Wiggins has a “burden of knowledge” because in his lifetime, he may feel like his work is fruitless and that the vicious cycle of African-American men departing and deserting their women and families may never be broken, but he knows that, as an educator, and as a person of color who had the opportunity to “right himself” (and thereby, the system) by attending university, he has a moral obligation to divorce himself and his loved ones from the cycle, as well as to work toward breaking the cycle altogether. Carter argues that grappling with such challenges and deciding to do the right thing, even at personal cost, exemplifies integrity, and it is in this way that Wiggins is a strong, integral character.
Where Meursault and Wiggins differ in their integral characters, though, comes in Wiggins' perpetual “lying,” as Reverend Ambrose accuses him of doing. Carter elucidates the differences between honesty and integrity in an entire chapter, so I'll just say that Wiggins' conversation with Reverend Ambrose reads like it came straight from Carter's ruminations. In essence, Rev. Ambrose says that part of both his and Wiggins' jobs is to “relieve pain, to relieve hurt—and if you have to lie to do it, then you lie. You lie and you lie and you lie” (218). After one of Wiggins' initial encounters with Jefferson, when he eats his nannan's food straight out of its brown paper-bags like the hog he believes he is, Wiggins purposely avoids returning home for several hours because he needs to think of a creative lie to tell because he knows the truth will be devastating to nannan. What a challenging decision—in an already horrible, hopeless scenario, Wiggins is trying to think of some small ways that he can make a loved one's life a little better, even if he has to fabricate the story.
Though Miss Emma later learns the truth, rendering Wiggins' lie useless, this makes me think of a situation in which someone has an incurable disease and is already in the hospital, not doing well. If I went to visit said person and saw that she didn't eat the cookies a previous guest brought her, realistically speaking, in the big picture, how much harm could a lie like “oh yes, she ate your cookies” do to someone whose heart is already broken and whose hopes, already shot? I know these “little white lies” often form the beginning of a very slippery slope, in which everything becomes relative to something else, so it's not a method I'd recommend for folks to readily employ; just as in other potentially morally or integrally precarious situations, make this decision with much intentionality and foresight. (And, if nothing else, think of how you'd feel in the receiving end of the situation. How affected or bothered do you think you'd be?)
Finally, perhaps the biggest difference between integral Meursault and integral Wiggins comes from each man's view toward his work. Though Meursault's work doesn't seem to alienate him from anyone or anything—at least what we see of it during The Stranger—we can see that Wiggins' educator profession underpins his existence, regardless of his frustration toward the system or his feeling of ineptitude. To some degree, Wiggins suffers as a result of his work—he never seems satisfied, and he often entertains the idea of quitting—but it's also in Wiggins' suffering that allows others in the quarter, his school children, and eventually, Jefferson, to respect and admire him because he constantly pushes them, just as he does himself.
I'll end my ruminations about Wiggins' integrally-led life with a very powerful passage, not only because it perfectly relates to our integrity conversations, but also because it's bold yet humbling. After the most poignant, intense conversation Wiggins holds with Jefferson, about becoming and being a hero, Wiggins thinks:
“[Jefferson] looked at me in great pain. He may not have understood, but something was touched, something deep down in him—because he was still crying.
I cry, not from reaching any conclusion by reasoning, but because, lowly as I am, I am still part of the whole. Is that what he was thinking as he looked at me crying?” (193-4)

This passage sealed the proverbial “deal” with me regarding Wiggins' worth as a person of integral character. He, personally, may not have realized until then how his thoughts, words, and actions influence others around him to emulate his own (the “burden of being an educator”), but it seems at this moment he shares with Jefferson that it finally hits him; Wiggins finally realizes how he, and his work, fit into the larger scheme, the greater puzzle of life. It's here, too, that Wiggins likely realizes how differently his life would be if he would have given into his darkest moments, when he wanted to throw away his profession and his commitment to his hometown. I still can't quite explain how or why I was so moved by this passage, except that it seemed that it wasn't until here, so late in Wiggins' time with Jefferson, that Wiggins, himself, finally had his “a-ha!” moment, in which the universe seemed to align and everything seemed to make sense. And it was here that he realized that his laborious efforts were worth it, are worth it, and will be worth it, because he and his work are not a vacuum unto themselves, in sharp contrast to Meursault and his work. Educators have a very real, a very significant opportunity to do more than they will ever know as they influence their students' lives. I think when this moment arrives, as it did here for Wiggins, that they realize that everything they've done, the hardships they've endured, make it worthwhile.
A Lesson Before Dying is a book to which I'll likely return, again, later in life. Like a good wine, it seems to improve with age—or, if nothing else, with the reader's life experiences.
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Dec 09, 2008

Marsha rated it

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To be honest, reading African/American literature makes me a little uncomfortable. Maybe Germans who read about the holocaust feel the same way--it is appalling and disgusting how blacks have been treated by whites. I am helpless to change what has happened, and is still happening, in some communities and so I hate to have to face it. Anyway, to the book. The narrator is a twenty-something black teacher who has returned to the plantation he grew up on to teach in the segregated black school. It ...more

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Dec 12, 2011

Ron added it · review of another edition

The author of this book is “Ernest J. Gaines”

A man named Jefferson has his life changed when he is convicted of a crime that he is innocent of. He has decided to go to a liquor store with his friends and an argument breaks out between his two friends and the storeowner. A shootout happens, the two men are killed in the shootout but Jefferson wasn’t hit but stays at the crime scene. Since Jefferson was the only alive one there, He was arrested for murder. He is a black man in very ra...moreThe author of this book is “Ernest J. Gaines”

A man named Jefferson has his life changed when he is convicted of a crime that he is innocent of. He has decided to go to a liquor store with his friends and an argument breaks out between his two friends and the storeowner. A shootout happens, the two men are killed in the shootout but Jefferson wasn’t hit but stays at the crime scene. Since Jefferson was the only alive one there, He was arrested for murder. He is a black man in very racial times. The jury had no problem making a guilty verdict, Even though his lawyer was trying t convince the jury that Jefferson isn’t smart enough to plan and commit such a crime.

Upon hearing what the lawyer has said to the jury about Jefferson being a “Hog” and not a man, Jefferson’s Godmother knows that his sentence to death won’t change. But she wants her godson to die as a man and not looked at or in his own heart to feel like an animal to a human. She asks a man named Grant Wiggins to teach Jefferson, so develop an education from his cell, Grant Wiggins is a man who has left the south pior years to attend college and gain an education. He doesn’t want to help Jefferson, but the pressure of Jefferson’s godmother overwhelms him. He decides to help the poor man. Grant goes to the cell for an hour a day, Jefferson refuses at the start to be helped by grant. Feeling as though there isn’t a point. But grant comes in and gives Jefferson a journal to write his random thoughts and concerns down. That is the starting point of the change of his life.

The main characters of this story are Jefferson, which is that man who is convicted for murder of the shootout at the state store.
Grant Wiggins- the educated man that teaches Jefferson throughout his jail sentence, also the narrator of the story.
Miss Emma - Jefferson’s Godmother

I feel like I can relate to Jefferson to an extent, when you feel like life is over, and don’t seem to see the light in the future. But eventually thinking those things could be better.

I see the conflict in this story as it being a time when there was great racism, and there was much of a future for a black man, Getting an education wasn’t the standards for that color back then. Seeing that this convict was developing an education in a jail cell was very hard to see. A person Vs. Society conflict.

I did enjoy the book, I also felt as though it could have been more interesting, it was gotten dull at some parts. But overall I would recommend the book to a fellow friend. If I could change something about this book, I would make it modern times, to show that it isn’t impossible to achieve in a jail cell in today’s world.
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Dec 09, 2011

Chelsea rated it

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Shelves: 2011

I think my biggest problem with this book was that, although on the surface it is a very powerful story, for much of the novel, we are seeing the events unfold through the eyes of an apathetic narrator. Although Grant's character arc moves him to truly care about Jefferson by the end, we are never given any clear motivation for what prompted this shift in perspective. Even the parts of the plot that don't center around Jefferson feel dull--it seems that our narrator wants nothing, and the things...more

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Nov 30, 2011

Damesha Cantrell rated it

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When I started reading A Lesson Before Dying it was a little confusing because I didnt know what was going to in the story because it started off in a courtroom and someone getting sentenced for a crime. When I kept reading I found out why that person was getting sentenced for a crime he didnt do because he stayed at the liquor store with a drink and some money in his hand.I stil don't know what's going to happen because i'm still a little confuse about what was going on in the story.

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Nov 30, 2011

Yvonne Stehley rated it

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This is a fictional story. It took place in Bayonne, Louisiana in the late 1940's. A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of a boy named Jefferson a 21 year old man who was wrongfully accused and convicted of robbery and mudering people. At his trial, Jefferson court appointed defense attornery say's that Jefferson lacks intelligence to plan a robbery. Even if he had been involved in the killing, sentencing him to death will be wrong. The court determined that Jefferson will die with dignity. His...more

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Aug 13, 2011

Nonchoix rated it

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Ernest J. Gaines' 'A Lesson Before Dying' is a tedious read that has a good story, but ultimately falls flat mainly because of shallow characters and flat writing.

However, if you are looking for a short, quick-read novel about African-Americans and whites during racial segregation in the style of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', this might be your cup of tea. But ultimately, there is nothing enlightening, heart-wrenching, or poignant about this novel. Many of the issues lay within the main c...moreErnest J. Gaines' 'A Lesson Before Dying' is a tedious read that has a good story, but ultimately falls flat mainly because of shallow characters and flat writing.

However, if you are looking for a short, quick-read novel about African-Americans and whites during racial segregation in the style of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', this might be your cup of tea. But ultimately, there is nothing enlightening, heart-wrenching, or poignant about this novel. Many of the issues lay within the main character, Grant Wiggins, a bitter school teacher who complains about being in his 'stifling' Louisiana town, complains and berates family members and students, yet ultimately doesn't do anything about his situation regardless of what he says or does. I have never encountered a character more bitter, cold, or just plain selfish than Grant Wiggins. Nothing ever seems to please him, and everyone seems to be at the sword's end with Grant - from his aunt and her friends, to his pupils, and even sometimes his girlfriend.

While the book is supposed to be about Jefferson, a young black male sentenced to death, there are actually few moments when the reader encounters Jefferson - most of the time, it's just Grant, and what he doesn't like, and how his Aunt and her friend are looking at him, how he wants to leave but doesn't leave, how he acts 'smart' with the whites and they don't like it, so on and so forth. There is so much conflict and anger that rolls off the pages whenever Grant is narrating it becomes tiresome and boring. This is not a page turner, and it takes several chapters to get into the actual story. The characters, other than Grant, are not very memorable and lack depth and clarity - they seem to be simply the dumb marionettes while Grant is the smart and superior, albeit angry, craftsman.

Mr. Gaines' writing also does not help to make this book even somewhat-passable by any standards. It seems almost dull, bored, and disinterested - as if he wasn't really invested in the writing from the start. The beginning of the book gives you hope, but after that, it all falls downhill from there and picks up too late, only until the absolute end. Thus, the writing leaves an empty hole in the center of what should be a fiery sea of emotion and personal connection.

Basically, 'A Lesson Before Dying' is a diamond that was never completely polished. It never really made a personal connection with me, and was such a difficult and disappointing read for me, and even today, it still fails to touch the part of me that will leave you thoughtful for the rest of the day, and many to come.(less)

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Jul 23, 2011

Greg Stinson rated it

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As you can probably tell from the title, this book does not have a happy ending, but is a beautifully written work about a time, place and situation. It is set just after WWII in a still very much segregated northern Louisiana. It goes through the experience of a young teacher visiting a man from his town sentenced to death. The story follows both the racial issues as well as the tension between how religion and academia deal with death. A pretty powerful book.

It is a bit interesti...more

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About Ernest J. Gaines

Born to a sharecropping family, Ernest Gaines was picking cotton in the fields by age nine and only attended school five or six months a year. When he was fifteen, he moved to California to join his mother who had relocated during World War II, and began writing. He attended San Francisco State University, served in the army, and won a writing fellowship to Stanford University. Gaines has been a...more

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“I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.” — 24 people liked it

“I have no more to say except this: We must live with our own conscience.” — 12 people liked it

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