Zahira's review
A Lesson Before Dying
by Ernest J. Gaines
I think you've missed the context- in the 1940's, fatalism was the only available answer to a situation like the one described in A Lesson Before Dying. A downtrodden, oppressed people had fifteen to twenty years from the time period of this novel until real social change began- a social change foreshadowed by the deputy Paul, who respected and treated African Americans as equals, at no small risk to himself and his career.
If A Lesson Before Dying had been set in modern-day America, I would agree with you. But please don't discount the value of the narrative by applying modern points of view while disregarding contextual considerations.
Zahira's review
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Zahira's review
rating:
bookshelves:
education-pedagogy,
prison-industrial-complex
The narrative was slow-starting, and even once it started going, it fell flatline for me. Part of this is structural, you know the trajectory of events on a superficial level from mere glance at the front and back covers. There is some beauty in it's depiction of the ordinary and a few insightful moments.
I did find the array of characters presented in the small town Louisiana setting interesting and the author's depiction of "mulatto" or "creole" as he interchanges, presented some unexpected moments. Other times the text seems shamefully accomodationist to me. Rather than challenging, or at least being outraged about another black man who didn't do anything on death row, the characters in the book seem fatalist in their responses, (which range from praying to Jesus to taking a moment of silence in a school classroom to observing a butterfly) and perhaps rightfully so, but this was disturbing to me. It almost seems to paint the stereotypical outcome of the ...more
I did find the array of characters presented in the small town Louisiana setting interesting and the author's depiction of "mulatto" or "creole" as he interchanges, presented some unexpected moments. Other times the text seems shamefully accomodationist to me. Rather than challenging, or at least being outraged about another black man who didn't do anything on death row, the characters in the book seem fatalist in their responses, (which range from praying to Jesus to taking a moment of silence in a school classroom to observing a butterfly) and perhaps rightfully so, but this was disturbing to me. It almost seems to paint the stereotypical outcome of the ...more
I think you've missed the context- in the 1940's, fatalism was the only available answer to a situation like the one described in A Lesson Before Dying. A downtrodden, oppressed people had fifteen to twenty years from the time period of this novel until real social change began- a social change foreshadowed by the deputy Paul, who respected and treated African Americans as equals, at no small risk to himself and his career.
If A Lesson Before Dying had been set in modern-day America, I would agree with you. But please don't discount the value of the narrative by applying modern points of view while disregarding contextual considerations.