Rating: 
Summary: A Tour de Force in American Literature
Review: It is late 1940s' Louisiana. A simple-minded black man is wrongly accused and convicted of murdering a white owner of a liquor store. He is condemned to death in the electric chair. The setting is familiar to readers of American literature, but the lesson to follow is not. Gaines has brilliantly woven a tale of bravery vs. cowardice; strong vs. weak by creating a hero of the humble prisoner and giving meaning and direction to the life of a reluctant, mediocre teacher. The teacher, the malcontent Grant Wiggins, has been bullied by his aunt and her grieving friend, the aunt of the jailed boy, into making a man of him before he dies. This project is launched when, during the trial, the white defense lawyer referred to the captive, as nothing more than a farm animal. A "hog" to be precise. At the aunts' relentless urging, Wiggins drags himself to the jailhouse weekly with no idea how to begin this lesson, when he hasn't learned it for himself. How can a man can die like a man if he has never lived like a man? The text to follow, particularly the prisoner's diary, is an amazing, inspiring piece of work. A winner of the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, A LESSON BEFORE DYING is certainly worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: What a good book!!! Oprah picked a good one!
Review: A Lesson Before Dying is about relationships. Relationships between a man and a woman, a man and his family, and a man and society. All incorporated in a wonderful and powerful story. It takes place in the 1940's where a young black man will be executed for the murder of a white store owner. During the trial, his lawyer tells the jury of white men that executing the young man would be like strapping a hog to the electric chair. His godmother doesn't want the world to see a hog executed, but a man. So the local black schoolteacher's services are offered up to make sure that no "hog" is to be executed. It is a wonderful book. It is the perfect example of "walk softly and carry a big stick". Gaines does this literally. The language is elegant which makes the emotions all the more powerful. I was moved. Read this book, not because it is Oprah's pick, read it if you are a fan of a good story. You will not be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyably fast read through a deep topic
Review: Was I ever pleasantly surprised at what a fast read with such deep implicaitons was contained between the covers of this book! It is set in the lives of a condemed man and his loved ones in Louisiana in the early 1950's. The book begins with Jefferson rail-roaded for a murder due to the color of his skin, rather then the evidence. Even his own defense attorney refers to him as a 'hog' in his closing argument. This affront to Jefferson's humanity sets both the community and him on a quest for respect and resolution before his impending execution. The social injustice is haunting and the resolutions are memorable.
Rating:
Summary: Grab a tissue box with this one!
Review: There are very few books that make me stop and grab the tissue box. By the time I finished reading the chapter representing Jefferson's Diary, I was glad I had a NEW box of tissues. Jefferson is a young, black man in 1940s Louisiana who is facing the death sentence as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. His companions killed a white man and ended up dead themselves in the bargain. Jefferson got caught, tried, and convicted to death. But that's not really the story, just the backdrop. You see, in his summation, his own attorney compares Jefferson to a hog, and his godmother is determined that, while he may die, Jefferson is going to walk to that electric chair as a man, not a hog. The duty of teaching Jefferson to be a man falls to Grant Wiggins, the local teacher whose aunt, along with Jefferson's godmother, lay the task at his feet. What follows is a story that paints a vivid picture of the hopes, loves, frustrations, and small victories of a black man in a white world. And, while I like to think that the world Mr. Gaines has painted in his book existed only in the 1940s, I know that some of the same frustrations Mr. Wiggins expresses on page 166 are still felt today. Read this book. Devour this book. Remember this book. Learn from this book. Just keep a box of tissues nearby.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lesson before Dying
Review: This year, i really havent read much, but i've found a book that i really enjoyed, A Lesson before Dying. The book had a really good beginning, it grabed my attention right away. It starts of in the court, some one has been killed, and their trying to figure out if the "man" is really guilty of robbery and first degree murder. Their is also these two main characters that they call them Brother & bear, and they go to court to support their friend, telling them thir side of the story, because they were there with him. Later on the story, the mother is really upsset, but believes that her son is inocent of all charges. When the court is finally over, after all the convincing storys from both sides, the man was guilty with all charges of robbery and first degree murder. The man claims that he didnt kill the worker at the liqior store, and that he dindt take any of the money.
Rating:
Summary: Life and death is 1940s Lousiana.
Review: This is a wonderful novel about segrationist Lousiana and about two men trying to become men. One is a slow, barely literate young black wrongly accused of murder, and the other is a young black profesional working as a teacher in a plantation school. Both are trying to attain their manhood. The young person convicted of murder becomes a man first and shows the community what it is like to face a grim fate with dignity and courage. The young black professional learns from this person how he should conduct his life.
This is wonderful story with good life examples of how people become adults. It is not only serious, but has some good stories that I chuckled over. A great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad
Review: I had to read this book for school, and, first let me say I'm not just some highs chooler who hates to read, my favorite writers are Kafka, Faulkner and Dostoevsky, but this book was all but utter trash. It had a few meaningful moments, but generally it was devoid of characterization, emotion, and plot. I give it two stars for trying, but it just tries too hard to be great. Gaines-Accept average.
Rating:
Summary: Not To Be Missed!
Review: We have read this book before. We have heard these lessons taught and we have seen what happens when we refuse to learn them. We heard the voice of innocence lost in To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout realized that racism for the sake of tradition is still racism. Now, in A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines, gives us a voice from the other side of the tracks.
Grant Wiggins is a young man in the south, during the days of "Separate but Equal". He's six years out of University, a little too educated for most white folks' taste, but he keeps his learning in line by teaching at the black school in the quarter (short for ex-slave quarters) on the old plantation where he lives with his Aunt. He's resigned himself to his fate. He knows the rules and he plays by them. He ends sentences addressed to white men with "sir", and he doesn't look a white man in the eyes unless the white man is speaking to him. He'd be angry if he thought it wasn't pointless.
Then comes along an event that changes everything. Not so much his world, as much as the way that he sees it. His old Aunt's friend's godson, has the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This puts him on trial for the murder of a white man. His court appointed defense attorney appeals to the jury of 12 white men, that Jefferson, guilty though he may be, should not be put to death. "What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this." Even with such a strong argument, the jury gives him the death penalty.
These are the words that changed the course of Grant Wiggins' life. Jefferson's godmother wants "the teacher make him know he's not a hog, he's a man. I want him know that 'fore he go to that chair...". But for Grant to do that, he's got to know it himself. The teacher has much to learn from his former student.
A Lesson Before Dying is a novel of such striking poignancy, that long after the last page is read, the story goes on and on in your mind. You grow to love the characters BECAUSE of their humanity, as much as IN SPITE of it. Your breath catches when you realize, as Grant does, that maybe it was Jefferson all along that was the man, and Grant that learned what being a man really means. Along with The Losers Club by Richard Perez, this is my favorite purchase off Amazon this year!
Rating:
Summary: Modern Novels Essay
Review: The quotes I have chosen are based on the characteristics of Jefferson. The quotes are based upon what he believes and how he feels.
Jefferson was in his twenties when he was sentenced to death by electrocution because of a murder of a store owner and two brothers. Jefferson had no idea of what he had done to put himself in this position. Before his death he was sent to the Bayonne Jail to wait for that one day. The waiting period is known to be the worst part of the sentencing. The reason for that is that the authorities believe that is the time period they have to think about what they have done and how they can get out of the situation or even find a way to be forgiven for the pain it caused the loved ones. In jail Jefferson did not talk to anyone at first. When he did start talking to people, particularly Grant, he would respond in short and non-emotional answers. One of the answers he seemed to give often was. "I'm all right." Jefferson stated. (Pg. 169)
Religion is important to most people especially the people of Bayonne and at the quarter, where the godmother of Jefferson had lived all of her life and that was where Jefferson was raised. Reverend Ambrose was the person who helped the people if they had trouble believing in what was right and wrong or not knowing who or what is right to do in situations that you feel you need someone there for you. Jefferson knew that there were a God and a heaven, but did not feel there was a reason he believed he would get to heaven. He was not sure when Jesus died and when he rose from the dead, but the fact that he knew he had died and rose is enough to know Jesus did exist and is in the heart and mind of Jefferson. "Tomorrow is Good Friday." Grant said, and then Jefferson asked "That's when He rose?" (Pg. 221)
The feeling of death is nothing to the mind of a man that is on death row. Jefferson was sentenced to death by electrocution. Jefferson felt depressed, but did not show any sign of feeling because of the thought of what he could do to make up for what he did. He did not eat or take care of himself either because he had no feeling of remorse, guilt, or even madness. He acted like he did not care anymore and did not want anything to do with his own family or help that his family had gotten for him. The night before the execution he could not sleep and wrote in his notebook that Grant had got him. The thing that Jefferson had done was repressed his feelings of the deaths of the store owner and the two brothers. Then at the last moment of his life he took time to listen to his heart and feel pain because he would not feel anything else after that moment. Jefferson wrote "its quite quite an i can yer my teefs hitin an i can yer my hart." (Pg. 233)
Gaines, Ernest. A Lesson Before Dying. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993
Rating:
Summary: A Lesson Before Dying Essay
Review: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is a book of people learning and realizing what life is all about. Grant Wiggins is a person who changes and realizes what life is really about.
Grant is a person who others come to for help because he is the teacher. They expect him to know most everything. This is why he is chosen to help Jefferson. Jefferson is in jail for participating in a robbery and murder which he did not commit. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the end of the trial, the prosecutor calls Jefferson a hog. Now Grant's aunt and Miss Emma want Grant to convince Jefferson that he is not a hog, that he is a man.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Grant, I'm helping them white people to humiliate you. I'm so sorry. And I wished they had somebody else we could turn to. But they ain't nobody else." (p. 79)
Just about every Friday Grant goes to see Jefferson, unwillingly though, to try and make Jefferson realize he is a man. Jefferson, at first doesn't even talk. Eventually, however, Jefferson starts talking. By the time of his execution, Grant has convinced him that he is a man. He is not only a man, but a hero. He is a man/hero because not everybody will give up there life and take the chair as Grant knew Jefferson would.
"Do you know what a hero is, Jefferson? A hero is someone who does something for other people. He does something that other men don't and can't do." (p. 191)
Grant changes throughout this book. He goes from being sad and sorry for himself, to realizing that life isn't so bad.
"I wanted to scream at my aunt; I was screaming inside. I had told her many, many times how much I hated this place and all I wanted to do was get away. I had told her I was no teacher, I hated teaching, and I was just running in place here. But she had not heard me before, and I knew that no matter how loud I screamed, she would not hear me now." (p.15)
"Yes, I'm lucky," I said. "Some of us are." (p. 255)
These quotes prove that he has changed. He realizes that he is lucky to have what he does have, and to be grateful for it.
Overall, I think this was an excellent book that helps teach you that you should be grateful for what you have, and not be mad or upset about what you don't. It takes a while to learn, but all you have is time. For those people who do not have time to learn should think about their lives as they are now. Yes, sure, you can always pick out the bad things in your life, but why would you want to?
|
