Abstract
This paper explains that, in Ernest J. Gaines' novel "A Lesson before Dying", race is the obvious issue in the story with which the author and the main character Grant Wiggins struggle; however, equally important to the novel is the issue of gender. The author points out that the relationship between Grant Wiggins and the women in his life -- Tante Lou, Miss Emma and Vivian -- can be examined in terms of how men and women understand each other and what the expectations were for black men in the South. The paper concludes that, in the end, Grant learns, through the amazing example of Jefferson's actions, that it is possible to be a man even under the most miserable conditions imaginable.

From the Paper
"Even though Grant's relationship with Tante Lou and Miss Emma is at times hostile, he still respects them as elderly women in his society. In chapter twelve upon returning from visiting Jefferson in jail and having a bad experience, Grant does not want to tell Miss Emma what has happened. He tries to protect her by thinking of a good lie to tell her so her feelings won't be hurt. He is also respectful of his aunt's feelings throughout the novel because he lives in her house and she raised him."

Tags:race, gender, struggle, women, south

Abstract
This paper discusses and details the plot while focusing on the main characters of Jefferson and Grant in Gaines' novel. The writer of this paper contends and explains why this particular novel, which deals with racism, injustice and the pain of life and death, should be required reading in schools across America. This paper examines the judicial system in 1940s America particularly as seen through the eyes of a falsely convicted African-American man. This paper explores the close bond between Jefferson and Grant as well as the author's underlying themes of injustice and prejudice as they relate to the rights of African-Americans in the early 20th century. The writer also discusses Gaines' clear message pertaining to the value of each and every human being, regardless of race.

From the Paper
"Another important aspect of this novel is the certainty of death. Everyone faces it - it is how he or she faces it that makes the difference. Gaines writes, "I don't know when I'm going to die, Jefferson. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe today. That's why I try to live as well as I can every day and not hurt people." Jefferson faces his death with dignity, which he learns in part from his interact with Grant. Critic Beavers notes, "Though Jefferson's death is certain, Grant's task -- which becomes Jefferson's legacy -- is to impart some of himself, to demonstrate to Jefferson a way to improvise upon a negative situation till he discovers dignity and purpose" (Beavers 31). Each man learns something valuable from the other, and that is another major point of the novel. Gaines is showing the reader they can learn from anyone, no matter how "insignificant" they may seem. Everyone has a lesson and everyone can be a pupil, no matter who they are or what they do in life."

Tags:literature, review, african, american, plot, life, death, justice, rights, equality, racism

Abstract
A look at the questions of racism and human dignity raised in Gaines' novel, "A Lesson Before Dying" and how the imprisoned and oppressed may find freedom even in the moment of their death.

From the Paper
"In a small Cajun community during the 1940's in Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A white shopkeeper has been murdered during a robbery gone bad; and though the young man on trial had not been armed and had not pulled the trigger, in that time and place, there could be no doubt of the verdict or the penalty. "I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be" (p.3). So begins Grant Wiggins, the narrator of Ernest J. Gaines' powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, A Lesson Before Dying. "

Tags:Autobiography, Miss, Jane, Pittman

Abstract
The paper focuses specifically on Beau Boutan, a central character in the novel, who appears dead at the opening of the story, but is the pivot to the rest of the action in the book. The paper discusses how Beau represented everything bad about the interracial relationships in Louisiana during that time, a white man hated by the blacks, and how all the men in town had a reason to kill him.

From the Paper
"Throughout the book, the old black men remember the horrors the Boutan family have wreaked on the community. These represent the horrors the blacks have faced at the hands of whites for centuries, emancipation or not. Boutan's death draws the community together so they can take back their sanity and their manhood, as the narrator shows late in the book when he is talking with Candy. "That old man is free of you now. When he pulled your hands off his arm and went into that room, he was setting both of you free" (Gaines 287)."

Tags:cruelty, change, equality, pride

Abstract
This paper summarizes and analyzes Ernest J. Gaines' novel about a black man unjustly sentenced to death because the legal system of the Jim Crow South is so prejudiced the white jurors selected to judge him cannot see the truth. The paper relates that the story begins in a world where there has been a profound breakdown of all communication systems but by the end of the novel the two main protagonists are able to communicate by finding common ground and points of connection and, as a result, have changed within. The paper concludes that, although society has not changed by the end of the novel and the transformation experienced by the main characters is not enough to heal the world, the message of the story is still positive and inspiring enough for the reader to keep in his or her mind, long after closing the book.

From the Paper
"Even though Grant does not consider himself a believer, culturally the two men also share a common childhood education in religion, which they have begun to doubt or reject. Jefferson has to ask Grant if Christmas marks the birth of Jesus, during one of their first conversations. At the beginning of the novel, Grant rejects Christianity as a white invention. But by the end of the novel, he asks his students to pray on the day when Jefferson is scheduled to die. The unjust death of Jesus becomes a metaphor for both men, of the wrongful death of Jefferson and the suffering of all black men and women. Grant becomes impressed by the strong faith of the religious people of the nation, such as the Reverend Ambrose. He gradually becomes impressed by how the black men and women of his community are able to keep their faith, even when they live in a world of injustice. Christmas is a palpable presence in the novel, as Grant feels loneliest during Christmas. Jefferson dies around Easter-time. The Christian calendar underlines the similarities between the two men, and their common, eventually shared faith. Over the course of the novel, the men discover as they have more and more in common, even in small aspects of their lives and childhood. The two men used to listen to the same radio program as children, and Grant gives Jefferson a radio to connect him to positive memories, and to a sense of his culture outside of the prison. He brings gifts from his students, and also a pencil and paper, to give Jefferson the dignity of being able to express his innermost feelings. Jefferson feels like a beast, but self-expression brings back his sense of humanity. Words and writing have always been very important to Grant, and the come to be equally important to Jefferson."

Tags:african, american, white, religion

From the Paper
"Ernest J. Gaines' novel, In My Father's House, tells the tale of Philip Martin, a minister and civil rights leader, a responsible husband and father, and a pillar of the black community in a small, rural Louisiana town who is forced to confront the sins of his past when the son he abandoned long before shows up in the town to seek revenge against the father he hates. The story is not only about the reckoning of an individual human being with the wreckage of his past, it is just as importantly the story of the division between black fathers and black sons, a theme which is crucial to an understanding of this and other works by Gaines. These aspects of the novel will be explored in the context of the painful beginning of the self-discovery of Martin in the novel."

This novel is unlike many other works by Gaines in that it

Abstract
This paper discusses Ernest J. Gaines' book, "A Lesson Before Dying", and its theme that religion is important to society because faith gives people hope and perseverance. The paper summarizes and analyzes the book in order to illustrate how Gaines walks the reader through a process of spiritual evolution that lends hope to the hopeless.

From the Paper
"The antithesis to Grant Wiggins in the novel is the Reverend Ambrose, a man who was never formally educated or ordained. His belief in religion appears to be absolute. He is a local church figure who preaches every Sunday at the small local church that Jefferson and Grant's aunt attends. He recognizes that religion, although intangible, is often the most cherished possession his people have. Like Grant, Reverend Ambrose goes to see Jefferson. He brings the words of the gospel and Jesus Christ into the small cramped jail cell with him, yet he fails to reach Jefferson in any significant way."

Tags:respected, blasphemous, truth, solace, religion, spiritual, evolution

Abstract
This paper examines Ernest J. Gaines' novel "In My Father's House", the tale of Philip Martin, a minister and civil rights leader, a responsible husband and father and a pillar of the black community in a small, rural Louisiana town. Martin is forced to confront the sins of his past when the son he abandoned long before shows up in the town to seek revenge against the father he hates. This paper discusses how the story is not only about the reckoning of an individual human being with the wreckage of his past but also the story of the division between black fathers and black sons, a theme which is crucial to an understanding of this and other works by Gaines. It explores these aspects of the novel in the context of the painful beginning of the self-discovery of Martin in the novel.

From the Paper
"Gaines portrays Martin not as an evil man, but as a man who is trying, both consciously and subconsciously, to redeem himself for his abandonment of his son, but what he has done has not healed his heart, or his son, or their relationship. The sins of his past were the sins of a young man, but clearly this rationale does not excuse him for those sins or exempt him from having to deal directly with those sins and the son against whom he committed them. Again, the essence of the story is the alienation of black father from black son, and only a direct confrontation can alter that alienation, although not necessarily for the better. After all, the son kills himself in the end of the book, so if there is any redemption it will come in the character of Martin. Despite the fact that Reverend Martin's last words to his wife are, "I'm lost, Alma. I'm lost," Alma restores hope for the future with the words, "We just go'n have to start again" (Gaines 214). "

Tags:black, father, son, sins, self-discovery

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the novel "A Gathering of Old Men" by Ernest J. Gaines. Specifically it describes and assesses how the novel depicts the culture that it is portraying. "A Gathering of Old Men" indicates that even in the relatively modern South, hatred and old ideas still exist. Slavery may have ended in the 19th century, but the residual effects of that institution still follow blacks and whites in the South. The historical context of this moving book illustrates that quite clearly.

From the Paper
"Ernest J. Gaines was born on January 15, 1933 on the River Lake Plantation in Louisiana. He worked in the cane fields of the plantation when he was a child, and the setting offers the background for much of his fiction. He says, "Though the places in my stories and novels are imaginary ones, they are based pretty much on the place where I grew up and the surrounding areas where I worked, went to school, and traveled as a child. My characters speak the way people speak in that area" (Bauer). He has written numerous novels and short stories, and almost all of them tell the emotional stories of black people struggling to live in a largely white world, just like this one. He has won numerous awards and recognition for his novels, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim fellow, and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellow (Bauer). He is a professor of English in Lafayette, Louisiana, and he continues to write compelling tales about black life and social issues in his home state."

Tags:lynching, prison, social, issues

Abstract
This paper examines how through Ernest J. Gaines's novel "A Lesson Before Dying" and Wendell Berry's "Hannah Coulter", we can see the importance of giving the living a lesson about death. It looks at how death is viewed in both stories as a natural part of life and as something that should be used to educate the living. It shows how in "A Lesson Before Dying", this education occurs through Jefferson's character, when he is told to die with pride and therefore set an example for others, demonstrating to them that there is nothing to fear from death. It also discusses how in "Hannah Coulter", the idea of dying with dignity is demonstrated through Nathan's traumatic struggles with the fact that he watched so many die without dignity.

From the Paper
"In Ernest J. Gaines novel, A Lesson Before Dying, readers are presented with a very serious dilemma regarding the death penalty, and the concept of inflicting death as a punishment. The story is about a man who is arrested and persecuted for a killing that he, in fact, had no part in. This character, Jefferson, was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; as a result of his bad luck, he was accused of killing three men. However, Jefferson was simply there; he did nothing wrong and took no part in this crime. The unfortunate circumstance for Jefferson is the fact that he is poor and black, and these two stereotypical factors prevent must individuals from actually believing that Jefferson is innocent. In response to the present crime, Grant Wiggins comes into the story. "

Tags:death, penaly, jefferson, nathan