A lesson before dying: thematic analysis

¶ … Lesson before Dying

Ernest Gaines' novel A Lesson before Dying is a story about the evolution of two men during the period of time where one awaits death by execution and the other tries to improve the convicted man before time runs out. Beyond this crime story, there is the overt racism that is shaping their progress in the American south after the Civil War but before the Civil Rights Movement. As African-American men, Grant and Jefferson have much of their lives predestined. No matter what they make of their lives, they will always be affected by the prejudicial attitudes of those around them. These are the two main characters at the center of the events in the novel. However, there are also extremely important characters in the story who serve the purpose of forwarding the story and forcing the evolution of the two primary male characters, Grant and Jefferson. The three most important supporting characters in the novel, Tante Lou, Miss Emma, and Vivian allow the two males to evolve into more fully-fledged, three-dimensional individuals.

Tante Lou is the aunt of the narrator and protagonist, Grant Wiggins. Her attitude towards the world in which she lives is that there is hope. Her spirituality and a belief in a higher power and a benevolent God make it easier for her to continue living in a place where she is continually marginalized because of her skin color. Tante Lou at first seems to be a meek and mild woman who tries to go about her life creating as little of a ripple as she possible can. However, beneath the still and calm surface of her personality, Tante Lou shows herself to be extremely strong. In the story, after Grant has gone to visit Jefferson and has decided that he will not return to see the man, it is Tante Lou who forces his hand. She does not ask Grant to go back to the prison to see Jefferson. Nor does she yell at him or threaten him. Instead, Tante Lou simply says, "You going back…You ain't going to run away from this Grant" (Gaines 123). Grant is a man who is better educated than the majority of the other characters in the book, white or black. With this education come knowledge and an understanding about the intolerance and prejudice that is occurring around him. When put in the position to make a potential change in the life of a young convicted man, Grant's impulses tell him to run away from the conflict. Tante Lou shows that it is she who possesses all the strength and informs him that she will not allow him to hide himself away or shirk what she believes to be his responsibilities as an educated man. This strength is also shown later on in the story when she believes that Grant has turned Jefferson against God. Grant is an atheist and Tante Lou is a religious woman. It angers her that his own beliefs have been allowed to affect a man who could benefit from the belief that there is something for him beyond the afterlife as he awaits the execution of his death sentence. Tante Lou is strong in her faith and it makes her nephew question his own lack of beliefs in the end.

Miss Emma was actually Emma Glenn and the godmother of the convicted man Jefferson. The young man had only Miss Emma to look out for him. He explains late in the story that his own mother and father abandoned him at an early age. Thus, the only person he felt he could rely on was a woman who had no blood relationship with him. Although she supported him, she could not erase the feeling of abandonment Jefferson experienced after the departure of his mother and father. When the reader first meets Miss Emma, she is sitting in Tante Lou's kitchen after the announcement of the verdict in Jefferson's murder trial. One would expect her to be despairing over her godson's impending sentence, which she undoubtedly is. However, she is also distraught over how Jefferson's defense attorney treated him. She says, "Called him a hog" (Gaines 12). The defense attorney, in trying to save Jefferson from the death penalty, compares the young man to a hog. The attorney says that Jefferson is an animal and beneath common humanity.

Also, Miss Emma is the catalyst for what will become Grant's change of attitude and call to action. Early in the novel, Miss Emma laments over Jefferson's verdict even though she believes him to be innocent of the crime. Reflecting on this, she says, "You don't have to do it" (Gaines 13). This simple statement explains the whole problem of racism in the American south. It really didn't matter if Jefferson had been actually responsible for the crime he was accused. There was no way that an all-white jury was going to acquit him. There could have been eye witnesses that declared another man the culprit and it wouldn't have mattered. Justice for African-American defendants simply was not a reality during the time period.

The third female character that has a major impact on the males of the story is Vivian. Her basic function in the story is as Grant's love interest. She begins as something of a "B story." That is to say, Vivian's initial purpose is as a distraction for the protagonist and the reader from the main thread of the novel. However, as the novel continues, she becomes more important in Grant Wiggins' life. Consequently, she also becomes more important to the main storyline. Grant himself thinks of Vivian at first only as a woman. In this capacity, her purpose is to please the male character. Grant has already been controlled by his aunt and by Miss Emma into doing things that he did not wish to do. So, he sees his interactions with Vivian as a way of reasserting his masculinity. Vivian is not as strong it seems as the older two women. She has a former husband who she fears. Therefore, Grant not only gets to feel like a masculine man by bedding her, but he also gets to fulfill the fantasy of the knight in shining armor who is protecting the damsel in distress from the villain.