Preview

A Lesson Before Dying Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
737 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Lesson Before Dying Analysis
Professor Askassi
ENGL 102 Section 021
12 April 2010

Rodnika’s Personal Reflection on A Lesson Before Dying.
The story, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is a awesome book so far. I can relate to this whole situation in numerous of ways. This story just bring back a time that my brother had to go through years ago and how he is still paying the price even though he guilty in all matters. I believe that the court system is full of a lot of stuff. They convict incents people for no reason. I can imagine how not only Jefferson but his family is going through. My life has change in way that I couldn’t imagine after my brother was locked up and sentence to life in prison.
My life changed tremendously on August 15, 2007 as I sat
…show more content…
But, then I finally got a phone call saying that the police had locked him up and took him in. I was so shocked I knew my brother wasn’t responsible for that dangerous activity that went on. When, my family and I got down there they said there are locking my brother up because he was the key shooter of this event and they found the gun he was using. I knew my brother never owned a gun. We had to wait months for the DA to come out with evidenced that they thought they had on Rodney.

While, going through trail they explained that the fingerprint on the gun matched my brother. But, I knew that was impossible. We always question them to do another test but they ignore us every time. I believe it’s funny how the court systems lock poor innocent people up. My brother is in there surviving time for something he had nothing to do with. Till this day we are still trying to get his case back on trail so we can retest the fingerprint on the gun again. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the story A Lesson Before Dying, I feel sorry for Jefferson a young black man that was in a situation at the wrong place at the wrong time just like my brother Rodney. They are both in the system surviving time and will never walk foot outside of a jail yard ever again. It funny the system believes and does what they want to do and thinks it alright. But, in my brother case they will not win this

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    A Lesson Before Dying was published on January 1st 1993. Ever since that moment people have found this book extremely moving and inspirational. It is mostly because his messages about racism during that time and how it affected people and their government in Bayonne. Jefferson’s trial is unjust because of it and even Jefferson’s mind is corrupted with it. The entire novel shows racism as an oppressive force.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a lesson before dying, I noticed many differences between the movie and book. In the book the superintendent went to inspect the children but in the movie the part was not shown, in the book it was Miss Emma's idea to bring the children in the day room but in the movie it was Grants idea and lastly in the movie they didn't show the several visits between Jefferson and Grant before he began to open up.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "The motive that these women have on the male characters is a significant one. Gaines eloquently depicts Tante Lou and Miss Emma, both African American women. They were a big part in many of the male characters' lives. Whether it was being house maids at the Henri Pichot's house, or becoming surrogate mothers for our protagonist grant, they were important to those in their immediate community.…

    • 103 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines depicts the life of a young African American who was just in the wrong time and place. Jefferson's race and culture has an important role to the following series of events being found guilty, losing hope, losing dignity, and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. Jefferson undergoes a journey along with Grant in the little time he has to redeem himself from the loss of his dignity and hope from his what his culture has caused him. Moreover, in the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines, Jefferson is deprived of his dignity from the harshful remarks and comparisons that were made against him by his defense attorney. In the first chapter of the book Jefferson is…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    something of you. A Lesson Before Dying shows what it is like to accept what is given to…

    • 1538 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The courthouse scene is the most important scene because it determines the plot for the rest of the novel. At the courthouse, a young African American male named Jefferson is sentenced to death row for crimes he has not committed. Appalled by this, Jefferson’s godmother, Miss Emma forces a school teacher named Grant Wiggins to care for Jefferson. Grant teaches Jefferson the life qualities of becoming a man so that he will not die a “hog”. Gaines uses in-depth characterization, styles, and themes to create his classic work.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Lesson Before Dying and Making a Murderer have many similarities. First, it all has to do with murder. Jefferson got accused of murder as well as Steven. They were both sent to jail after all but the only difference is Jefferson wasn’t in jail for long and got killed. Secondly, they were both accused of crime that they never did. Jefferson was a bystander of the whole situation in the book, the only problem was his was trying to take money and Liquor after the whole shooting situation, he didn’t kill anybody. Steven on the other hand was first accused with rape and served eighteen years in prison just for them to figure out it wasn’t him unlike Jefferson's first crime and only crime, Steven has two accusations. The murder acquisition is…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines there were several conflicts among characters existing at various points throughout the book. This novel takes place on Bayonne, Louisiana in the late 1940s. Vivian Baptiste is a school teacher just like Grant, but her personality and background are dissimilar from him. Vivian has “light brown skin and high cheekbones and greenish-brown eyes” (28). About that time, racial division and superiority is depicted; the churches, schools, bathrooms were all segregated. And…

    • 80 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tom Robinson is dead. Not a surprise for me, although people do seem startled by this news. I honestly don’t understand how it is possible. Each black person who passes through the courthouse doors doesn’t go back to the family. Usually negroes are, at the least, sentenced to a couple of years in prison, despite the crime ‘committed’. Now and then the punishment can even be worse, if the jury feels particularly discriminatory. At the end everybody who enters that hellish room leaves their children, parents or wives on their own in this cruel cruel world. The events continuously repeat over and over again, and there are always some innocent, optimistic imbeciles who keep hoping for a different verdict to escape the jury’s lips. Fools who keep…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest Gaines, the narrator, Grant, is an African-American man living in the Jim Crow era and subsequently faces discrimination and oppression all too often. One example discrimination is when Grant goes to buy a radio from a white-owned shop. The white lady tries to give Grant an old box, even though he is paying full price for the radio. This is an example of discrimination because the saleswomen is treating Grant unfairly because he is different race; however this is a rather benign example of the discrimination Grant faces. A more poignant example of discrimination, oppression, in Grant’s world is the trial of Jefferson, a young African-American man. Jefferson is tried and convicted for murdering white man (under…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines, is about a man who is being persecuted for a crime that he did not commit. Jefferson was at the wrong place at the wrong time and now is being put on trial for the murder of three men. Gaines describes Jefferson was an innocent bystander who did nothing wrong, but because he is poor black man no one will believe him. He is tried and convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. Gaines then introduces Grant Wiggins into the story who is an educated man that teaches on a…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the book “ A lesson Before Dying” the chracters in the book have a lot of different personalities. There are many ways to compare the meaning of the characters name to themselves in the book.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The book begins with Jefferson, also an African American, being falsely accused of robbery and murder, which led to his sentence of death by electrocution. He was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, which led to a trial with a jury full of white members voting on his life. The defense attorney worked hard to gain sympathy from the jury members, referring to Jefferson as a stupid boy incapable of the crime he is accused of a hog, and saying, “Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair.” It was apparent that the jury gave little effort if any at all trying to sympathize or understand Jefferson’s situation. They returned to court with the verdict as soon as lunch was over. The courthouse still had segregated bathrooms. The black bathrooms were in the basement and in terrible condition. Even the prison cells were separated by color and the cells on each side of Jefferson’s were left empty as well.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The novel, A Lesson before Dying, was written by Ernest J. Gaines in 1993. Gaines was born on the River Lake plantation in Louisiana, where he was raised by his aunt, Miss Augusteen Jefferson. Racism was prevalent shown by the whites-only libraries in Louisiana. After 15 years of living in Louisiana, Gaines moved to California, although he states Louisiana never left him. California had libraries available for the blacks also. In California, he lived with his mother and which inspired him to the point of writing about six novels and scores of short stories. In 1953, Gaines was drafted into the Army, and he later went on to study creative writing at Stanford University. While in the library, Gaines…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    i. Ghosts were thought to have danced in the graveyards on Halloween. If a person encountered a ghost it was a warning that death was coming.…

    • 2679 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays