Ernest J. Gaines

Gathering of Old Men Racism is a well-known subject in books. Many authors write about racism mainly because of their experience with the issue. They may also write about it to keep people informed on how people were treated by racist people. Ernest J. Gaines is one of the well-known authors who wrote about racism in the South. Gaines’s A Gathering of Old Men demonstrates how racism affects the South. One way that A Gathering of Old Men demonstrates the effects of racism in the South is…

manifest within the United States. Henceforth, Ernest J. Gaines, an African American author who was born on a plantation in Louisiana, a state within a region considered the “Deep” South, analyzes those societal issues in his 1993 novel A Lesson Before Dying. Because…

A Lesson before Dying is written by Ernest J. Gaines; this novel is a classical story. In this novel, Jefferson is spared by his attorney; the reader can understand that he would be a cruel when killing a man more than a hog. He feels bad himself when white men perceive the nature of blacks; the blacks are animals. Also, Jefferson releases that he haunts in his thinking, and his action seems to be a hog. He is very angry and denies talking others. In my opinion, Jefferson is named a “hog” by the…

“My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.” -Aristotle. The novel by Ernest J. Gaines titled A Lesson Before Dying is about the life of Jefferson, an uneducated black field worker in the late 1940s who is unfairly convicted and sentenced to death by electrocution. With regards to the accident, another man by the name of Grant Wiggins is obligated by both his aunt and Jefferson’s godmother to convince Jefferson that he is more than what he thinks he is before the day…

Born in 1933, Ernest J Gaines is an African-American author whose many novels have a common theme: “the search for dignity and masculine identity in a hostile, racist environment.” The focus of this essay will be on his 8th piece of work, A Lesson Before Dying, and this fictional-novel is no exception. Published in 1993, A Lesson Before Dying is an excellent and educational novel that outlines what it’s like to live in the pre-Civil Rights era as a black American in the south. Gaines brings us…

What would you do as an African American in a racially segregated community, watching each generation fail to overcome the limitations set by an oppressive society? Ernest J. Gaines addresses this struggle in his novel A Lesson Before Dying. An African American school teacher, Grant Wiggins living in the Jim Crow South, is forced to help a young African American boy, Jefferson, who is wrongly accused of murder. Grant is asked to help him regain his dignity before the execution. As Grant is…

Characters Transformations Ernest J. Gaines wrote A Lesson Before Dying in the 20thcentury: even though Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in the 19th century. Yet, both show how characters from the novels transform. Ernest J. Gaines even though some of it was fictional he used people from his real life to relate the book too which is talked about in Bill Ferris in Meeting Ernest Gaines. Twain’s Huck Fin is about a young Huck Finn, son of a drunk father, leaves and goes on…

puerility into adulthood and maturity is, at times, an onerous task. For men, the pressure of emerging into adulthood-manhood to be precise- is an obstacle that takes good counsel and support to conquer. In his novel, A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines illustrates how arduous it can be for a male to successfully make this transition, and he focuses on the themes of manhood and self-improvement to effectively convey how vital it is to have support from others and within oneself. Some may…

A Better Way The famous philosopher Plato once said, “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” Ernest J. Gaines, the author of A Lesson Before Dying, is often criticized because the characters in his novel seem extremely passive and reluctant to stand up against the social injustices in their community. Grant Wiggins, Reverend Ambrose, Jefferson, Tante Lou, and Miss Emma each come to realize that the only possible way to fight injustice is to react in an…

In the first half of A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, the main character, Grant Wiggins is informed of the impending execution of Jefferson, a young black boy living in the community. Grant is asked by Jefferson’s godmother, Miss Emma, to teach him that he is a man before he is killed. At the beginning of the book, Jefferson’s trial takes place, and in a failed attempt to save his live, Jefferson’s attorney refers to him as hog that lacks the intelligence to plan a robbery that…