Imelda Rodríguez

Professor Broadous

P.A.S 113 B

April 24 2012

A Lesson Learned

In the book “A Lesson Before dying” the author, Ernest Gaines, uses his personal experience as inspiration to his book. He is capable of manipulating his life experiences as part of the African American struggle in the 1940’s. Ernest Gaines used his living conditions in the plantation to create a story that would portray the struggle of the 1940 African American men, the era of Jim Crow law. Jim Crow laws are related to the separation of African American and whites. Ernest Gaines grew in a plantation and envisioned what he saw or what he understood at those times as a reflection in his book. In an article written called A Conversation with Ernest Gaines he says “I did not go to history books for truth. I went to history books for some facts that I wanted to have, but not truth because history and truth are different.” He used history in A lesson Before Dying to explore the idea within the African American point of view. Ernest Gaines found his foundation of what an African American went through in the 1940’s with his character Grant Wiggins. Grant Wiggins is a character which Ernest Gaines infuses the frustration of discrimination, internal struggle of being a color man and change of African American embodied in the 1940’s.

Grant Wiggins is an African American man who grew up in a Louisiana plantation, working as a young boy he had an opportunity to go to college and get an education. Although he graduated to be a teacher he went through the same struggles of every African American man. His education does not make any of the white people respect him any different. This cause turns him cynicism. Grant feels superior then most African American and feels he deserves to be treated better. As the article in African American Review Volume 23 No.3 analyzes Grant saying  “Yet, despite his cultural sophistication, Grant is much like everyone else in wanting something better.” Though he acts bitter and takes out his frustration on the wrong people. For example in the book “A Lesson before Dying” Grant Wiggins takes out his frustration on his pupils. On page 78 in A lesson Before Dying “I caught one of the students trying to figure out a simple multiplication problem on his fingers and I slashed him hard across the butt with the Westcott ruler.” He took out his frustration on the kids. The frustration from his own past and the fact he was being forced to make Jefferson a man was gaining on him.  He was also frustrated because in his past his teacher took it out on his own students so he continues the cycle of mistreatment. Grant was discriminating his own people because he w setter but he comes to realize they are all the same.

Grant Wiggins as a school teacher was trying to influence Jefferson on becoming a man before he died since he had lost himself and his family didn’t want him to die without dignity. Jefferson was stubborn on the idea that the words said on court were his reality. Although Grant was visiting Jefferson by other circumstances Grant felt sympathy and also anger towards Jefferson.Grant had no self-confidence to confront what seem so norm to him. “We black men have failed to protect our women since the time of slavery. We stay here in the South and are broken, or we run away and leave them alone to look after the children and themselves. So each time a male child is born, they hope he will be the one to change this vicious circle - which he never does (Gaines 167). He was not religious and had a very indifferent to life itself it seem as if he had given up on his kind and others, He was the guy that wanted change but never really did anything, He himself oppressed by a lifetime of discrimination had lost his dignity and watching .Jefferson stand up for what he believe made him realize how weak he was.Grant understood that his coward behavior had lead him into leaving a bitter and cynical life and although he blamed others for in realty it was he who had cause his own misfortune. He preached to Jefferson without taking his own words inconsideration. As he proclaimed to Jefferson that the words and actions of the white did not matter; yet he was very well effect by them and had caused him to become the man  the white wanted to envision as the African American figure. 

In the article A Lesson about Manhood: Appropriating "The Word" in Ernest Gaines's "A Lesson before Dying" by Philip Auger, Auger wrote “Grant feels that his role as an educator bears no promise of producing change either; he finds that he must work to promote the dominant white supremacist ideology or not work at all.” Philip Auger was detailing the Alta median in Grants life for the better. He would not do any good if he was helping the white supremacy.

Grants discrimination from other reflected on his attitude. Mathew Antoine, Grant’s teacher, stated “I am superior to you. I am superior to any one blacker than me.” This has a great impact on his views in his life and how he treats his students. Grant struggled with being a teacher and an African American he himself said on page 102 “I tried to deicide just how I should respond to them. Whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be.” If he portrayed as himself as an educated man it would offend white people like Mr. Sam Guidry and Henri Pichot. This example When he was speaking to Sheriff Henry Picot he was careful to his choice of words and was fearful if he ever spoke correctly. Grant is limited to what he can be or woe he is since society puts him down and limits him. He is fearful, because deep inside he knows he is suppress by the dictation of the white popularity. He knows deep inside he could have been a victim such as, Jefferson. Grant struggled with the idea of the teacher he wanted to be and the teacher he was. He struggled with the being the “nigger” or the well-educated African American. His life was a battle of putdowns which made him feel he had no choice and considering no African American in the south had a choice.

“What do I say to him? Do I know what a man is? Do I know how a man is supposed to die? I’m still trying to find out how a man should live. Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived?” Grant helps Jefferson but in this experience everyone else around him does to. They both self-discover that they themselves define what kind of men they want to be to. Jefferson loses his dignity and starts believing he is a criminal but Grant explains, “They sentence you to death because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, with no proof …” He wants Jefferson to start seeing him innocent and to leave this world with his dignity that he deserves. Grant starts putting the idea of fighting the fact he was helping him and sees that it takes a lot to die in his situation. Grant started to face his fear of what society viewed him and started to analyze how his own culture helps the “white men”. Although Grant Wiggins is a teacher he had not learned how to help his people in reality because in most cases he was damaging, and cooperating with the pain and struggle. Jefferson was a victim of the 1940’s but as Grant had never understood what a man truly was as the transition of the story.  As the relationship between Jefferson and Grant becomes closer so did Grants actions become more open to support the people around him such as, his aunt and Miss Emma.  

Grant confronts his own ideas and faces reality he is transforming Jefferson and starts to be honest with himself. Grant Wiggins says “A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they're better than anyone else on earth--and that's a myth. The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand, and think, and show the common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth. They would no longer have justification for having made us slaves and keeping us in the condition we are in. As long as none of us stand, they're safe. They're safe with me. They're safe with Reverend Ambrose. I don't want them to feel safe with you anymore (Gaines 192). He faces Jefferson to see that the people judging him and labeling are in fact wrong and scared themselves. A Lesson about Manhood: Appropriating "The Word" in Ernest Gaines's "A Lesson before Dying" is an article reviews Grants self-perception by saying “Grant realize that the powerlessness of the Jefferson is, in fact, not so different from the powerlessness he himself feels.” The only way he can prevail that myth  says Philip Auger is by showing it is false. Grant contemplates the lies of the white the one institution that controls all colors  was destroyed and token control for themselves they can have some sort of power and defense.

In the article “The common humanity that is in us all”: Toward Racial Reconciliation in Gaines's “A Lesson Before Dying” Piacentino, Ed claims Grant hopes of mankind comes from Paul .Grant describes the moments when they visited Jefferson, Piacentino use that moment of a description of “When Paul is not present either for conversation or for the cautious exchange of supporting looks and gestures, Grant feels a void, noticeably missing the white deputy's kindness and concern.” The article states that Grant stops judging white men and actually take Paul’s action as gratitude. As in African American Review the idea that the narrator concerns within Grant are analyzed David E. Vancil says “As narrator, Wiggins is immersed in his own concerns and relate to his community from a perspective of superiority…”(489).Paul was not just a big influence to Grant Wiggins but as a whole helped Jefferson . Paul was a big part of the transformation in Grant for he was a true friend and sympathizes with Jefferson‘s death and the African American struggle. Grant saw Paul as a fresh air in the south. Paul made hi realize what good things Grant had in his life and to appreciate it. Grant was effected by Jefferson death strongly and more than he would think because Grant was accepting Jefferson and becoming more use to visiting him. When Grant accepts the friendship with Paul he is regaining himself. It was a self-identity struggle which seems to end at the same time he stops being so rages and bitter. Nothing is certain of Grant desire to change dramatically but it did change his refelction on himself. Ernest Gaines used a strategy to tie down the resemblance of each ultimate factor or difficulty Grant went to as a way for he to find himself and defeat his inner conflict.

Work Cited

Auger, Philip. "A Lesson About Manhood: Appropriating 'The Word' in Ernest Gaines's 'A Lesson Before Dying'." The Southern Literary Journal, 27.2 (1995): 74-85

. Folks, Jeffrey. "Communal Responsibility in Ernest J. Gaines's a Lesson Before Dying." Mississippi Quarterly, 52.2 (1999): 259-271.

Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson before Dying. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1993. Print.

Piacentino, Ed. "'The Common Humanity That is in Us All': Toward Racial

Reconciliation in Gaines's 'A Lesson Before Dying'." Southern Quarterly, 42.3 (2004): 73-85.

Vancil, David. African American Review, 28.3 (1994): 489-491.

Ferris, Bill. "A Conversation with Ernest Gaines." The National Endowment for the Humanities. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. <http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1998-07/gaines.html>.