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The Story is told through the eyes of Grant Wiggins, an African American schoolteacher in southern america (1940s). Following the eyes of Grant we are forced only to see what Grant thinks, and his emotions change the way that readers interpret the story. His perspective although is impacted by the characters throughout the story, and changes how readers perceive the actions that happen.

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Our Author was born into the great depression in Louisiana before moving to California at 15 years old to be with his parents.

During the 1990s up to 1993
The Hubble Space Shuttle was launched. The united states was involved in the Gulf war, and the Cold War was ending as the USSR began to dissolve. The World Wide Web was released and started the internet craze. Only major tragedy on American soil was a bombing at the World Trade Center in NYC which killed 6 and injured over a thousand people.

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Opposite of our other two characters mentioned above Guidry is an example of a white man in power. This shows the contrast between views of characters as they all come from different ways of thinking. On one hand we have the racist white people of the south from a powerful white man, wheras on the other we can see what it is like to be under that constant racism through an unintelligent individual such as Jefferson. Much like anyone, Guidry is strong willed to keep his power and belies that racism will help him keep that power, which helps to explain why he thinks so lowly of characters such as Jefferson. As Jefferson begins to become more than the "Hog" that he was so continuously compared to Guidry feels threatened. But as the story nears its end Guidry begins to show some humanity to the people he knows showing growth that Grant wished to create.

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This book follows the story of Jefferson (although told by Grant) which draws the life of a poor African American man in the south. Readers are not limited however to Grant's ideas, as Gaines utilizes (very brief) lessons from others to show how other characters are acting or feeling at that moment. This fills in the story more without giving away random facts that a third person or omniscient view would provide that may dilute the context of the story.

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This book follows through the eyes of a black man in the south. This allows readers to experience racism as Gaines believed it to be as they might not get to understand otherwise. This understanding forces readers to feel the pain that Characters such as Jefferson feel as they begin to question their self worth due to such racism. This draws contrast to how the white characters throughout the story see themselves and forces readers to draw a line between who they grow to love and who they begin to hate.

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Racism is a constant theme throughout many novels as seen in both A Lesson Before Dying, and Song of Solomon. Characters throughout both books are constantly reminded of that racism that their societies contain, and it impacts who they are, who they wish to become, and how they view themselves. For example Jefferson's exposure to racism forces him to believe that he is less than those around him and Macon Dead from Song of Solomon see's himself above poor blacks (which Jefferson would find himself to be) due to the racism that exists within their societies.

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The idea of death is constantly thrown around in A Lesson Before Dying. Another book we looked deeply into that focused on death was Song of Solomon. Both books used death as an escape, or a second chance. Within Song of Solomon death could be perceived to signify escaping the society that our character Mlikman finds himself within. And in A Lesson Before Dying death is seen as a way (if done properly) to prove that one can be more than what their society believe him/her to be.

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The idea of remembering (and acting upon) ones past is focused a lot on by Grant within A Lesson Before Dying where he attempts to escape his past by moving away, although it will not change the racism that he went through in the past. Within Song Of Solomon remembering one's past as well as one's ancestor's past is constant, and shows the opposite side, where one might wish to remember or learn more about who they are, and were they came from.

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Jefferson throughout the story is compared to a Hog and in severely harms his self worth. This is a constant throughout literature and society, where people take what others say to heart and can severely inhibit one's ability to grow and become the best person that they could be. Jefferson learns to overcome this, and learns that his worth can be more than that of a "Hog" and focuses on changing the rest of his life towards that.

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Throughout A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines the readers are shown a society where power is secluded to white men within society (one example Sheriff Guidry). This accurately depicts old time America especially within the south where it was much harder, or even impossible for an African American to gain power or change their community.

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Within A Lesson Before Dying readers follow the story of Jefferson, an uneducated African American man, this lack of education forces him to see poorly of himself. This idea carries throughout society, and nowadays can even be seen showing people that education (even towards a college level) is a necessity to think highly of yourself. The contrast is that people with a high school education nowadays know infinitely more than Jefferson, yet think of themselves theoretically just as poorly thanks to changes within society.

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"those out there are no better than we are, Jefferson.They are worse. That's why they are always looking for a scapegoat, someone else to blame. I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be. To them, you're nothing but another n*****-no dignity, no heart,no love for your people. You can prove them wrong. You can do more than I can ever do. I have always done what they wanted me to do, teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Nothing else-nothing about dignity, nothing about identity, nothing about loving and caring. They never thought we were capable of learning these things. 'Teach those n****** how to print their names and how to figure on their fingers.'And I went along, but hating myself all the time for doing so." (191 Gaines)

First off... Doesnt this belong in some motivational speech? Like MLK jr. type stuff here. This belongs in a Rocky training sequence.

This quick passage focuses on Jefferson's ability to become more than just a "hog" and becoming a symbol to the African American people around him. The ideas of become more than just a man resonate within readers, who wish to also become more than just themselves, and need motivation to become inspirations to others. This resonates within me because as a runner there is a huge mental aspect to my training, anyone can run but it takes courage to run through the pain to become the best self you can become.

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Characters throughout A Lesson Before Dying are described just by the way that they speak, for example a white person is most likely educated and thus speaks like an educated person would, whereas characters such as Jefferson who are uneducated African American's speak without the fluidity of an educated white man. Another example of this is Grant, an educated African American man who speaks educated which contrasts him from his community and family.

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"Good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man" (ch 26   Gaines)

Within Jefferson's diary Grant see's this piece of writing, this signifies that Jefferson is intelligent and knows that his death will mean more than just a death, but that it can symbolize something and help the African American community that Jefferson used to live within. This also shows a change from the animalistic way that Jefferson used to act, compared to know, accepting death with open arms knowing that he is in fact a man.

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Most of the book focuses on the moral and mental aspects of the case, this causes the book to seem slow at parts. This slow pace however, isn't wasted because it allows readers to fully understand the implications of every characters actions and allows readers to understand why characters are the way they are and who they wish to become.

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This chapter's sole focus is to explain what is happening within the mind of Jefferson throughout his journey to becoming a man as he puts it. This allows readers to understand that Jefferson gained so much from the attempts of teaching that Grant made, and show that the story has more context to it than just a sentencing to death. This chapter also shows Sheriff Guidry's change as he is willing to be nice to Jefferson and let him write.

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This chapter is the hour of Jefferson's execution. Following Grant as he regrets his choice to not go to the execution readers finally get a complete understanding of Grant's point of view. This slow pace allows a small fraction of a lifetime mean so much and explains why this means so much to the characters within the story and their reasons behind it.

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Throughout A Lesson Before Dying there is one main conflict, Jefferson's death sentence. The plot continuously reminds readers of this and forces on its characters learning to understand what is happening, and grow from it (even in the wake of death). This change of heart and acceptance of death draws readers into the book, because readers grow closer with characters such as Jefferson as they learn and grow themselves. This however is cut off at the end when no solution is created and Jefferson is executed.

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Gaines also wrote A Lesson Before Dying to inform people of the crimes of the past and insert a point of view (of that of a poor African American, and that of an educated African American within 1940s America) into his society and create discussions on how to overcome this dark past and move onto the future. This point of view also allows people to think better of their own situation as people can draw inspiration from Jefferson's story and hopefully improve their own lives.

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One Main Purpose of A Lesson Before Dying is to teach people that they can become more than who others believe them to be. Much like Jefferson overcoming social norms and white people thinking of him as a hog, Jefferson overcame that and became a source of inspiration for others within his community. This relates to society today, where people are constantly judged, but people can work to overcome judgement and become brilliant people each with their own specialty.

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Throughout A Lesson Before Dying Jefferson is shown growing and learning. This change from thinking of himself as a "hog" to as a "man" as seen in his journal shows character growth. This growth is pivotal to Jefferson becoming a figurehead for African American's within his society, and is only possible thanks to the growth and hard work of Grant. Jefferson starting off as an uneducated African American had no hopes for his life, but his drastic change to having no life, but believing that he has more to live shows the drastic change of character.

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A Lesson Before Dying focuses on the conviction of an innocent man Jefferson. Grant visits Jefferson in his prison but originally has no hopes to help him, but only does so out of obligation. This is contrasted with at the end of the book when Grant cries when Jefferson dies. This change from not caring to caring, also draws connections to Grant's view of his community, originally he believed that there was nothing he could do for his community and thus put no effort into it, but afterwords he believed that his community could be improved and he strived towards that.

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The changing idea of death throughout A Lesson Before Dying impacts the ways that our characters interact with death. Jefferson begins to accept his death while at the same time inversely Grant wishes he had more time with Jefferson. This shift of heart forces readers to understand that death is a complicated process and people will vary within their acceptance of death. The changing ideas towards death allow readers to see so many different viewpoints of death from only a few central characters.