Earnest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying Essay -- Gaines Lesson Before

Earnest J. Gaines A Lesson Before DyingA Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines is set in a plantation connection in rural lanthanum. The two main characters in the novel, Grant and Jefferson, ar engaged in a struggle to achieve self-respect in society, which allots them none. The story takes place at the end of the 1940s, a time when Louisiana and soldieryy other southern states were practicing segregation. The second college edition of the American hereditary pattern Dictionary defines segregation as, The policy and practice of imposing the social interval of races, as in schools, housing, and industry (1111). Mr. Gaines employs a variety of settings to illustrate how this merciless practice invades every aspect of Grant and Jeffersons lives from religion and efficacious process to love. In the courtroom, the defense lawyer insinuates that Jefferson is less than a man because of his physical characteristics and apparent lack of intelligence. He asks the jury, do you inte rpret a man sitting here? Look at the shape of this skull, this portray as flat as the palm of my handdo you see a modicum of intelligence? (7). He further degrades Jefferson by referring to him as a thing, What you see here is a thing that acts on command, and at last as an animal, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this. (7-8). Evidently, discrimination and stereotyping found on the degree of uncase pigmentation exhibited existed as a hierarchy with the lightest skin pigmentation on top and the darkest on the bottom, with the each individual cluster keen against the one beneath them. Grants former schoolmaster, Mathew Antoine, may suck been a male role model for him. However, professor Antoine was bitter, he loathed himself ... ...grained the principles of thraldom and its progeny (segregation) were in Louisiana society. It is unfathomable that people (i.e., the Creole) exposed to raw discrimination based simply on their pigmentation, would in t urn come apart against others for similarly unfounded and irrational reasons. From the courtroom to the jailhouse, Grant and Jefferson faced discrimination. However, when they lastly realized that the stereotypes being forced upon them were only physical confinements, not moral or spiritual confinements, they were able to identify their own self-worth and achieve self-respect. and when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free. (251). works CitedAmerican Heritage Dictionary. Second College Edition. Boston, MA Houghton MifflinCompany.1982.Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. untried York, NY Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.1993.