“Only when the mind is free has the body
a chance to be free.”
A LESSON BEFORE
DYING BY ERNEST J.
GAINES
A Lesson in Overcoming Adversity and Resisting
Oppression
DO YOU HAVE THE WILL TO FIGHT
FOR WHAT IS JUST?
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
TO THE NOVEL
The setting is the 1940s in a small Cajun
community in Louisiana, similar to that of
Gaines’ own upbringing.
 Jefferson is a young African American wrongly
convicted of murder, now on death-row.
 Grant, the narrator, is an African American man
who returns to teach in the tiny Cajun town after
leaving to attend college.
 Grant begrudgingly agrees to “teach Jefferson he
is a man” when he has been told and believes he
is a hog. He helps Jefferson to use writing as a
tool for expression and resistance to injustice.

MAJOR THEMES EXPLORED THAT ARE
CONNECTED TO HOW THE NOVEL CAME
TO BE WRITTEN
Racism (connected to Gaines)
 Obligation (connected to Gaines)
 Freedom as a State of Mind (connected to Gaines)
 Imprisonment

Redemption
 Heroes

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
ERNEST J. GAINES

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He was born on a Louisiana plantation
in
1933 during the Great Depression
He was raised by his courageous Aunt Jefferson,
perhaps the reason the hero of the novel carries the
same surname.
At fifteen, his family moved to Vallejo, California
where he discovered the public library, inspiring his
love for literature.
Many of his stories are based on memories from his
own childhood.
Gaines worked in the fields digging potatoes just like
the schoolchildren in this novel. He eventually
bought the very plantation he worked on.
PICTORIAL TIMELINE OF ERNEST J.
GAINES
THE SOUTH BEFORE CIVIL RIGHTS LITERARY AND HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND:

Following the Civil War, Jim Crow laws were
passed. They were a series of laws which
legalized the separation of whites and blacks.

Focus: How has the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow
laws impacted our society?
A Lesson Before Dying takes place in the 1940s,
before the Civil Rights movement that sought
equality for African-Americans.
 Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 determined that
separate facilities for blacks and whites was
acceptable, introducing the term “separate but
equal.”
 Read and take notes on the handout on
sharecropping and life the pre-Civil Rights
South.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A map of where he lived
and his other works of literature:
AN INTERVIEW WITH ERNEST J.
GAINES
Could you tell us a little bit about the
environment in Louisiana that shaped him
 When he was a very small child, he was already
working. What exactly was he doing?
 Who inspired him?
 What did the library mean to him?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE
READING:
Do you think your life is more determined by
your life circumstances or by your own will to
achieve and your efforts toward that?
 How have you responded when you were
punished for something that you did not do or
you were mistreated based on a stereotype?
 What inherent injustices in society and barriers
to equality still exist today and what power do we
have to change them?
 Do you think the prison system benefits society
as a whole or just certain segments of society?

Do now:
Compare and
contrast the two
images of
sharecroppers
working in the
fields.
READING CHECK #1
1.
How does Grant view himself and
his community? Describe his
existential crisis.
2.
How does both a history of
oppression and current racism
affect Grant and the others in the
community?
SHARECROPPING AS OPPRESSION:
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: DISCUSS, WRITE A
PARAGRAPH AND PRESENT YOUR FINDINGS
WITH SUPPORTING QUOTES:
How does Grant view himself and his
community? How does it develop over the course
of the novel? Describe his existential crisis.
 How does both a history of oppression and
current racism affect Grant and the others in the
community?
 How do both Jefferson and Grant attempt to defy
or escape the restrictions placed on them by a
racist society? Consider both clear and subtle
methods of defiance of prejudice.
 Is Jefferson or Grant the hero of the story? What
evidence supports this?
 What examples do you see of Jefferson as a
martyr or Christ figure?

Images of life on the sharecropping
plantation: “The Big House”
LIFE ON THE PLANTATION:
LABOR IN THE CANE FIELDS
Fatalism vs. Individualism:

In A Lesson Before Dying Grant struggles with the
notion of whether people can change their own nature
and by doing so effect their own environment.
Different characters represent the two views.
 Protagonists - The individualist faction, which
included Vivian, Tante Lou, Reverend Ambrose,
believed that a man is capable of determining his
own destiny.
 Antagonists - The fatalist faction, which included
Sheriff Guidry, Henri Pichot, and Professor
Antoine, believed that race determines your fate.
 Jefferson struggles to overcome his fatalist
attitude and to understands his own importance
as a symbol of pride and dignity for the entire
black community.
HERO ARCHETYPES:
EPIC HERO, ANTI-HERO AND TRAGIC
HERO
List the specific traits for each of the prototypes
of the hero.
 Consider the hero archetypes and how books you
have studied fit into particular categories.
 Consider which categories Grant and Jefferson
fall into. Support your response.

EPIC HERO:
Hero is of national or legendary significance.
 Hero often refuses at first to begin his quest.
 Hero undergoes many adventures on a long
journey to unknown places.
 Hero receives supernatural aid or intervention.
 Conflict is in the form of battles or feats.
 Hero is handsomely rewarded and/or
mythologized.

ANTI-HERO:
Hero has a dark and troubled past.
 Hero is in some form an outlaw or has no status in
society, so he must wander on fringes of society.
 Hero rejects values, rules, attitudes of society and
political establishment.
 Hero seeks to establish his own rules and ethics. He
often does “the wrong thing for the right reasons.”
 We are sympathetic with the hero despite distinctly
negative character traits—he is often angry, crude,
selfish or even dishonest.
 Hero goes on a (sometimes obsessive) quest for selfactualization.

TRAGIC HERO
Hero is of noble stature and be highly regarded.
 Hero commits a tragic mistake due to a character
weakness, also known as tragic flaw or hamartia.
 He usually falls prey to his own hubris or overarching
pride.
 Hero’s error in judgment leads to his/her demise.
 Hero experiences a reversal of fortune and eventually
has an epiphany in which he takes responsibility for
causing his own misfortune.
 The story culminates in catharsis or emotional
outpouring, in which audience feels pity for
the hero and fear that we may be like him.

MODERN TRAGIC HERO:
Hero is a person of lower status or less worth or
consideration.
 Hero commits a tragic mistake due to a character
weakness, also known as tragic flaw or hamartia.
 Hero’s error in judgment leads to his/her demise.
 Hero may die without any epiphany of his
destiny.
 Hero may not have the needed catharsis
to bring the story to a close.
 Hero may suffer without the ability to
change the events that are happening to
him.

QUOTES…
QUOTES…