A Lesson Before Dying 1
Canton City Schools
English II Advanced Summer Reading
A Lesson Before Dying
By Ernest J. Gaines
As a McKinley or Timken student who has registered for English II Advanced for the
2010-2011 school year, you are required to complete reading over the summer. The
assigned book is A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines and the assignments are
included in the work packet that is attached.
This work is aligned with the Grade 10 English Academic Standards and Indicators that
will be addressed in class the first nine weeks of English II Advanced. These
assignments will give you a jump start on thinking about the literary elements and
terms with which you need to be familiar to complete this year’s advanced work, as well
as that work which you will encounter as you move through the advanced English
program.
This packet contains, not only the assignments that you are to complete as you read A
Lesson Before Dying, but also additional resource materials that will help you better
understand the text, the work of Ernest J. Gaines and the reasons that the Chicago
Tribune published the following about this book: “This majestic novel is an instant
classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives.”
Resource materials included in the packet:
 ELA Academic Standards Glossary
 A synopsis of A Lesson Before Dying
 A brief biography of Ernest J. Gaines
 Editorial reviews of A Lesson Before Dying
All packet assignments to be completed by Friday, Sept. 3, 2010
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Vocabulary Log Sheet
Literacy Elements Analysis
Poetic Interpretation of Novel
A Lesson Before Dying 2
A Synopsis of A Lesson Before Dying
In a rural Cajun community in the 1940s Louisiana, a white shopkeeper had died
during a robbery attempt. Jefferson, a young black man, is in jail awaiting execution
for the murder he did not commit. A country schoolmaster, Grant Wiggins, understands
that the verdict and the penalty were inevitable. Likewise, Wiggins finds that he is also
deprived of liberty. Although university educated, his ways are barred. He can find no
better job than teaching in the small plantation church school. When visiting the house
of a white person, African-Americans must come in by the kitchen door. Custom and
the law rigidly separate the races. HE longs to leave Louisiana with his girlfriend,
Vivian, to leave the antebellum attitudes persisting 80 years after the Civil War.
However, Jefferson’s grandmother, Miss Emma, pleads with Wiggins to teach her
grandson pride so that he can die as a man. During the ensuing weeks, both Wiggins
and Jefferson learn lessons—lessons about love, salvation, and their common humanity.
About the Author, Ernest J. Gaines
Ernest Gaines says, “We all know—at least intellectually—that we’re going [to
die]. The difference is being told, “Okay, it’s tomorrow at 10 a.m." How do you react
to that? How do you face it? That, it seems to me, is the ultimate test of life.”
“When I speak to black students about Hemingway, they often ask me what I
expect them to learn from ‘that white man’. I tell them: ‘All Hemingway wrote about
was race under pressure. And he was talking about you. Can you tell e a better
example of grace under pressure than our people for the past three hundred years?
Grace under pressure isn’t just about bullfighters and men at war. It’s about getting up
every day to face a job or a white boss you don’t’ like but have to face to feed your
children so they’ll grow up to be a better generation.”
Ernest J. Gaines was born in 1933 on the River Lake plantation in Pointe Coupee
Parish, Louisiana, the setting for most of his fiction; he was the fifth general in his
family to be born there. At the ages of nine he was picking cotton in the plantation
fields; the back quarter’s school held classes only five or six months a year.
When he was fifteen, Gaines moved to California to join his parents, who had left
Louisiana during World War II. There he attend San Francisco State University and
later won a writing fellowship to Stanford University.
Gaines published his first short story in 1956. Since then he has written eight books of
fiction, including Catherine Carmier, Of Love and Dust, Bloodline, the Autobiography of
Miss Jane Pittman, A Long Day in November, In My Father’s House, and A Gathering of
Old Men. A Lesson Before Dying won the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award. He
has also been awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant, for writings of ‘rare historical
resonance.”
A Lesson Before Dying 3
Gaines divides his time between San Francisco and Lafayette, Louisiana, where
he is writer in residence at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He is married to
the lawyer Dianne Saulney.
Editorial Review
Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1997: In a small Cajun community in
1940s Louisiana, a young black man is about to go to the electric chair for murder. A
white shopkeeper had died during a robbery gone bad; though the young man on trial
had not been armed and had not pulled the trigger, in that time and place, there could
be no doubt of the verdict or the penalty.
"I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the
verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be..." So begins Grant Wiggins, the
narrator of Ernest J. Gaines's powerful exploration of race, injustice, and resistance, A
Lesson Before Dying. If young Jefferson, the accused, is confined by the law to an ironbarred cell, Grant Wiggins is no less a prisoner of social convention. University
educated, Grant has returned to the tiny plantation town of his youth, where the only
job available to him is teaching in the small plantation church school. More than 75
years after the close of the Civil War, antebellum attitudes still prevail: African
Americans go to the kitchen door when visiting whites and the two races are rigidly
separated by custom and by law. Grant, trapped in a career he doesn't enjoy, eaten up
by resentment at his station in life, and angered by the injustice he sees all around him,
dreams of taking his girlfriend Vivian and leaving Louisiana forever. But when Jefferson
is convicted and sentenced to die, his grandmother, Miss Emma, begs Grant for one last
favor: to teach her grandson to die like a man.
As Grant struggles to impart a sense of pride to Jefferson before he must face
his death, he learns an important lesson as well: heroism is not always expressed
through action--sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough.
Populated by strong, unforgettable characters, Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying
offers a lesson for a lifetime.
A Lesson Before Dying 4
From Publishers Weekly
Gaines's first novel in a decade may be his crowning achievement. In this
restrained but eloquent narrative, the author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane
Pittman again addresses some of the major issues of race and identity in our time. The
story of two African American men struggling to attain manhood in a prejudiced society,
the tale is set in Bayonne, La. (the fictional community Gaines has used previously) in
the late 1940s. It concerns Jefferson, a mentally slow, barely literate young man, who,
though an innocent bystander to a shootout between a white store owner and two
black robbers, is convicted of murder, and the sophisticated, educated man who comes
to his aid. When Jefferson's own attorney claims that executing him would be
tantamount to killing a hog, his incensed godmother, Miss Emma, turns to teacher
Grant Wiggins, pleading with him to gain access to the jailed youth and help him to
face his death by electrocution with dignity. As complex a character as Faulkner's
Quentin Compson, Grant feels mingled love, loyalty and hatred for the poor plantation
community where he was born and raised. He longs to leave the South and is reluctant
to assume the level of leadership and involvement that helping Jefferson would require.
Eventually, however, the two men, vastly different in potential yet equally degraded by
racism, achieve a relationship that transforms them both. Suspense rises as it becomes
clear that the integrity of the entire local black community depends on Jefferson's
courage. Though the conclusion is inevitable, Gaines invests the story with emotional
power and universal resonance.
A Lesson Before Dying 5
English Language Arts Academic Content Standards
Reading Applications/Literary Text
Glossary
Term
Chronological
Conflict
Colloquialism
Dialect
Dialogue
Dynamic
Character
First Person
Narration
Flashback
Flat
Character
Foreshadowing
Imagery
Irony
Definition
An organizational structure of text in which events are
placed in the order in which they occur.
The struggle between opposing forces that brings about the
action within a story or drama; can be internal (within a
character) or external (between a character and an outside
force.)
An expression or use of language that is appropriate in
informal situations but not in formal ones or an expression
that may be considered old-fashioned or folksy, such as
“Aw, shucks.”
A form of language as it is spoken in a particular
geographic area or by a particular social or ethnic group.
A conversation between two or more characters in a work
that is used by writers to give insight into the characters
themselves.
A character who undergoes a change during the course of
the story.
Narration in which the point o view is that of the main
character.
The technique of stopping the chronological action in a
story and shifting to an earlier period to introduce
additional information.
A character with only one outstanding trait or feature.
The technique of giving clues to upcoming events in a
narrative.
Words of phrases that create vivid sensory experiences for
the reader.
The recognition of the difference between reality and
appearance; includes situational irony in which there is a
contrast between what is intended or expected and what
actually occurs; verbal irony in which there is a contrast
between what is said and what is actually meant; and
dramatic irony in which words or actions are understood by
the audience but not by the characters.
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Term
Language
Limited Point of
View
Literacy Element
Metaphor
Monologue
Mood
Nuance(s)
Omniscient Point
of View
Parallel plot
Persona
Plot
Definition
The systematic use of sounds, signs and symbols as a
method of communication; in writing, the choice of words
used to convey meaning.
The vantage point in which a character tells the story in the
third person, often confining himself or herself to what is
experienced, thought, or felt by a single or limited number
of characters.
A component of a piece of literature such as plot of setting
in a story.
A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made
between two unlike things ( ex: He’s a tiger.)
An extended speech in a drama or a narrative that is
presented by one character.
The feeling or atmosphere that a writer creates for a
reader, or a reflection of an author’s attitude toward a
reflection of an author’s attitude toward a subject of theme.
A delicate shade of difference.
The vantage point in which a narrator is removed from the
story and knows everything that needs to be known.
When a literary work has two separate and equally
important story lines.
A voice or character representing a speaker or narrator of a
literary work.
The careful sequencing of events in a story generally built
around a conflict. Stages of plot include exposition
(background), rising action, climax, falling action and
denouement (resolution).
A Lesson Before Dying 7
Term
Point of View
Definition
The perspective or attitude of a narrator of a literary work.
Round Character
A character who is complex and multi-dimensional.
Satire
A literary technique in which ideas, customs, behaviors or
institutions are ridiculed for the purpose of improving
society.
Details perceived by sight, hearing, smell or any mode by
which one perceives stimuli.
The time and place of the action of a literary work.
Sensory Details
Setting
Simile
Soliloquy
Static Character
Subplot
Symbol
Syntax
Theme
Third Person
Narration
Tone
A comparison of two things that are unalike, usually using
the words “like” or “as”. (“O my love is like a red, red
rose.”)
A speech, usually given alone on stage, in which a
character speaks aloud his or her thoughts.
A character who does not change throughout the story.
The secondary action of a story that reinforces or contrasts
with the main plot.
A concrete thing used to suggest something larger and
more abstract.
The way in which sentences are formed; the grammatical
rules that govern their information; the pattern or structure
of word order in sentences, clauses, and phrases.
A topic of discussion or writing; a major idea of proposition
broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work or
work of art. A theme may be stated or implied.
Narration in which the point of view is that of someone
outside of the story who refers to all characters by name or
as “he”, “she”, and “they”.
The reflection of an author’s attitude toward his or her
subject.
A Lesson Before Dying 8
Assignment Packet for English II Advanced
Student: _____________________________ School: __________________
Teacher: ______________________________ Mods: __________________
Complete the following Vocabulary Log as you read A Lesson Before Dying: As you
read, look for words, terms or phrases with which you may not be familiar or which you
believe help bring the writing to life because of their vividness or variety. Number each
of your entries. Your log should contain a minimum of 20 entries.
Word, Term, or
Phrase
Citation of Usage and
Page #
Interpretation/Definition
A Lesson Before Dying 9
Assignment Packet for English II Advanced
Student: _____________________________ School: __________________
Teacher: ______________________________ Mods: __________________
Complete the following Vocabulary Log as you read A Lesson Before Dying: As you
read, look for words, terms or phrases with which you may not be familiar or which you
believe help bring the writing to life because of their vividness or variety. Number each
of your entries. Your log should contain a minimum of 20 entries.
Word, Term, or
Phrase
Citation of Usage and
Page #
Interpretation/Definition
A Lesson Before Dying 10
Literary Elements Analysis: Setting & Theme
As you read, you will need to consider the significance of these literary elements and
answer questions pertaining to each.
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Setting
Characterization
Conflict (both external & internal)
Tone, Mood, and Imagery
Figurative Language
Theme
Setting: The overall setting is Louisiana in the 1940’s. There are six major, specific
sites, however, at which the majority of the novel’s actions take place. Address A
and B as they relate to each of these sites or settings: (See attached)
A. A significant even which occurs at this specific setting
B. The setting’s symbolism or significance as it relates to any one of the
themes of the novel.
A Lesson Before Dying 11
Tante Lou’s House
Jefferson’s Jail Cell
A.
A.
B.
B.
Grant’s Classroom
The Day Room at the Prison
A.
A.
B.
B.
The Henri Pichot’s House
The Rainbow Club
A.
A.
B.
B.
A Lesson Before Dying 12
Literary Elements Analysis: Conflict
Conflict: Explain how each of the following characters contributes to the conflict(s)
experienced by Grant. Cite specific examples and page numbers to support your
answers:
Character
Jefferson
Tante Lou
Vivian
Paul, the deputy
Reverend Ambrose
Conflict
Support from the Text (p.#,
summary, or quote)
A Lesson Before Dying 13
Poetic Interpretation of A Lesson Before Dying
After having completed the novel, reflect on the setting, the plot and conflict, the
characters, mood, and theme. Now think of how any or all of these literary elements
might be communicated in the genre of poetry. Write a poem in which you express
your interpretation of the novel. Your poem may be lyrical or narrative; rhymed or
metered or free verse.