This majestic, moving novel is an
instant classic, a book that will be
read, discussed, and taught beyond
the rest of our lives.
A Lesson Before Dying
By Ernest J. Gaines
A presentation by Carter Bedford and Megan Glasmann

Has someone ever accused you of
committing a crime you didn’t do?
What about murder?
• A young man, oblivious to his surroundings,
walked into a bar the night of a terrible
shooting. This man was Jefferson.
• He was given the death sentence, via
electric chair, which was also called
‘Gruesome Gerty.’

The Sinful Teacher
• Grant Wiggins is the professor at the
quarter’s only elementary school for
plantation children.
• He is recruited by Miss Emma, his aunt
Tante Lou’s friend, to visit Jefferson and
help him to become his own person.

The First Months
• At first, Jefferson is a closed book and
heart. He will not accept his family’s
sympathy and gifts.
• Therefore, the beginning visits had no
progress and left the group full of doubt
and despair.

Themes Found in
A Lesson Before Dying
• Let nothing stop you from doing what’s right; the obstacles that seem
unfathomable now will only be bumps in the road in the future, as even
death can be surpassed through faith and determination.
• ‘I don’t want them to kill no hog.
that chair, on his own two feet.’
I want a man to go to
• ‘If I ain’t nothing but a hog, how come they don’t just knock me in the head like a hog? Starb
me like a hog? Man walk on two foots; hogs on four hoofs.’
• Fate.
• Simple heroism of resisting -- and defying -- the expected.
• Racism; skin color determines everything.
• ‘What else could I have felt, superior to so many but here?’
• Stereotyping.

What is a true classic?
• A Lesson Before Dying has many components
that add to why many believe this novel is a
classic still widely read today.
• It is well-written example of America’s past
and resembles a race that has deep roots in
our culture.

Jefferson’s Journal
• “this was the firs time i cry when they lok that door bahind me the very firs time and i jus set on my
bunk cryin but not let them see or yer me cause i didnt want them think rong but i was cryin cause of
bok an the marble he giv me and cause o the peple com to see me cause they hadn never done
nothin lik that for me befor”
• ‘they got a moon out ther and i can see the leves on the tree but i aint gon see no more leves after
tomoro’
• ‘i been shakin and shakin but im gon stay strong’
• ‘when i was a litle boy i was a waterboy an rode the cart but now i got to be a man an set in a cher’
• good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man good by mr wigin im gon ax paul if he can
bring you this
• sincely jefferson

Dialogue
• ‘I don’t want them to kill no hog. I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet.’
• ‘What I done done?’
• ‘I love you more and more,” I said. ‘If you’d just say the word, God knows I’d drop everything.”
• ‘And hate each other for the rest of our lives, Grant? No.”
• ‘I’m not doing any good up there, Vivian. Nothing is changing.’
• ‘Something is.’
•

Ernest J. Gaines
• Ernest Gaines was born as the fifth
generation to his sharecropper family.
• He was raised by his aunt, very much like
the protagonist of this story, and lived in a
similar area.
• He is still alive and writing at age 76.

The Ernest J. Gaines Award
for Literary Excellence