Oppression In Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying

In the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, racism and prejudice are clearly evident and talked about throughout the novel. The novel expresses the oppression of the blacks under a white-ruled society through the narrator, Grant. Grant is a well-educated black man who struggles to free himself from the oppression he has felt from the white community. Despite the fact that he is educated and a teacher, he initially lacks the vigor needed to take the first step against black discrimination. He has all this intellect, but does not realize until later on that it is not only intelligence he needs to overcome the oppression, but self-assertion, too. Education does not prove your intellectual worth in society; rather, it is what you do during difficult times that define your intelligence and strong character not just to yourself, but to the world.

The English colonies in the 17th century had many tensions, whether it was an internal civil war or conflict with the Native Americans. Bacon’s Rebellion and the Salem Witch Trials were results of the high tensions that dominated the colonies; however, despite the similarities between the events, each conflict has its own unique features that greatly differ from the other.

      "They sentence you to death because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, with no proof that you had anything at all to do with the crime other than being there when it happened. Yet six months later they come and unlock your cage and tell you, We, us, white folks all, have decided it’s time for you to die, because this is the convenient date and time" (158). Ernest J. Gaines shows the internal conflicts going through the mind of Mr. Wiggins in his novel A Lesson Before Dying (1933). Mr. Wiggins is struggling through life and can’t find his way until he is called upon against his own will to help an innocent man, Jefferson. The help is not that of freeing him at all.

In Ernest Gaines' novel A Lesson Before Dying he uses third person to, in detail, address the issue of racial injustice in the south during the 1940's. The character, Sheriff Guidry, understands that justice is relatively simplistic and runs in tangent with with the current society's beliefs. Because of this, he successfully learns multiple important morals regarding the white and black cultures of the 1940's which contribute to the character's learning about justice showing the audience the significance of the novel as a whole. Throughout the course of the novel, the protagonist, and to a lesser degree the secondary characters, question the values of their own lives compared to that of a mindless animal. Especially for the second protagonist,

After the Civil War ended, many blacks and whites, especially in the South, continued living as if nothing had changed with regards to the oppression and poor treatment of African Americans. Narrator Grant Wiggins, of Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying, possesses a similar attitude toward race relations. Through his experiences with a young man wrongly accused of murder, Grant transforms from a pessimistic, hopeless, and insensitive man into a more selfless and compassionate human being who can see the possibility of change in relations between whites and blacks.

In his 1940 based novel, A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines tells the story of Grant Wiggins, an educated African-American school teacher in Louisiana who is constantly faced with racial injustice and inequality in his community. Wiggins is given the challenge of turning a young convicted convict, Jefferson, into a mature, confident man before his last day on Earth. Gaines exemplifies racism, education and religion throughout the novel.

Frederick Douglass, an African American slave, searches for liberation against the shackles of slavery through education; as told in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative in a Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass portrays education as a paradox; knowledge brings him both great joy and great pain. Learning opens up new worlds for Douglass, and he becomes obsessed with the possibility of freedom. At the same time, he envies his fellow slaves for their ignorance. They do not understand what their enslavers have stolen from them. Douglass grapples with the hopelessness of his plight, but knowledge empowers him enough to set himself free from a life of benightedness, and to share that knowledge with others.

Throughout history, many people have been oppressed because of their race, religion and gender, resulting in the loss of their rights and freedom. Despite the fact that freedom is an inherent rights of any human being, many examples have proven that these rights often require rebellious acts to obtain said rights. Although human rights have evolved over the years, humans still fail to learn from their mistakes, resulting in history repeating itself. Through storytelling and novels, people show depictions of history to honour those who have died and to educate younger generations to prevent unfortunate events from occurring again. In this same vein, Lawrence Hill and Alice Walker display oppression through abuse, structural inequality and gender stereotypes. Although the novels, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker were written in different time periods and revolved around different cultural influences, each demonstrates the theme of oppression throughout various events.

Women and men are born equal. However, females are receiving unequal judgement and unfair treatment in the society, and thus Marilyn Frye brings up the notion of “oppression”, claiming that women are oppressed. Throughout the essay, I will first give the definition of Frye’s oppression and then list 5 critical qualifications to be considered oppressed. After that, I will explain my appreciation on Frye’s perspective on elaborating oppression using the “bird cage” analogy. I will support Frye’s “double-bind” argument for sexism followed by flaws in the argument. Furthermore, I will point out some social group are mistakenly placed inside or outside the parameters of oppression, once the theory of oppression extends over other marginal groups.

Throughout history and in literature, Black has always been portrayed as evil, whereas White has represented purity and light. These oversimplified stereotypes of something so abstract as skin color has plagued our culture with prejudice and hatred. Ernest E. Gaines, author of A Lesson Before Dying, tells the story of a young black boy named Jefferson who is set to die for essentially being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a schoolteacher who is faced with the task of making him a “man”. The novel takes place in Bayonne, Louisiana in the 1940’s, a time when racism prospered. At this time in history people faced extreme prejudice based on the color of their skin. Though slavery had been abolished almost eighty years

Jefferson is a peculiar character in that the story is centred on his existence and, although his thoughts and opinions are seldom expressed, the lessons he learnt are completely unambiguous. As the tragic story goes, he is a very young black man unjustly condemned to death for a crime he did not commit. Furthermore, he is dehumanized in his defence when he is called a “hog” and this detrimentally affects his self esteem throughout a significant portion of the novel. However, this melancholic situation he is thrust into and his initial reaction to it is contrasted against his final moment which unashamedly reveals just how much he has learnt in his incarceration period. Jefferson, through the guidance of Grant, learns about the notion of dignity, a peculiarity that drives people towards the pinnacle of human

December 18, 1865, marked the end of African-American slavery in America, where-by black people gained more freedom in the land. However, a power imbalance between the black and white is still present. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines gives readers insight to the immense abuse and hatred towards black people in the 1940s of America and furthers the reader's knowledge of black segregation and how the black people never gave up for their freedom and rights. The novel’s main plot follows Grant Wiggins, a young black man who was given the responsibility to make Jefferson, a black man who was unjustifiably accused of murder and sentenced to death by electrocution become truly a man and not a “hog” which is what the lawyer labeled Jefferson as. Throughout the novel, readers can recognize the great bond created as Grant encourages and aids Jefferson in becoming a man before his “judgment day”. Nevertheless, the novel was not only about Jefferson’s lesson before his death, but it was a lesson for many other characters in the novel. The most important lesson to learn before dying is the lesson of never give up, which can be seen through the actions of Jefferson, Miss Emma, and Grant.

Have you ever been bullied or even discriminated against? Imagine that feeling of embarrassment, shame, and self-consciousness. Although I never have experienced the type of discrimination that Henrietta did, I still understand how it feels whenever you feel cheated because of another's actions and the pain that comes with self-doubt as a affect from the society. Seeing how I am affected by discrimination, it is easy to see that the theme of discrimination in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is relevant in today's world.

A Lesson Before Dying is set in rural Louisiana in the 1940’s. The setting is ripe for the racism displayed in the novel. Ernest J. Gaines weaves an intricate web of human connections, using the character growth of Grant Wiggins and Jefferson to subtly expose the effect people have on one another (Poston A1). Each and every character along the way shows some inkling of being a racist. However, Paul is an exception. He treats everyone as if he or she is equal to him whether the person is black or white. In A Lesson Before Dying, author Ernest J. Gaines displays the different levels of racism during the 1940’s through his use of characterization.

In "Oppression" by Marilyn Frye, Frye discussed how a bird cage symbolizes the systematic oppression of women. Frye explains that if you look at a single wire in a bird cage you cannot understand why the bird, is unable to simply fly around the wire and be free. But, when you step back and look at the cage as a whole system of interlocking wires you realize that the bird has no chance of escaping because of all the barriers put in their way (Frye). This is exactly the same case for women. When somebody tries to see the oppression of women. they look only at one problem women face, refusing to step back and see there is no one cause for their oppression. If instead they looked at all the barriers women face at once, they would finally see that women have no way of escaping oppression without continuous efforts of every person involved in the oppression, including the woman being oppressed and the sexist men doing the oppressing.