LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE SERIES #105. A Lesson Before Dying (novel by Ernest J. Gaines)

Do you take delight in watching films, listening to pop music, or reading books? For English learners, movies, songs, and books are one of the most wonderful sources to explore the language! You can indulge in your favorite pastime and still learn some expressions, words of wisdom, and oftentimes good lessons while you’re at it.

 

#105. A Lesson Before Dying (novel by Ernest J. Gaines)

This story takes us into a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, where racism, injustice, and human dignity shape the lives of two men. Jefferson, a young Black man wrongly caught up in a liquor-store shooting, is sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, a teacher who has returned home, is encouraged to visit Jefferson and help him rediscover his dignity and sense of worth.

Through their growing bond, both men learn that true courage can be found in resisting the roles society expects them to accept. Ernest J. Gaines reminds us that even in the face of injustice, education, compassion, and human connection can become powerful forms of resistance.

 

“Gentlemen of the jury, be merciful. For God’s sake, be merciful. He is innocent of all charges brought against him. But let us say he was not. Let us for a moment say he was not. What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this. I thank you, gentlemen, from the bottom of my heart, for your kind patience. I have no more to say, except this: We must live with our own conscience. Each and every one of us must live with his own conscience.”

ð     This is the opening courtroom scene of this story where it feels like a window into the dark heart of the Jim Crow era. Jefferson’s lawyer stands before an all-white jury, not to prove his client’s innocence, but to plead for his life by comparing him to a “hog” in the electric chair.

The words are painful because they reveal how deeply racism can strip a person of his humanity. Jefferson is not simply fighting a death sentence; he is fighting to be seen as a human being with dignity and worth. Through this haunting scene, the author leaves us with a question that lingers long after the courtroom falls silent: How do we hold on to our humanity when the world tries to take it away?

 

(Grant Wiggins said to his students at church): “Do you know what his Nannan wants me to do before they kill him? The public defender called him a hog, and she wants me to make him a man. Within the next few weeks, maybe a month, whatever the law allows – make him a man. Exactly what I’m trying to do here with you now: to make you responsible young men and young ladies.”

ð     Grant Wiggins is sick and tired of the racism that reaches beyond the courtroom and into the human soul. Jefferson has been sentenced to death, but the deeper injustice is the way society has taught him to see himself—as less than human. When his lawyer calls him a “hog,” Jefferson carries those words into his prison cell. Miss Emma, his godmother, refuses to let that dehumanizing label become his identity. She cannot save his life, but she is determined to help him die knowing that he is a man—with dignity, courage, and self-respect.

As a schoolteacher, Grant Wiggins is struggling with his own doubts, begins to understand that Jefferson’s fate is not his alone. The same society that has broken Jefferson is waiting for the next generation. Teaching his students, therefore, becomes more than teaching them to read and write. It becomes a quiet form of resistance—a way of helping them recognize their own worth in a world that constantly tells them otherwise.

 

(conversation between Grant Wiggins and his former high school teacher Matthew Antoine): “My only choice is to run, then?” I asked him. “That was your choice. But you won’t. You want to prove I’m wrong. Well, you’ll visit my grave one day and tell me how right I was.” “Tell me more,” I said. “What’s wrong with that university?” he asked. “Don’t they tell you?” “They tell me how to succeed in the South as a colored man. They tell me about reading, writing, and arithmetic. I need to know about life.” “You have to go away to know about life. There’s no life here. There’s nothing but ignorance here.”

ð     Grant visits his dying mentor and former high school teacher, Antoine, hoping for guidance. Instead, Antoine bitterly challenges the value of Grant’s university education, suggesting that it has taught him little more than how to survive as a colored man—not how to truly understand life. His bleak words echo the suffocating reality of the Jim Crow South and mirror Grant’s own growing struggle between escaping oppression and finding the courage to face it. 

 

(Grant Wiggins said to Jefferson in the prison) “Those out there are no better than we are, Jefferson. They are worse. That’s why they are always looking for a scapegoat, someone else to blame. I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be. You can prove them wrong. I have always done what they wanted me to do, teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Nothing else – nothing about dignity, nothing about identity, nothing about loving and caring. They never thought we were capable of learning things. I went along, but hating myself all the time for doing so.”

ð     Grant Wiggins begins to see Jefferson’s execution in a different light. What appears to be a tragic end can become an act of resistance—a final opportunity for Jefferson to reclaim the dignity that a racist system has tried to take from him. Grant tells Jefferson that the people who condemn him may be morally worse than the man they have labeled a criminal. By turning Jefferson into a scapegoat, they protect their own power and prejudice. Grant therefore asks him to show the world the difference between what others believe he is and what he can truly become.

But Grant’s words are also a confession. He realizes that his own education has been limited to teaching Black children how to survive—reading, writing, and arithmetic—rather than helping them discover their identity, dignity, potentials, and worth. His admission that he has lived with self-hatred reveals how deeply the system has wounded him as well. And this is where the novel’s title especially comes in to play. Grant thinks he is teaching Jefferson a lesson before Jefferson dies, but Jefferson is teaching Grant how to live. By choosing courage and dignity in the face of an unjust system, Jefferson may lose his life, but he refuses to let that system define who he is for good.

 

** Jean’s Small Thoughts:

While organizing my old bookshelf, I came across a book I had bought years ago. Rereading A Lesson Before Dying, I felt something I had almost forgotten—the quiet, painful question of how we can continue to live, and eventually die, with dignity.

What saddens me most is that racism is still not history. From Rodney King and Trayvon Martin to George Floyd, countless Black Americans have lost their lives in acts of racial discrimination and hatred carried out in broad daylight. Many celebrities and social media voices have called for us to continue the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Yet, despite decades of sacrifice and struggle, racism still lingers in our society. We continue to witness, taste, smell, and feel its cruelty in many corners of the world.

Is racism something we are born with, or is it learned from the distorted lessons passed down by parents, grandparents, and society? Who gives anyone the right to judge another human being by race or ethnicity? Regardless of our social status or financial circumstances, perhaps the most powerful form of resistance is simply refusing to let others decide our worth. No one should lose their life because the color of their skin makes them appear threatening. No one should have to beg for breath beneath the weight of another person's prejudice.

For those who were never given the chance to defend themselves or die with dignity, Gaines’s novel continues to speak for them. It reminds us of the courage, compassion, and responsibility we owe one another—and of the kind of world we should leave for our children and grandchildren.

Grant’s former teacher may have good reason for his cynicism in this story, but cynicism cannot be the lesson we pass from one generation to the next. The final image of Grant crying should not have to remain our recurring nightmare. Perhaps the real lesson before dying is learning how to live with enough courage and compassion to make that nightmare disappear.