A LESSON BEFORE DYING

A detailed Summary of A LESSON BEFORE DYING

"A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines takes place in the South, during the time of

the Civil War as blacks started to gain there freedom. A black man by the name of

Jefferson happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was convicted of

murdering a white bar tender. In front of the jury he was made to look like a fool by his

own attorney. His attorney trying to plea the smphathtic role, made Jefferson out to be a

"hog", which angered his mom. Thought he was still found guilty of the crime, his

mother wanted him to dye a man not a "hog". So his mom had a school teacher by the

name of Wiggins teach Jefferson that he wasn't a "hog", but a man. As Wiggins visited

Jefferson and paid attention to his time of distress, they both had changing attitude

toward what was happen and both learned an valuable lesson from each other.

At the beginning of the story when Jefferson's mom asks Wiggins to help

Jefferson, Wiggins really didn't want to be bothered with him. He was flustered with his

job as a school teacher and sick in tried of not living life. Even thought he agreed to help

Jefferson out, he still had no idea how he would do it. He took out his frustration on the

children he taught, by telling them his p

same. At first when Jefferson didn't want anything for himself he was depressed about

negative because of what his attorney had said about him and him dying. How would he

up."(250) Shown that his attuide toward Jefferson turned toward compassion for his time

favorite dish he replied, "It don't matter."(73)

As Wiggins stared to visit Jefferson they both started to change there negative

want me to bring you a little radio next time I come",(172) which was another thing that

Approximate Word count = 810
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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