A Lesson Before Dying

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struggle. Jefferson is searching for the most basic identity, whether he is man or animal. It is this conflict of meaning and identity that bring Grant and Jefferson together.
In this book, Ernest J. Gaines presents three views to determine manhood: law, education and religion. Jefferson has been convicted of a crime, and though he did not commit it, he is sentenced to death as a "hog" a word that denies any sense of worth or fragment of dignity he may have possessed in a world ruled by oppressive white bigots. Jefferson is at an even greater loss as he has no education and after the conviction he doubts that God can even exist in a world that would send an innocent man to his death. It is clear that Jefferson does not believe he has any value. " ‘I’m an old hog. Just an old hog they fattening up to kill for Christmas’ " (83).

Though Grant may have had some advantages compared with Jefferson, his position in life was not significantly better than ...

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heroic act of resistance in defying the expectation of white society that they were members of a lesser race " ‘Do you know what a myth is, Jefferson?’ I asked him. ‘A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they are better than anyone else on earth—and that’s a myth. The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand, and think and show that common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth’ " (192).

Grant encouraged Jefferson to live beyond the stereotype white society had imposed on him. In doing that Grant began to see himself differently. He began to believe if this uneducated black man could become a hero to the ...

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