Apr 07, 2008 04:29 PM
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“A Lesson Before Dying” has the overtones of the modern classic –“To
Kill A Mockingbird” with its storyline based on racism and the
undercurrents of bravery of a few in the midst of the hatred of many.
The book is set in a small Cajun community of Louisiana of the late
1940s and the principal characters are a hapless black by the name of
Jefferson, who is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit,
Grant Wiggins, the only man in his community who has been to university
and has now returned to teach in the local school an Jefferson’s aunt
universally known as Miss Emma. Hovering in the shadows is the local
pastor Rev.Ambrose.
The central theme is that Jefferson has not just
been sentenced to death but that the White people in the town have also
stripped him of his human dignity by referring to him as a “hog”. His
aunt is determined that though the death sentence cannot be evaded,
Jefferrson will go to the electric chair looking the world in the eye
as a man and not like a shivering pig. The man tasked to bring about
this transformation is Grant Wiggins the teacher, a man who do not
believe in God and the keen onlooker is Rev. Ambrose, a man not to
educated but deeply caring of his congregation and who does not believe
that such a transformation can be brought about with the active
participation of God. The rest of the book is devoted to how Wiggins
and also the pastor in their way try and reach out to Jefferson, who
has retreated within his shell. It has some memorable lines like “It
was the kind of “here” that asked the question, when will all this end
? When will a man not have to struggle to have money to get what he
needs “ her”’?when will a man be able to live without having to kill
another man”here”? Or read through this dialogue where the pastor
defends himself an what he does to Wiggins, the rationalist, who does
not believe in any thing that the pastor believes in: “ ‘Cause
reading, wring and rithmetic is not enough…. You think that is all
they sent you to school for? They sent you to school to relieve pain,
to relieve hurt- and if you have to lie to do it, then you lie. At
wakes, funerals, and weddings, I lie. I lie at wakes and funerals to
relieve pain…. And that’s the difference between me and you, my boy.
that makes me the educated one and you the Gump. I know my people. I
know what they have gone through……
”
The multi layered book asks several questions – the chief being that
what is the purpose of education if it does not serve a
transformational and redemptive purpose and if it is only the
mechanical accumulation of knowledge. In fact, in the book Gaines draws
analogies between Jefferson and Jesus. One of the first questions
Jefferson asks his tutor concerns the significance of Christmas:
"That's when He was born, or that's when He died?" Jefferson is
executed eight days after Easter. The process of transforming Jefferson
transforms Grant Wiggins too and he admits at the end of the book that
Rev. Ambrose "is braver than I, " and he has his pupils pray in the
hours before Jefferson's death. This is one of those books that deserve
to be read at least twice. The first reading should be for the
historical background and the pure story. The second time should be for
seeing the true value of the story.
