A Lesson Before Dying
January 9th 2007 19:56
Image: aalbc.com
Whatever your views on the southern states of America and the people who reside there, you have to admit they spoon out some great stories. I’ve just read another beauty. Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. Yes, it happened in the 1940’s, and yes there is racial discrimination (loads of it), and yes the innocent fall yet again. Not a happy picture, but then who would argue otherwise.
Through his own life history growing up on a Louisiana plantation, Gaines tells us the story of black teacher Grant Wiggins who is persuaded by his Aunt to help a young black convicted of murder know his worth as a man before he is sentenced to the electric chair. Not an easy task as Jefferson, the young accused, has long been told he is nothing more than a hog. It’s gut-wrenching stuff and Gaines expertly draws out this pain-staking process until you are in the cell with every innocent black ever taken to the chair. But lessons abound in this small novel and it is up for grabs as to who is learning what.
Story aside, the simple yet powerful prose is the real gem here. Gaines has that amazing ability to place you right in the here and now of his story. I’ve no doubt his own childhood, which mirrors many of his novels has given him much to draw from. He picked cotton from the age of nine with only 5 to 6 months education a year in the plantation’s black school. He was fifth generation plantation worker and it was when his mother and father left for California that the chance for a real education presented itself.
Many people I talk to about southern racism in America often have the impression that things are different now – ‘discrimination in the Southern States is history’. Don’t be too sure. Growing up in Canada I had the dubious honour of having a basketball coach from Louisiana. During tournaments we were forbidden to billet at or take billets from Black American families (there were plenty that had moved north). And this was tolerated by the school! A very sad state of affairs for 1970’s America. I still seethe with anger thinking about it.
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if reading a book like this could cure (yes I said cure) people of bigotry. Sadly, I think the simple fact is, you cannot stop deep seeded prejudice by reading a novel, no matter how well written, or for that matter by changing the law.
It can only happen with a change of heart.
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