Bibliography
Course Hero. "A Lesson Before Dying Study Guide." Course Hero. 2 Oct. 2017. Web. 29 Sep. 2023. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Lesson-Before-Dying/>.
In text
(Course Hero)
Bibliography
Course Hero. (2017, October 2). A Lesson Before Dying Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Lesson-Before-Dying/
In text
(Course Hero, 2017)
Bibliography
Course Hero. "A Lesson Before Dying Study Guide." October 2, 2017. Accessed September 29, 2023. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Lesson-Before-Dying/.
Footnote
Course Hero, "A Lesson Before Dying Study Guide," October 2, 2017, accessed September 29, 2023, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Lesson-Before-Dying/.
Ernest J. Gaines
1993
Novel
Historical Fiction
A Lesson Before Dying is narrated in the first person by Grant Wiggins, a teacher who visits Jefferson, a young man condemned to die, in jail.
A Lesson Before Dying is written in the past tense.
Set in rural Louisiana in the pre-civil rights years (late 1940s), Jefferson is a young black man sentenced to die for the murder of a white man—a murder he did not commit. At Jefferson's trial, his attorney likens him to a hog—an animal—and argues Jefferson is too stupid to have planned and committed the crime. Jefferson's godmother Miss Emma, determined that Jefferson die knowing he is a man, believes the local school teacher, Grant Wiggins, can teach Jefferson this lesson during the months he has left. Tortured and jaded by inner conflicts, Grant reluctantly begins visiting Jefferson in jail. Their roles blur and the teacher receives the lesson of a lifetime from his student in A Lesson Before Dying.
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