Defining Dignity through Service in Ernest J. Gaines' A LESSON BEFORE DYING

Great American Novel

Only thirty years old this year, Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying (1993) is a powerful testament to social justice and to the search for individual dignity in an oppressive legal system. Set in the late 1940s in a small Louisiana community, the book tells the story of two men, one a convicted murderer on death's row (Jefferson) and the other his reluctant tutor (Grant) who is asked to teach the doomed man how to face death and injustice with a sense of self-worth. Almost instantly canonized upon publication, A Lesson Before Dying is a deceptively straightforward work. Although eminently accessible, it asks weighty questions about the complicity of state-sanctioned execution and the healing power of community. Electric with religious imagery, it challenges readers' sense of the purpose of faith and the elusiveness of truth. Most of all it makes a passionate plea for relinquishing personal bitterness and finding transcendence in serving others.