In A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines creates a sweeping theme of social injustice through a young black man named Jefferson who is sentenced to death, for a crime he did not commit. Throughout the novel, Gaines wastes no time stylistically structuring his story with powerful imagery, explosive language, and a flawless use of symbols, weaving together a story filled with emotional hostility and brutal pragmatism. Through these three literary devices we witness, but more importantly learn a lesson before dying; that “Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free” (Gaines 251).
Like a wound that never heals, the bleak unjust atmosphere seeps from the very first chapter through stark imagery. Gaines begins by creating three distinct barriers between Jefferson and the rest of civilization through key descriptions of what is seen and heard in the courtroom. The first barrier comes from the godmother’s “blind” perspective. Separated and seated two rows behind Jefferson, Gaines writes, “She just sat there staring at the boy’s clean cropped head where he sat at the front table with his lawyer” (Gaines 3). This perspective of Jefferson’s “head” and not his “face,” conveys an individual who has no distinguishing features—no uniqueness.
The author reinforces this separation with what is heard in the courtroom with the second barrier. Gaines writes, “It was my aunt whose eyes followed the prosecutor . . . pounding the table where his papers lay, pounding the rail that separated the jurors from the rest of the courtroom” (Gaines 4). Using the courtroom’s rails as a clear separation from society, the reader views Jefferson as a trapped animal caught in a pen surrounded by wolves.
The third and most important barrier in the novel is skin color. In his review of author Derrick A. Bell Jr.’s book, Race, Racism And American Law, Professor A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. discusses how racism should be discerned in a society. Higginbotham writes:
[. . .] racism may be viewed as any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of his or their color. Even though race and color refer to two different kinds of human characteristics, in America it is the visibility of skin color—and of other physical traits associated with particular color or groups—that marks individuals as targets for subordination by members of the white majority (Higginbotham 1045).
The skin color of the judge, and each member of the jury is white, permanently reinforcing the unjust society Jefferson is up against—for his skin is black. These three barriers—viewer perspective, spatial division, and racism—created by stark imagery, elicit an immediate impression about Jefferson’s character. He is an animal trapped in a pen. These significant barriers are emphasized to increase the readers hope for Jefferson’s survival.
The theme of social injustice builds more steam through Gaines’ use of emotionally charged language. Aware of how the jury perceives his client, Jefferson’s attorney tries to reduce Jefferson to the lowliest of things—a hog. In the first chapter, the defense argues, “What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentleman? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this” (Gaines 8). The purposeful use of the word “hog,” ties in nicely to Gains’ use of imagery. This is more powerful in its literal subjugation of Jefferson as an intellectually inferior thing—in this case a filthy swine.
This building of injustice continues later in the novel when Jefferson wants an unusual last meal. Jefferson proclaims to Grant, “My last supper. A whole gallona ice cream . . . ain’t never had enough ice cream. Never had more than a nickel cone . . . but now I’m go’n get me a whole gallon” (Gains 170). The word choice used here is important for it connects Jefferson to a simple childhood social injustice. Gaines mocks the idea that, as a youth, Jefferson didn’t have the freedom of choice even as to the amount of ice cream he could have. That it would be on a condition of death—that he could have all the ice cream he wants.
It is at the end of the novel in which Gaines questions our own system of laws, writing his most powerful declaration towards the social injustices exhibited in post World War II America. He writes, “Don’t tell me to believe that God can bless this country and that men are judged by their peers. Who among his peers judged him? Was I there? Was the minister there? . . . no, his peers did not judge him—and I will not believe” (Gaines 251). Here, Gaines declares that the playing field wasn’t level. That the scales of justice where weighted down in favor of a conviction. This conviction is based on skin color. It is not a product of legitimate evidence. Gaines uses emotionally charged language to cement an understanding that racism has haunted Jefferson from the moment of birth.
In the end, it is Ernest J. Gaines use of unblemished symbolism that propels the novel’s theme of social injustice. In chapter five the American flag is portrayed as a dead thing. The author writes, “We pledged allegiance to the flag. The flag hung limp from a ten-foot bamboo pole in the corner of the white picket fence that surrounded the church” (Gaines 33). The American flag represents democracy—the ultimate symbol of equality. The American flag typically evokes powerful emotions of pride, and patriotism in a culture. Here, Gaines represents the flag as a lifeless, unobservant, dead object—blind to the injustices facing Jefferson.
One of the most powerful symbols in the novel is the diary grant gives Jefferson in jail. In his book “Black Metafiction,” author Madelyn Jablon writes, “By giving Jefferson a pencil and a tablet, Gaines signifies on the trope of the talking book and the role of literacy in the crusade for civil rights. Writing is evidence that the black man is not a hog, but—as Jefferson writes—a youman” (Jablon 91). In the diary Jefferson finds his voice, and gains strength—transforming from a scared animal trapped in a pen—to that of a man. Jefferson writes, “good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man good by mr wigin . . .” (Gaines 234).
A Lesson Before Dying is a commanding piece of literature which echoes one of the strongest textual examples of social injustice in post World War II America. It accomplishes this through Gaines’ use of potent imagery, loaded language, and unblemished symbolism. Through these three literary elements, Gaines succeeds in offering up a character separated by the barriers of society, and cast down to the lowliest of creatures. In the end we are left with a man striped of freedom because of his skin, but who has found freedom in his mind.
Works Cited
Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.
Higginbotham, A. Leon Jr. “Review: [untitled] Race, Racism and American Law by Derrick A. Bell, Jr.” The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 122, No. 4 (Apr., 1974), pp 1044-1069. JSTOR. Ovitt Library, Northridge, CA. Nov 20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3311421
Jablon, Madelyn. Black Metafiction: Self-Consciousness In African American Literature. Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1997.
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