A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

Liberal and Critical Muliculturalism Perspectives on Mulitcultural Literature

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A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

Applying Liberal Multiculturalism and Critical Multiculturalism

Universal Themes:

Humanity- "'What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this'"(8). "I didn't raise no hog, and I don't want no hog to go set in that chair. I want a man to set in that chair, Mr. Henri'"(20).

After Jefferson is convicted, he begins to think of himself as nothing put a "dumb 'ole hog." When he accepts that he is not human, he forgoes his humanity. He eats, thinks and acts like a hog. His mother asks Grant if he will teach Jefferson to be a man before he is put to death. But Jefferson doesn't want to save himself, especially when it means accepting that they are all wrong and he is a man. To make that decision is to begin to throw off the chains of oppression and racism. It is a decision so difficult that even Grant can't make it for himself.

Communication- "I been shakin an shakin but im gon stay strong," day breakin," "sun comin up," "the bird in the tre sound like a blu bird," "sky blu blu mr wigin." "good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man..."(233-4)

Jefferson is scared, confused, anxious, brave, thoughtful, romantic, strong; all the things man has the privilege to feel. Gaines writes in Jefferson's voice to highten the readers connection with Jefferson through his last words. He knows how important it is to his family and friends that he act like a man, that he be a man before he dies. His resistance was strong, especially when Grant's will was at it's weakest points. The white men don't want Jefferson to be a person with independent thoughts and feelings. They don't want him to have a voice, to demand to be heard. But his voice is the most important part of his being a man, a human. When Grant asks him to write in the journal, he's giving Jefferson the opportunity to find his humanity, to communicate as a man with the rest of the world.

"We must live with our own conscience. Each and every one of us must live with his own conscience."

Cultural Themes:

Racism- "'I was afraid to run away. What am I? Look at me. Where else could I have felt superior to so many but here?' 'Is that important?' I asked him. 'Of course,' he said. 'Don't be a damned fool. I am superior to you. I am superior to any man blacker than me.'"(65).

Power, disguised as superiority, is the basis for the ideological fiction that the whiter the skin, the better the man. The notion of white privilege is tied up in the belief that black men are savages, animals to be kept and treated as such. White men use the idea of purity of race to support the ideology that one race is inherently superior to another. This belief has allowed one race of men to subjugate and oppress a different race of men, throughout time and place.

White Power Structure- "'I tried to decide just how I should respond to them. Whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be... To show too much intelligence would have been an insult to them. To show a lack of intellligence would have been an insult to me'"(47).

Grant chooses to challenge the white power structure by displaying his intelligence. An educated black man is a threat to the white system, one who educates other black men is even more dangerous. He continually uses correct grammer and he refuses to look them in the eye. He defies their expectations by acting like a man, not a black man, and this angers them. Grant lets the white men know that black men are just as intelligent and capable as their white counterparts. These small defiances of the established social order in Jim Crow South, allow Grant to keep his pride and challenge two hundred years worth of history.

Multicultural Literature 308 Final