Ignasiak 1

Andrew Ignasiak
Ms. Smit
12 AP English
October 28, 2014
Historical Look at a Southern U.S. 1940s Setting
Historical Criticism Paper on A Lesson Before Dying
To best understand Ernest J. Gainess novel A Lesson Before Dying readers should have
basic knowledge of the time in which the story took place. The setting of the novel is in the
South in the 1940s, a time in which civil rights were a major issue. The history of this time
period makes the plot for this story possible. The customs, events, and the people in the novel are
all things that are considered when looking at this novel through a historical lens. A historical
critic would argue that this novel is connected directly to the period in which it is based. A critic
would also argue the piece should take into account where it was written and when it was written
as well when analyzing pieces of literature. The novels main character, Grant Wiggins, is a
college educated black man. His education is what separates him from other black men in the
south during this time. Ernest Gaines molds Wiggins after himself, as they are both black men
who grew up doing field labor, who managed to break free from normal traditions and received a
college education. In Gainess novel A Lesson Before Dying, a historical critic would look at
how the racism of the time plays a role in the small, sly gestures white people display and how
those rude gestures affect the black people in the novel. The novel embodies the historic sense of

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time through the treatment of blacks and through the actions those black people take in response
to the ways they are treated by white people.
Viewing how black people treated white people in the late 1800s until the mid 1950s
shows how reluctant black people were to treat white people with pure inferiority. Black people
acted like they were less simply because they were treated and saw themselves as less. Black
people acted this way during the time because society made it the norm. Even as this novel took
place not too long before the civil rights movements and the 1950s, Gaines still includes minor
details that show how blacks were accustomed to being made to feel inferior to white people.
Grant Wiggins is given the task of going to a jail and helping a black man prepare himself to die,
as the courts jury found Jefferson, the man in jail, guilty of murdering three men. Grant has to
face multiple white men throughout the novel, especially when he needed permission to visit
Jeffersons jail cell. Gaines adds interesting details to seeming unimportant scenes and acts in the
novel. Chapter six in the novel begins with Wiggins coming to the house of white residents,
which isnt odd but what is odd is that without hesitation I came up the back stairs (Gaines 42).
Wiggins is a college graduate who teaches school in the community, yet being black, he knows
his place still, knowing he must approach a white persons house not from the front, but from the
back. Wiggins is waiting for hours in the house for the residents to greet him. A tall woman in
her early fifties finally welcomes Wiggins, smiling and coming up to me with her hand out. She
stopped a good distance back, and I had to lean forward to shake her hand (44). This woman is
letting Wiggins into her house, but letting him know that she does not respect him, or maybe
even trust him enough to shake his hand from a certain distance away. The respected historical
period of when the story was written makes small mannerisms characters do in the story
understandable. Grant makes an effort to improve his hometown by coming back and teaching in

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a black elementary school. As a pretty successful man, Grant casually interact with students, the
superintendent, and people around him on a daily basis, but ultimately feels pressure from the
world around him to conform to how a normal, uneducated black man should behave in the
south. Most teachers in his position would just supervise the kids in a classroom instead of
actually teaching the students. Gaines also includes I waved at him, but he did not wave back.
as the superintendent leaves Grants classroom. This detail just continues to show the lack of
respect Grant receives from people, and how it affects him and eats away at his attitude very
little at a time.
The color skin a person had during the 1940s decided a lot of things for them, and a lot
of things were out of many peoples control just by the color their skin. Jefferson was a black
man, and he was considered guilty from the jurys eyes simply because of his color. Jeffersons
reaction toward that was not dramatic, as he knew that is how things would play out. During this
time period, a black man in a southern court did not have the best of chances coming out of court
innocent, regardless of the intensity of the crime. Jeffersons attorney defended him in court by
claiming he is not guilty because he is a fool, and A fool is not aware of right and wrong. A fool
does what others tell him to do (7). Jeffersons defense also made the case that Jefferson lacks
the intelligence to commit the crimes he was convicted of. This is true in Jeffersons case, as he
is a young, twenty-one year old uneducated adult. Jeffersons attorney finishes off his defense by
going back to the idea that Jefferson is not capable of planning, and referenced, of course, his
race; A cornered animal to strike quickly out of fear, a trait inherited from his ancestors in the
deepest jungle of the blackest Africa (7). Even Jeffersons defense in court attempted to gain the
jurys vote by referencing idea that Jefferson committed the crime, not because he needed money
or hated the men enough to murder them, but because it is in his blood he react by instinct and

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kill because of his skin color and background. Jeffersons attorney in court never made the
argument that Jefferson could have been wrongly accused of the crimes against him, which he
very well could have been and from the readers perspective. It is ironic because it is told to the
readers that Jefferson was in fact wrongly accused. It is crucial to know the time period of this
book, because any black man accused of a crime was almost always found guilty by a white
dominated court system. It took very little time for the jury to decide this mans fate, as the
future of Jefferson was meaningless to a group of men and women in the South in the 1940s.
Jeffersons fate was decided to be death by an electric chair, a method of death that has been
outdated for a while, as the death penalty in general is time specific. As Jefferson is about to be
killed, Wiggins has his students knee and pray in his classroom. Although Grant has lost many
black friends, he says that losing the next ones does not make it any easier for him. Hearing
someone say a line such as this would sound a bit astonishing, but taking the historical period
into account, Grants words seem fairly reasonable.
A historical perspective of this novel would focus on Grant Wiggins and how he is
treated and how racism is all around him in Gainess novel. Wiggins did not let a lot bother him,
as he knows his place in society and unfortunately has no alternative but to accept it. The setting
of the novel reflects the characters and the decisions made by the characters. This novel cannot
be fully understood without the reader being aware of the historical time period in which the
setting takes place.