"A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines takes place in the South, during the time of
the Civil War as blacks started to gain there freedom. A black man by the name of
Jefferson happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was convicted of
murdering a white bar tender. In front of the jury he was made to look like a fool by his
own attorney. His attorney trying to plea the smphathtic role, made Jefferson out to be a
"hog", which angered his mom. Thought he was still found guilty of the crime, his
mother wanted him to dye a man not a "hog". So his mom had a school teacher by the
name of Wiggins teach Jefferson that he wasn't a "hog", but a man. As Wiggins visited
Jefferson and paid attention to his time of distress, they both had changing attitude
toward what was happen and both learned an valuable lesson from each other.
At the beginning of the story when Jefferson's mom asks Wiggins to help
Jefferson, Wiggins really didn't want to be bothered with him. He was flustered with his
job as a school teacher and sick in tried of not living life. Even thought he agreed to help
Jefferson out, he still had no idea how he would do it. He took out his frustration on the
children he taught, by telling them his problem. He said, " Do you know what his nannan
wants me to do before they kill him?"(39) and "Suppose I was allowed to visit him, and
suppose I reached him and made him realize that he was as much a man as any other
man; then what, he's still going to dye."(39) These are key examples showing that he
didn't want to do this and he had a very negative attuide toward helping Jefferson. With
his attuide for helping Jefferson being in a negative way and Jefferson's attuide being
negative because of what his attorney had said about him and him dying. How would he
learn to became a man?
Jefferson's negative attuide w...