A lesson before dying chapter 31
1081 mots
5 pages
Chapter 31: from page 251 “ it must have been 12.15 by now” to the end of the chapterThe passage I’m going to comment upon is the last chapter from the novel A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest J. Gaines, and African-American writer. This author was born on a plantation in Louisiana at the beginning of the thirties. Louisiana has been a source of inspiration for his novel since he only writes about the life of black people in the south of the USA. This book won several prizes among which France’s highest literary honour: The Chevalier Order of Arts and Letters.
This novel is set in Louisiana at the end of the forties, time of segregation, which is an extremely important element throughout the novel.
To sum it up, Jefferson, a young African American is condemned to death for murders he didn’t commit. During he’s trial he’s compared to a hog, that’s why his nannan, Miss Emma asks Grant, the plantation school teacher to visit him in prison to turn him into a man and die with dignity. Grant reluctantly accepts and after a while he bonds with Jefferson.
This chapter is the final chapter and so the day of Jefferson’s execution. To show their respect for Jefferson, the people of the black community have decided not to work on that day and Grant asks his pupils to kneel and pray for him. Then Paul, the white deputy, arrives to tell that the execution is over, which is the passage I’m going to present.
First I’ll analyse the way Jefferson’s death is announced in this chapter, then the impact this death has and will have on the black but also the white community, finally I’ll explain the impact of Jefferson’s death on Grant.
In this passage we must notice that we don’t have an account of Jefferson’s death. However it is announced through metaphors. In fact, an important passage symbolises Jefferson’s death: the passage with the butterfly. Grant is sitting under a tree and he sees a butterfly which flies off towards the quarter (p.251-252). This butterfly is