Reader's Guide

This blog will work through “A Lesson Before Dying” over the course of six weeks, starting on January 17th, 2010 and ending on February 28th.  We will offer a sort of guided tour of the book in 5-chapter-chunks.  Each week will offer a theme in which our four editors will work, though blog posts and discussions need not be limited to the theme.  This way, if there’s a particular aspect of the novel that interests you, or a particular plot point you’d like to offer an opinion on, you’ll know when it’s due to be discussed.  If, in the Reader’s Guide below, you think we’re missing something important, please post a comment and we’ll try to make sure we get to it.

Week 1: 1/17 – 1/23

Chapters 1-5: These first chapters introduce every major character in the novel:  the doomed Jefferson; Grant Wiggins, our protagonist, and his students and family; the white landowners and judge, and others.  Most major locations in the book are also introduced:  Grant’s home, the bar in Bayonne, the school house, and the plantation; every place, in fact, but the jail itself.  We’ll look at these characters and their relationships, including how and why Gaines introduces them the way he does.  We’ll also consider their roles as archetypes of 1940s Southern characters.

Week 2: 1/24 – 1/30

Chapters 6-10: Chapter 6 introduces the struggle of the novel:  Grant’s assignment by Miss Emma to teach Jefferson to become a man, and ends with the first few visits to the jail.  Here, we’ll concentrate on the idea of manhood, looking back at the defense attorney’s speech in Chapter 1, and what Miss Emma might mean by manhood.  We’ll consider whether Miss Emma’s idea of manhood is the same as Grant’s.

This week, mark your calendar for our March event:  The Life and Art of Ernest J. Gaines: Re-imagining Black Southern Manhood, which deals with the same themes.

Week 3: 1/31 – 2/6

Chapters 11-15: Much of this section concentrates on Grant’s relationship with Vivian.  In light of last week’s discussion of manhood we’ll consider this relationship.  This section also offers more detail on the religious life of (some of) our characters which may offer hints as to Gaines’ view on faith in the novel.

Week 4: 2/7 – 2/13

Chapters 16-20:  It is the Christmas season, and it is in this section that Grant has his change of heart regarding his mentorship of Jefferson.  This section ends with the Christmas program at the school house, followed immediately by the setting of Jefferson's execution date.  Here, themes of redemption and condemnation clash in the religious symbolism, Grant's epiphany, and Jefferson's doom.

Week 5: 2/14 – 2/20

Chapters 21-25: In light of the setting of Jefferson's execution date, Grant offers a brandy-fueled discussion of manhood, so, like him, we'll revisit the theme and how much closer Grant may or may not have moved towards the blueprint he sets down, and how he feels about the expectations made of him and Jefferson by the women in their lives.  The relationship between him and Jefferson deepens as well, as Grant finally seems to break through to Jefferson.

This week then ends as the book began and will end:  with an act of violence, as Grant himself breaks down and lashes out in a bar fight.  Here, Grant's struggle for manhood - or, more likely, our general struggle for humanity - is tested, as the bar fight reveals an animal nature in the best of us.

Week 6: 2/21 – 2/28

Chapters 26-31: Things move towards their inexorable end, and we finally hear the story in Jefferson's own words as we read his diary entries.  We will examine whether or not Grant succeeded in his charge, and how the community and the relationships of its residents have changed over the course of Jefferson's condemnation.  What was the lesson, and who learned it?