Literary Essay
The novel “Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, is a book written about a black male charged with robbery and murder even though he was falsely accused. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The defense attorney told the judge that he was a hog, Jefferson couldn’t get that out of his mind, man is compared to hog. Grant was convinced by his aunt and others to talk to Jefferson, so he can die with dignity and not pain. In this story “Lesson Before Dying” Therefore, I believe setting affects the central theme of the story. It helps the community what the author is trying to say to the reader. The setting affects the central theme of the story by; location interprets the actions that happen, the setting affects
moods and behaviors, and finally setting shows how much control someone has over their life.
There are many things that happen in “Lesson Before Dying” by Gaines, but there are a few points that really show how the thesis; setting affects the central theme of a story. One of the points is how location interprets the actions that happen. The story being located in Bayonne, Louisiana shows that there was a lot of segregation at the time in the state, racism was also at its prime. There was a lot of segregation at the time, but the Louisiana government ignored it and did not consider segregation, this impacted the decision of the jury as well. He was sentenced to death mainly because the judge was white of skin color and where it took place since Louisiana is in the southern part of the US racism ran deep through the 1900s. The action of the robbery happening in the first place also shows that location interprets the actions that happen, as Louisiana only has 18,000 police officers with a population of 4.6 million. Fewer police officers in a certain location resulted in the robbery being easier resulting in Jefferson being framed as no one else was at the crime scene. Overall, the main theme of the story was accepting death with dignity, setting relates to the theme as being in Louisiana really brought him into the situation where he was faced with death, he had no control on the situation because of the location so he was going to die with no dignity.
“A Lesson Before Dying” really makes on takes into consideration how the theme of the story affects the central theme, one point proves this in the novel and that’s how the setting affects moods and behaviors. The theme ...
