Summer Reading Recommendation
A Lesson Before Dying:
A story that takes place in the 1940’s during the time of racial inequality. This book is based on real life events coming from the stand point of African Americans, “mullatos,” and Caucasian men and women living in a community where social injustices lie among them, on a daily basis. Jefferson, an African American man, experiences a horrid case of social injustice when he is caught in a bar, with three dead guys. When two Caucasian men walked in the bar, Jefferson was caught doing something that he would regret for the rest of his life. Since he was African American, and the only survivor, the jury did not believe his story of what happened that day, instead, he was proven guilty, and sentenced to death.
At the trial, the prosecutors argued that Jefferson and his two friends went down to the bar with every intention to kill and rob Alcee Groupe. Then after everyone was dead he steals the money from the register, and starts to drink due to his progress. The defendant for Jefferson stated that, that couldn’t be true because 1. They weren’t there during the crime scene so they can’t create any predictions such as that one, 2. He stated that Jefferson is too much of a fool to even come up with such a master plan, and 3. That Jefferson is not a civilized man, and then his lawyer compared him to a hog, Then he went on by saying that Jefferson should just live for the sake of his grandmother, Ms.Emm, but still, he was proven guilty, and demanded to be sent to the electric chair. His day of death, was Friday, April eighth, between noon and three. Grant Wiggins then takes over the story.
Grant Wiggins is an educated African American, who is an elementary school teacher in his mid-twenties, who hates everything about his society. Grant Wiggins is always slightly depressed, and judgmental about the life he’s living. Of a man of his mid-twenties he has seen and been through a great deal of heart ache, and mistreatment from black, and white man. His professor Mr. Antoine, hated Grant due to his darkness of skin, because Mr. Antoine was “mixed” and felt superior to anyone darker than him. Additionally, due to the corruption of society, Grant does not believe in church, and he does not believe in change. Later in the book, Grant Wiggins figures he would have to put all of that negative energy aside to help Jefferson die like a man, with dignity and respect for himself, instead of letting him die like a hog, or a boy, like society has labeled him to be.
Overall, I loved this book. It was sad, but everything they said, and mentioned in the book was so real, and so true. When reading this book, you begin to think if the cycle of society ever changed. This book seemed as if it was a diary. It had no secretes, nothing to hide, it was just the truth, seen through the eyes of an African American living in the 1940’s. Which readers greatly enjoy. I would definitely recommend this book, it has romance, mysteries, and a lot of interesting points about society.
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