A Lesson Before Dying (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Ernest J. Gaines
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1948-1949
- Setting: A small Cajun community in Louisiana
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Civil rights, Teaching or teachers, Prisons, Racism, Blacks, Murder or homicide, South or Southerners, 1940’s, World War II, Capital punishment, Cajuns, Human behavior, Pigs
- Locales: Louisiana
Characters Discussed
Grant Wiggins, who grew up in the “quarters” and has returned from a California university to teach “reading, writing, and ’rithmetic” in the plantation school. As a first-person narrator in a plot progression that is both bitter and humorous, Grant is not altogether admirable. Struggling with individual and communal concerns, he behaves from a perspective of superiority. In tragic and comedic episodes, he exhibits an ironic detachment that is neither naïve nor dispassionate but perplexingly veiled. His self-deprecatory and contemptuous voice...
[The entire page is 976 words long]
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