week 1
I've just begun reading a book called "A Lesson Before Dying" in my AP Literature class. Although I have not gotten into this book, I can already tell how amusing it will be. It started off with a black male named Grant sitting in a courtroom which is deciding the case of one Jefferson. Jefferson is also black, however he is being convicted for a murder he did not commit.
Week 2
- "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines
- Grant,Wiggins
- Jefferson,Ms.Emma,Tante Lou, Mr.Henri, Sheriff Guidry, Vivian,Irene,
- First person point of view
- 1940's Louisiana
- tone (two or three adjectives)
- irony (2 examples, with brief explanation)
- symbols (2 repeated objects or motifs, with brief explanation)
- theme (write a specific sentence about an issue or idea) explanation of title
-Jefferson is a “hog.”
-All men are equal.
-Blacks seen as inferior.
-Whites raised as superior.
2.
-Grant doesn’t trust himself.
-Ms.Emma brings food.
-Mr.Henri is ungrateful.
-Vivian is getting divorced.
3.
-You “were” not “was.”
-Straight sentences not slanted.
-Leftovers for other “children”
-Jefferson does not care.
4.
-Tante Lou is very strict.
-Louis bet against Grant.
-No justice for colored.
-Ms.Emma brings Jefferson food.
Leonardo's Photomovie on PhotoPeach
In the novel "A Lesson Before Dying" there are many conflicts in which more than one person is confused as to what decisions they ought to make. The main character Grant Wiggins, for example, is conflicted on a multitude of decisions. Decisions such as leaving with the woman of his life or staying in the town he was born and raised in order to help a wronged member of the black community. A town which he despises so because there are responsibilities holding him down, responsibilities that his beloved, Vivian, does not wish for him to abandon. The other woman of his life is his Aunt Tante Lou. Tante Lou raised Grant since he was abandoned by his parents. Tante Lou raises Grant to believe in her church,however after attending college for many years Grant seems to have lost any belief in the lord which causes great conflict with two characters in the novel.
The responsibilities that are tying Grant down to Bayonne, the town he was born and raised, are his teaching career, his desire to prove his teacher, his debt to his aunt, and the need to help Jefferson. Jefferson is the young man who is sentenced to death at the beginning of the novel and he is supposed to be visited by Grant in order to teach him that he is not a "hog" that he is a man. Jefferson is called a hog by his defense attorney, who believed that branding him too stupid to commit a crime was a great defense. Teaching Jefferson to understand that he is a man is the main conflict in the novel. The conflict that is "tearing" Grants mind apart is that he wants to leave town because he believes it is pointless to help a man who is destined to die. This other conflict paints him as a coward who would of course rather running away than directly facing the challenges life has in store for him.
The responsibilities that are tying Grant down to Bayonne, the town he was born and raised, are his teaching career, his desire to prove his teacher, his debt to his aunt, and the need to help Jefferson. Jefferson is the young man who is sentenced to death at the beginning of the novel and he is supposed to be visited by Grant in order to teach him that he is not a "hog" that he is a man. Jefferson is called a hog by his defense attorney, who believed that branding him too stupid to commit a crime was a great defense. Teaching Jefferson to understand that he is a man is the main conflict in the novel. The conflict that is "tearing" Grants mind apart is that he wants to leave town because he believes it is pointless to help a man who is destined to die. This other conflict paints him as a coward who would of course rather running away than directly facing the challenges life has in store for him.