A Lesson Before Dying - The Role of Women
Sigourney Ng
English 2 EXP
December 16, 2014
Period 2
A Lesson Before Dying: The Role of Women Women may often be overlooked in society, but they are as equally important as men and contribute just as much to the world. The women set in the 1940s in Bayonne, Louisiana in the novel
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines are all impulses for Grant’s gradual shift away from his bitterness and doubts. Without Tante Lou, Miss Emma, or Vivian, Grant would have forever languished in despair and would have spent his entire life feeling angry and irritated.
However, since these women persuade and constantly motivate Grant to go visit Jefferson in his cell to impart his learning and to him before his death, they are the real force in the novel—rather than Grant himself. The women are the true strength that causes Grant to transform, through their constant support, involvement in the community, and their belief in their heritage.
Tante Lou, Miss Emma, and Vivian are constantly giving Grant their love, and their love supports him and helps him accomplish his task. But he doesn’t always reciprocate these feelings. The first line of the novel where Grant states, “I was there—but I wasn’t really there”
(ch.1; 1) is not only literal, since he wasn’t actually at Jefferson’s trial, but metaphorical as well.
Even though he is part of their daily lives, he is only physically present, rather than spiritually with them. In the first half of the novel, Grant separates himself from everyone including these women. Both Tante Lou and Miss Emma try to get Grant to eat, which symbolizes their love and care for him. Just like Grant, Jefferson ends up doing the same thing when he refuses the food that the ladies brought for him. In a way, this mutual initial refusal on the part of both these men
to accept this sign of love and care emotionally links them and helps Grant begin to understand
Jefferson. This is one of the reasons why they were so convinced that
English 2 EXP
December 16, 2014
Period 2
A Lesson Before Dying: The Role of Women Women may often be overlooked in society, but they are as equally important as men and contribute just as much to the world. The women set in the 1940s in Bayonne, Louisiana in the novel
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines are all impulses for Grant’s gradual shift away from his bitterness and doubts. Without Tante Lou, Miss Emma, or Vivian, Grant would have forever languished in despair and would have spent his entire life feeling angry and irritated.
However, since these women persuade and constantly motivate Grant to go visit Jefferson in his cell to impart his learning and to him before his death, they are the real force in the novel—rather than Grant himself. The women are the true strength that causes Grant to transform, through their constant support, involvement in the community, and their belief in their heritage.
Tante Lou, Miss Emma, and Vivian are constantly giving Grant their love, and their love supports him and helps him accomplish his task. But he doesn’t always reciprocate these feelings. The first line of the novel where Grant states, “I was there—but I wasn’t really there”
(ch.1; 1) is not only literal, since he wasn’t actually at Jefferson’s trial, but metaphorical as well.
Even though he is part of their daily lives, he is only physically present, rather than spiritually with them. In the first half of the novel, Grant separates himself from everyone including these women. Both Tante Lou and Miss Emma try to get Grant to eat, which symbolizes their love and care for him. Just like Grant, Jefferson ends up doing the same thing when he refuses the food that the ladies brought for him. In a way, this mutual initial refusal on the part of both these men
to accept this sign of love and care emotionally links them and helps Grant begin to understand
Jefferson. This is one of the reasons why they were so convinced that