Education is the only true escape from a cycle of oppression. In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, a simple, uneducated African-American boy, Jefferson, is charged with the murder of a white man. Relatives of the condemned task Grant, a family friend, with turning the mind of the condemned from that of a hog to that of a man. Grant faces challenges in his journey with Jefferson: Jefferson is reluctant to listen, the white population of the area does not want to see Grant succeed, and the mounting pressure from Grant’s family continues to build up.
Although a difficult task under normal circumstances, Grant is operating within the poverty-ridden outskirts of Bayonne, Louisiana. The residents of this town do not have many material goods, but they have the company of one another. Jefferson’s trial and sentencing for a crime he did not commit shatters this feeling of group security within the poor, African-American community. Within this population, nobody has ever been truly educated as there is simply not enough money to send the children to university.
Grant makes clear the point that the only way to scrape off the mindset of the black population’s enslaved ancestors is through true, authentic education. Education that only comes through universities and white schools with sufficient resources and learning space. The economic status of an individual, corresponding mainly along racial lines, stands both to motivate and to limit the individual’s actions and power in society.
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Poor economic standing in society limits the voice and the ability to make change of an individual. Economic status and poverty played a role in Jefferson’s sentencing as he could not afford a lawyer and was instead given a “court-appointed attorney” (3). This result stems from the overarching theme of poverty and low social class in the novel. In his defense, the attorney mentions how Jefferson has the intellect of “a hog” which leads to Jefferson’s absolute belief that he was less than human and, indeed, an animal (8).
The use of the court-appointed attorney shows how a lack of wealth affects the legal process and, with a more experienced attorney, could change the outcome of the trial. The poverty experienced by black people results mainly from their long day jobs in the fields working for white men paying low wages. These low wage jobs left Jefferson’s pockets empty, so Jefferson takes money from Mr. Grope’s register after the shooting out of necessity. Jefferson “knew taking money was wrong,” but he had no money and took the opportunity presented (6).
His lack of money and poverty plays a role in his arrest and makes him look even more guilty. This limits his chances of receiving a lenient sentence and taints his appearance to the public. As one would expect of a skewed legal system, Jefferson had no chance for an appeal of his sentence after his first trial. Without money, Jefferson’s case was decided long before it hit the judge’s bench.
Although most economic effects were negative, severe financial situations still provide the afflicted community with some motivation. In a cycle of poverty fed by young kids without goals for the future, Grant tries to be the best teacher he can be to help kids escape. Grant recognizes “the blanket of ignorance” these kids have over their minds from their enslaved ancestors and tries to uncover their minds in a mere five and a half months (64). The hundreds of years of miseducation and mistreatment ingrained in their minds will, however, take much longer than half a year to undo.
Even the education system, however, does not provide black schools with proper funding to teach the adults of tomorrow. The superintendent only makes an “annual visit” to black schools like Grant’s (51). Instead of the newly constructed centers of education white students are provided with, Grant is forced to teach multiple grades at one time out of a one-room church. This clear inequality in the education system provides for the lack of education African-Americans experienced for centuries prior as slaves.
The rampant poverty in the novel is perhaps best expressed through The Quarter, the nickname of the residential zone populated by African-Americans. It provides a stark contrast to the estate of Henri Pichot, which features a “large white and gray antebellum house,” symbolizing the social positions of blacks and whites nearly unchanged since the antebellum period (17). This contrast between the Pichot’s extensive property and Grant’s sinking schoolhouse shows the divide in wealth and economic inferiority of the African-American race.
With the social order of the past nearly unchanged, Grant is forced to wait numerous times for white people to converse with him as they would normally continue their conversations with each other for several minutes “as if [he wasn’t] there” before acknowledging his presence (131). This motivates Grant as teachers have the power to scrape the past miseducation away but must also have the patience. Grant sees the only way out of the extreme poverty that is The Quarter is the authentic education of youth. Without education, the kids are doomed to end up where their ancestors had been many centuries past.
After the Civil War, many former slaves simply returned to work on the same plantations they had previously worked in only slightly better conditions and with minimal wages. The abject poverty that followed was nothing less than a direct result of the centuries of slavery their ancestors had endured. This poverty motivates both Grant and Reverend Ambrose to take away the slave mindset and pull the majority of the black community from below the poverty line. One way Grant tries to motivate his community and give them hope is through Jefferson. Grant expresses that “[e]very last one of [them]” need Jefferson to give them someone to look up to and something for which to work and fight (225). The novel’s theme of prejudice and the location of a small parish in the state of Louisiana show the hardships and difficulties faced by black Americans, but also the kindling which drives them to fight the system of oppression.
This novel makes clear the economic and racial divide present in southern societies in the mid-twentieth century. Although many arguments could be made for why the economic divide exists between the races, the fact remains that blacks simply did not have the same type of opportunities for economic success than whites did. This assertion is made clear with the differences shown in the novel between the races such as the differences in schools, houses, and in which stores each race shopped.
Along with economics, race also played a role in the legal system of the United States. This divide decided cases like Jefferson’s long before they came to the judge’s bench. Along with this point, many inequalities are made clear throughout the novel such as education, segregated nightclubs, and the way blacks are treated by the majority of the whites. These inequalities show the mindset of the old social order lingering the back of everyone’s mind, even though slavery had been outlawed for nearly one hundred years.
In the end, the novel offers hope for racial resolution with Paul, the white deputy, becoming an ally of the African-American community. Race is the main determiner as to whether or not a person has money, but after African-Americans begin to make allies and stand up for themselves, race would not turn out to be such a large factor after all.
