Ernest Gaines’s novel, A Lesson Before Dying, begins as a teacher named Grant Wiggins is recalling a recent trial of a slow-witted man named Jefferson,

A few days after Wiggins agrees to help, Miss Emma, Tante Lou and Grant begin to visit Jefferson. To their dismay, the visitors realize that the prisoner has taken the lawyer’s words very seriously. The first few visits are uncomfortable and very quiet. In the following weeks, Grant brings Jefferson a radio, on another he gives Jefferson’s a notebook and a pencil and asks him to write down whatever thoughts come to his mind. The religious leader of the community, Reverend Ambrose, visits Jefferson as well yet he is unable to reach Jefferson himself. The reverend then harasses Grant to put aside his agenda and atheistic beliefs, and to foremost help save Jefferson’s Christian soul.

who is being convicted of murder. Grant Wiggins is the only formally educated person his community and teaches all the students from kindergarten to sixth grade. The recently condemned Jefferson, who had just been sentenced to death, had at one time been Grant’s student. Jefferson was ultimately innocent of the crime he had been convicted of, yet he had not a prayer of getting released for the jury was completely Caucasian, and racial prejudices were too strong at the time. During Jefferson’s trial, in a desperate attempt to sway the jury, Jefferson’s lawyer argued that his client is nothing but a poor fool, hardly more than a hog, and therefore incapable of plotting such and intelligent plan as the prosecutor had previously explained to the court. This statement soon becomes more demeaning to Jefferson and his family than the final verdict. In his forlorn and down-trodden state, Jefferson takes these words to heart and truly believes he is nothing more than a hog. Yet, his godmother, Miss Emma, only wants her godson to die like a man. Miss Emma, knowing that Grant was her godson’s teacher, pleads for him to talk with Jefferson and make him into a man before he dies. Wiggins’s first reaction is resistance, mostly because he does not want to get involved and he truly believes he can offer no help, However, after considerable pressure from his aunt, Tante Lou, Grant reluctantly agrees to offer aid to his former student on death row.

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