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Melinda Sanchez

Harris

AP Lang 4

February 6, 2020

A Lesson Before Dying​ Analysis

In ​A Lesson Before Dying​, Gaines uses symbolism to enhance the meaning behind the

character’s relationships. These relationships demonstrate how characters work with each other

to overcome society's perception of their community. With the individuals within a community

uniting together, they overcome society’s prejudice views, and gain a new insight of themselves.

Gaines shows how groups of people can be powerful by allowing encouragement towards one

another, and standing together to create something that can not be ignored.

Gaines implements symbolism throughout the story to give a perspective of each

character's relationship, that plays an importance to understanding the theme. Since the trial,

where Jefferson’s attorney compared him to a hog, Jefferson has gotten visits in jail from his

godmother and Grant. In this chapter, Grant goes alone to meet Jefferson due to the godmother’s

illness. Since they are alone, Jefferson lets out his anger left from the trial when Grant hands him

the bag of food his godmother made. “I’m go’n show you how a old hog eat, he said. He knelt

down on the floor and put his head inside the bag and started eating, without using his hands.”

(83) Gaines utilizes the symbol of the hog to portray blacks as clueless or inferior. Gaines uses

hog in comparison to Jefferson to show how others think of him as ‘animal-like’, helpless, and

unintelligent. Jefferson gets described as idiotic and inferior to humans, which he takes to heart

as seen throughout the book. Gaines elucidates how people of color got treated back then.
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Although not slaves, they were still thought of as inferior to whites. The symbolism of the hog

demonstrates societies sentiment on African Americans as them being unintelligent and useless.

Not only does the hog show how whites viewed African Americans, but also how the African

Americans viewed themselves. After getting told they were nothing, some started to believe

these statements. In the book, Jefferson can be seen having hate towards himself because others

describe him as a hog and he believes this to be true. As Grant teaches and advises Jefferson to

overcome the thought of being a 'hog' and switch to thinking of himself as a man, Jefferson has a

difficult time accepting the advice. Jefferson is seen continuing to have self-pity on himself, and

does not unite with his community to overcome society’s perception of African Americans. Due

to Jefferson isolating himself, he limits his possibilities of getting help and changing his

situation. Gaines exerts the symbolism of food to portray the love towards others. In the middle

of the book Grant, Miss Emma, and Pastor Ambrose visit Jefferson in jail. Jefferson had never

eaten any of the food that his godmother, Miss Emma, had brought him. Grant tries to teach

Jefferson about how to be a better person. “It would mean so much to her if you would eat some

of the gumbo…Will you eat some of the gumbo? Just a little bit? One spoonful? He made a

slight nod. I smiled at him again.” (191) Food is symbolized as love towards others through

Gaines representation of Jefferson rejecting food throughout the story. This reveals his progress

towards the end where he accepts his godmother’s food as well as Grant’s advice. Food shown

throughout the story represents the love and tension between the relationships in the story.

Jefferson’s godmother brings him food while he is in his cell out of love because she sees it as

the only thing she can do. She gets upset with Jefferson for not eating it because in a way, he is

rejecting her love towards him. Jefferson thinks that love belongs to those who are ‘alive’ and
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considers himself apart from the living due to his upcoming execution. As Jefferson continuously

refuses to eat his godmother’s food, Grant begins to create a relationship with him. Through this

relationship of trust, which took weeks to form, Grant gets Jefferson to eat his godmothers

gumbo. Up until this point, Grant was getting exhausted trying to help Jefferson as he thought he

was getting nowhere and helping Jefferson had no benefit to him. Even though he wants to give

up on Jefferson, people like Miss Emma and Vivian keep Grant from stopping his visits. When

Jefferson finally shows progress Grant feels a release of tension and smiles. This goes to show

that through Grants endless effort Jefferson begins to exhibit growth. Jefferson views himself as

worthy of love due to Grants assistance and deems self pity as useless in the end when he finally

eats the gumbo. Approaching the end of the book, Gaines is seen using yet another

representation of symbolism through the butterfly embodying freedom and growth. At the time

of Jefferson’s execution Grant decides to stay behind at the school. He leaves the school to sit

outside where he wonders if the execution is over. Grant then shifts his focus on a butterfly he

sees nearby. “I probably would not have noticed..had a yellow butterfly...not lit there...why did it

light on a hill of bull grass that offered it nothing? I watched it closely... the way it opened its

wings again, fluttered, closed its wings for a second or two, then opened them again and flew

away..Yes, I told myself. It is finally over” (252). Gaines gives details about Grant analyzing the

butterfly and why it would be somewhere that gives it no benefit to connect to how Grant feels.

Due to Grant wondering about the butterfly staying on the bull grass that gives it no benefit, it

portrays the message that Grant feels the same about his situation with Jefferson. Since the

beginning of the book, Grant wanted no part in trying to 'save' Jefferson and deemed it useless.

When the butterfly opens and closes its wings Grant takes that as a goodbye wave and believes
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the execution is over, giving him a sign that his responsibility of advising Jefferson was over and

he was free. The butterfly symbolizes Jefferson’s freedom and his growth into finally becoming

a man. Jefferson’s viewpoint towards himself changed throughout the book due to Grant not

giving up on teaching him. Jefferson is seen to slowly progress as Grant advises and talks to him.

At the end of the book, Jefferson’s growth can be seen in full effect as he goes to his execution

walking like a man. Not only has Jefferson’s viewpoint changed but Grant’s viewpoint as well.

Due to Miss Emma and Vivian repeatedly telling Grant to continue his visits with Jefferson, even

though it looked like it was going nowhere, made Grant realize that this was something other

than the school that he thought of as important to him. Gaines uses these relationships to show

how uniting together can bring accomplishments and new self perceptions as seen with Grant.

Throughout the book Gaines utilizes symbolism to give readers a visual of the characters

relationship with one another. In the story Jefferson and Grants relationship plays a big part in

the future of Jefferson as he heads towards execution. Through their relationship, both Grant and

Jefferson are seen to reflect on themselves and gain new perspectives as well as break free from

society’s judgement towards people of color.

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Work Cited

Gaines, Ernest J. ​A Lesson Before Dying.​ , 1994. Print.