From Accusation to Prison and Death: A Study of Ernest James Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying

NZAMBI MIKOULOU Donald

doi:10.70454/IJMRE.2024.40102

Authors

NZAMBI MIKOULOU Donald Université Marien Ngouabi, Congo. Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70454/IJMRE.2024.40102

Keywords:

Blacks, Accusation, Jailing, Killing

Abstract

Through this exploration, one discovers that the issue of racial conflicts between Blacks and Whites in the United States is still evident in Ernest James Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying. For, the author’s portrayal of black characters in general as victims of rejection and of Jefferson in particular as victim of accusationbecause of his blackness in this great nation, recalls the racist atmosphere that prevailed in American society during the colonial era. His account for this black male character who is killed mercilessly by his white peers for an uncommitted crime,appears as a way for him to inform the reader about the plight of all black Americans in this “so-called democratic nation” which rejects its own citizens on behalf of racial belonging. This act of murder endured by this black character attests of the white man’s eagerness to create an America deprived of black citizens.

References

[1] Douglass, Frederick. 1845. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. An American Slave. Boston: Antislavery Office.

[2] Ernest, J. Gaines. 1993. A Lesson Before Dying. New York: Knopf.

[3] Greenblatt & Gallagher. 2015. “The New Historical Parameters: Genesis, Theory; and Practice”. International Journal of English Language, Literature, and Humanities, Vol. III, Issue V, ISSN 7065, pp. 111-127.

[4] Hodges, W. E. Norman. 1974. Black History. New York: Monarch Press.

[5] Killens, J. Oliver. 1993. And Then We Heard the Thunder. New- York: Howard University Press.

[6] King, Martin Luther. 1967. The Trumpet of Conscience. New-York: Harper.

[7] Lester, Julius. 1994. And All Our Wounds Forgiven. New-York: Harvest Book.

[8] Moore, E. Sharon et al. 2018. “A Critical Race Perspective of Police Shooting of Unharmed Black Males in the United States: Implications for Social Work”. Urban Social Work, Vol. 2, N° 1, pp. 11- 37.

[9] Morrison, Toni. 1984. “Black Woman Writers. A Critical Evaluation”, New York: Doubleday, pp. 1950-1980.

[10] N’zambi-Mikoulou, Donald. 2021. “Eric Garner’s Sequences of Life Reconstructed: A Study of Matt Taibbi’s I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street”. Universe International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (UIJIR), ISSN (0) – 2582-6417, Vol. 1, Issue 10, pp. 65-75.

[11] Ture, Kwame & Hamilton, Charles. 1967. Black Power: Politics of Liberation in America. New-York: A Division of Random House, Inc.

[12] Wilbur, Scott. 1962. Five Approaches of Literary Criticism. New-York: The Macmillan Company.

[13] http://www.en.Wikipedia.org./wiki/file/Harper Lee/ “Blacks and the American courts”, consulted on January 14th 2024, 5 p.m.

[14] http://www.en.Wikipedia.org./Romulus Linney/ “Racial segregation and racism in the United States”, consulted on January 16th 2024, 3 p.m.

[15] http://www.hindustantimes.com/Matt Taibbi/ “Eric Garner’s arrest by white American police officers in the United States”, consulted on January 19th 2024, 2 p.m.

[16] http://www.en.Wikipedia.org./wiki/Tushar Kansa/ “The contrast between killers of white victims and those of non-white victims in the United States”, consulted on January 24th 2024, 9 a.m.

[17] http://www.en.Wikipedia.org./wiki/file/Matt Taibbi/ Eric Garner’s arrest by Heberton in the United States, consulted on February 10th 2024, 8 a.m.

[18] http://www.ebay.com/ Matt Taibbi / “Whites’ injustice against Eric Garner”, consulted on February11th 2024, 5 p.m.

[19] http://www.en.Wikipedia.org./wiki/Tushar Kansa/George Stinney, a fourteen-year-old African American young boy judged, sentenced to death, and killed through the use of an electric chair by white Americans after being accused of killing two white American girls, Betty and Mary, in the United States, consulted on February 13th 2024, 6 p.m.