A Lesson Before Dying Journal #5

Rachel Simmons

Mrs. Myers

AP E Period 4

10/31/14

Chapters 30-End

      I think one theme that I recognized is that justice is not always guaranteed. We can try to enforce it to the best of our abilities, but there will always be injustice in the world. Try as we might, we cannot fix everything and it is horrible and sad that we do not have the power to do so. Another theme that I took away was to be human is a choice and a process. For Jefferson he had to be taught what it was to be a man. In the end it was his choice to declare that he was indeed an important human rather than what society told him he was. Society tries to shape our identity, but ultimately it is our choice to accept it or not.

     As the book has gone on I never felt a lot of emotion toward Jefferson. However, in chapters 29 and 30 I had a lot of compassion for Jefferson. He has his breakthrough. Jefferson experiences what it is like to see yourself as a human being and a man. In the journal Jefferson asks Grant to “tell them that [he is] strong and [he is] a man” (234). The quote really got to me because it proved that all of Grant’s work and love had paid off. Jefferson saw that he had potential and that someone cared about him despite what he originally was told. It was sorrowful and uplifting at the same time.

      Later, I was grieved again with the account of the ladies watching the electric chair be unloaded. It made the event to come more tangible and real. Ernest J. Gaines puts so much detail into describing the leather straps and the grain of the wood. He brings the horror of the chair’s purpose to life. And the observers described the scene as “gruesome” (241).

      The ending was a real tear jerker. As Grant is heading to Miss Emma’s house he keeps seeing the beauty in everything. The contrast between the beauty of life and the grief of death makes for a sad image. When Paul told Grant that Jefferson “was the strongest man in that crowded room” (253) I almost lost it. I was angry that they wrongly killed him, sad that he died, but still glad that through all of the horror in the story Jefferson and everyone else saw a man. Jefferson had proven to everyone that he was human.