Thoughts to "A Lesson Before Dying"

So far, I have read seventeen chapters in A Lesson Before Dying. When I started reading I did not enjoy the book, but it has progressively gotten better. The largest roadblock I have had while reading this book was understanding what the old fashioned words such as the “quarter”(definition 21) mean. The story begins with a young black man named Jefferson being sentenced to death for killing a white man. Jefferson feels like he is just an animal waiting to be slaughtered. Because Jefferson’s godmother cannot bear to see him die like an animal, she asks the main character, Grant Wiggins, to make Jefferson a man before he dies. She says, “I want the teacher to make him know he’s not a hog, he’s a man.” (20-21) Grant reluctantly agrees and, meanwhile, struggles with the decision of how he should live the rest of his life. Grant is a grade school teacher, but he isn’t satisfied with his job and the community he lives in. He says, “I need to go somewhere where I can feel I’m living.” (29) Always live the life you have is a main theme throughout the book. Jefferson is stuck in jail and condemned to die, but his godmother wants him to die like a man. I predict that Wiggins will help Jefferson become a man before he dies, and Jefferson will help Wiggins understand how to live his life.