The Power of Love Incites a Revolution in Ernest J. Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying | ||
| CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education | ||
| Article 21, Volume 66, Issue 2, April 2019, Pages 676-696 PDF (373.2 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/opde.2019.261092 | ||
| Author | ||
| Mahmoud Serwa Abd El- Hamid Mahmoud | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Ernest J. Gaines is a famous black American novelist who dedicated himself to reflecting the suffering of the blacks in the 1940s. His novel A lesson Before Dying is about racism in South America in Louisiana after the Civil War and before the Civil Rights. Occasionally, black revolutionists tried to shake the white patriarchy. Gaines depicts the struggle of a black male, Jefferson, and his adoption of a revolutionary attempt. He is unjustly accused of murder and is sentenced to death. In the trial, the white attorney calls him a hog and this hurts his aunt Miss Emma. The power of her love moves, nearly, all the characters through manipulation. She wants Jefferson to believe that he is a man: she persuades Grant Wiggins, an educated teacher, to visit Jefferson in jail and convince him that he is a man. The lesson that is taught to Jefferson before he dies frees his mind and enables him to walk straight to death like a man. This study applies three theories to the novel. According to Terry Eagleton, Gaines is a true socialist worker who uses his novel to remove the society's suffering through inciting the blacks to revolt against the whites' patriarchy. According to Henry Louis Gate, Jefferson uses writing as a means of sharing in community. Before he dies, the development that occurred in his character was greatly fulfilled with the help of writing. According to Jacque Lacan, all Grant, Jefferson and Gaines are Oedipus complex patients who reject the whites' oppression that represents the symbolic father. The power of Emma's love enables Jefferson to walk straight to death. This action gives the blacks the psychological inspiration to ignite the sparks of revolution through freeing their minds. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| patriarchy; Social worker; Oedipus Complex; Civil Rights | ||
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