61 pages • 2 hours read
Ernest J. GainesA Lesson Before Dying
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 29-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
Jefferson writes to “Mr. Wiggins” anything that comes into his mind. He writes that he doesn’t know if he can do it because he has never written anything other than homework. He writes about when Reverend Ambrose came with his Nannan and told him he had to beg the lord’s forgiveness to be saved. He writes what he remembers about life, working in the fields, and accusing God of only caring about white people. He wants to tell Mr. Wiggins that he likes him, but he doesn’t know how. He is trying to think and probe the way Mr. Wiggins asked him too, but he has never done that before. He wonders if it is love he feels when he hopes to see his Nannan one more time.
He writes about the sheriff, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Pichot who come to see him, offer him a pocket-knife to sharpen his pencil, and openly discussing their wager. He is moved that all the people come to see him and most moved that Bok gives him a marble. This is when Jefferson cries. He writes that when he last saw his Nannan, he told her he was strong, and he let her hold him like Mr. Wiggins said. Jefferson apologizes to Mr. Wiggins for insulting his girlfriend. He says the sheriff came to see him for reassurances that he had treated Jefferson well. He writes about his last meal, which he asked his Nannan to cook. He writes about being responsible for going with Brother and Bear when he knew they were up to no good. His final words to Mr. Wiggins ask that he tell people he was a good man.
Chapter 30 Summary
Grant’s aunt stays all night at Miss Emma’s house where visitors arrive in shifts. Reverend Ambrose has to go home and sleep because he will witness the execution. Vivian and Grant are at the Rainbow Club. Reverend Ambrose can’t sleep because he is thinking about the other witness, Harry Williams, and about meeting the mortician, LaCox. The truck carrying the electric chair drives through town. The sheriff enjoys a breakfast prepared by his “colored” maid, Lillian. He is anxious to get to his office before the chair arrives. Fee Jinkins, a current inmate of the jail, witnesses the arrival of the chair and learns that it has the nickname, “Gruesome Gerty.” Clay Lemon, a Black man who runs errands for Felix Webber, hears the chair being tested and becomes disoriented in a store. The white couple in the store hear the noise as well, but the man dismisses it when his wife asks about it. The white store clerk tells how her young son asked about what was going to happen, and she told him the sheriff is just putting down an “old bad n——r” and the boy slept soundly. Henry Vincent, the executioner, arrives at the sheriff’s office and suggests they shave the prisoner. The sheriff sends Paul to get another prisoner to do the shaving. Paul asks if the sheriff can have someone else do this, but the sheriff said there is no one else. Jefferson asks Paul to give Grant the notebook, and he tries to give Paul the radio, but Paul won’t accept it, so he gives Paul the tiny marble instead. Jefferson says he wants Mr. Henri to get back the pocketknife he lent him. Jefferson asks Paul if he will be there for the execution, and Paul says he will.
Chapter 31 Summary
Grant instructs his students that they will be on their knees from twelve until he hears from the courthouse. Grant goes outside and can hear a tractor in the field. He knows that this is a white sharecropper because no Black person is working today. Grant reminisces about what has become of all the kids he once played with in the schoolyard and recalls another wasted life named Lily Green who was killed at 20 in a bar fight. Grant thinks that nothing will be the same after today. Grant wonders what a person does who has only one hour to live. He wonders who is with Jefferson in this final hour. He wonders if “He” is with Jefferson. Grant asks for Jefferson’s forgiveness if he ever did anything to make Jefferson not want to “believe” because in the final hour, “what else is there?” (199). Grant wonders why he isn’t with Jefferson.
Grant sits under a big shade tree alone. He sees a butterfly land on some grass in front of him and realizes the execution must be over. He starts walking back, and Paul drives by to give him the notebook. Paul has never been to the quarter before. Paul tries to tell Grant that he is an amazing teacher, but Grant denies this. He tells Grant that Jefferson was the strongest man in the room and that he walked straight to the chair. Paul wants Grant to tell that to the school children, and Grant says he should come back and tell them himself. Paul says it would be an honor and that he wants to be Grant’s friend, and he doesn’t ever want to forget Jefferson. When Grant returns to the school, he stands before his students and cries.
Chapters 29-31 Analysis
The shift in point of view from Grant to Jefferson in Chapter 29, and the shift in writing style to Jefferson’s dialect is significant. There is no longer distance for the reader. The reader must come to know this young man intimately, and through his own words. Jefferson tries his best to be a man, to be there for other people, to take responsibility, to say thank you, and to do it on his own terms and in his own voice. His honesty, clarity, simplicity, and strength surpass that of any other character in the book. It is no coincidence that he is able to do this through writing. In his final hours, Jefferson finds his voice.
Now it is the white deputies who won’t meet Jefferson’s eyes, and the free men who hesitate to respond to Jefferson’s inquiries. Everything Jefferson has to give away are things he received while incarcerated. He has no other earthly possessions. In the end, what he truly owns is an authentic sense of himself and his humanity. The white community responds to the impending execution with racist disregard and dismissal. Meanwhile, the black community feels terrorized. The examples of responses by various townspeople help to illustrate the impact of racism on both Black and white people. As the town is about to make its first execution, it is clear that the Black community is full of humanity, while the white community, with the exception of Paul, seems to have none.
Grant thinks that Reverend Ambrose is a stronger man than he is because he will be with Jefferson and walk beside him when Grant knows he himself would not be able to stand. Grant says Reverend Ambrose will use “their” God to make him strong. Grant says to himself that he has faith in Jefferson. When noon arrives, Grant leaves the school children on their knees and starts walking up the quarter and wondering why he wasn’t there with Jefferson during this time. He thinks about why his people must believe the way they do and why he cannot. He says they must believe to free their minds and the body will follow and he says he is a slave. That Grant has the children get on their knees is significant: While he refused to make Jefferson get on his knees for Reverend Ambrose and his God, Grant has the children do so out of respect for Jefferson. Here, the author again parallels Jefferson and Jesus, implying that Jefferson is sacrificing for the children (and the Black community), and they must humble themselves for him.
Grant says plainly that Reverend Ambrose’s God is the white man’s God, and this explains why Grant can’t embrace religion. He sees it as another form of oppression. He does, however, profess his faith in Jefferson. Such a juxtaposition could indicate an irreconcilable difference in philosophy, or the possibility of co-existence. Grant acknowledges, with regret, that Reverend Ambrose is able to be present for Jefferson in his final hour when he, himself, cannot. This moment suggests that Grant’s transformation is incomplete, despite his growth. Grant validates this likelihood when he declares that he is a “slave” after acknowledging that religion “frees the mind.” Paul’s transformation, however, is clear. He seeks Grant’s friendship after the execution and tells Grant he is an amazing teacher. Unfortunately, Grant cannot accept his own agency and instead says it must have been God who did it. This poses an interesting paradox. Grant, who does not believe, says that God was working through him and that is why he was able to transform Jefferson before the execution. Again, this indicates an ambiguity in Grant’s character where this could be sarcasm, or it could be sincere. In either case, Grant’s inability to recognize his own agency speaks to the extent of racism’s damage.
In a testament to hope, the story offers up the redemption of white Paul Bonin, who even though he was powerless to stop the execution, is unapologetically transformed as a result of having witnessed it. Jefferson died so that Paul could finally see, Grant could potentially believe, and Miss Emma could let go. Like Paul from the Bible, who is the loyal apostle to Jesus, Paul the deputy is loyal to Grant and to Jefferson, including being there for Jefferson’s death just as the apostle Paul was witness to the crucifixion of Christ. Like the biblical Paul, deputy Paul has a conversion at the end of the book and realizes he must preach the message of racial harmony and integration after witnessing Jefferson’s death.
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By Ernest J. Gaines
