A Lesson Before Dying

 "A Lesson Before Dying"  By:Ernest J Gaines, Realistic fiction

   
It's the late 40's, your an uneducated black man living in a small, predominately white, Cajun community in the deep south this is reality for Jefferson; (the character the book is based around)    

     The story starts in a grocery store Jefferson was forced to go in with his older brother and his cousin; (Bear), they got every thing they wanted, then went to the register to check out their groceries, They then found out they didn't they didn't have money to pay for the liquor they wanted to purchase. They tried to get the clerk (Mr. Grope) to give it to them and they would have the rest of the money later but he wouldn't, he said that lost of people don't pay him back. that was when Bear sent behind the counter and started towards the cash register; (keep in mind he had been drinking) Grope told him to "go back" but bear kept going when bear was still nearing closer after two more warnings from grope ran to the register and pulled a 38 special he started shooting, a few seconds later their were gunshots from another direction. When it was quiet again three bodies lay on the floor Bear, brother And grope who was still able to talk. Jefferson was trying to make sure that Grope knew he had no part in the shooting but, it was of no use; Jefferson  was talking to a dead man. Still he didn't run his head was spinning, he didn't know how he got there, what to do, or even recall what had happened.
   
      In court Jefferson's defense attorney didn't help his case much he tried, but failed. Even through the prejudice statements he made about his client "this isn't something that's smart enough to plan a robbery or a murder this is just something to pick your corn or bail your cotton" (Jefferson is a black man of low intelligence). Even after lots of this type of arrangement from his layer Jefferson was still found guilty of robbery, and murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death by electrocution.

Questions

 Question #1.

 -Jefferson does what he knows to do, he never received a proper education he doesn't have much common sense if any, he knows how to work in the field because that was the trade he learned on the plantation farm he was born on and lives on.

-his actions are absolutely justified; as I said above he's a black man of low intelligence in a predominately white town and he just does what he knows.    

-the past is everything in the terms of Jefferson's life, especially seeing he was sentenced to the death penalty, (in the forties this would give him (at the most) a couple months to live). his past determined the path of his life which is the death penalty.

-While I don't necessarily admire him, I believe that Jefferson is simply a victim of circumstance, I also believe that he is  very negatively effected by something that is beyond his control, I almost sympathize with him

-Jefferson dos not remind me of any one I know; I feel that this is mainly because of the difference in setting of the story and modern day their just is enough similarities between the two worlds. 

Question #8

The story takes place in a small Cajun town, in the deep south, in the late forties, and the character the story is based around is black, . so yes the setting is most certainly imperative of the story. I believe that if this story was written about modern day America than their wouldn't even be a story. Their are numerous reasons for this; today everyone is educated regardless of race, or any other quality in which prejudices are based upon, racism is still a problem today, but much less prevalent today than in the forties, and just as a closer; today the store would have had security cameras in it which could have proved Jefferson innocence in the whole case.