"The Common Humanity That is in Us All": Earnest Gaines's (A Lesson before Dying)
Humanity
Afro-Americans
struggle
Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying (1993) is about more than the challenges associated with being blacking an Eurocentric society. Though Gaines positions the story within the context of the African American experience, its central theme investigates what it means to be human. The Afro-American writer Ernest Gaines consistently writes about people who face the problems of being denied humanity, dignity, and self-worth. The article illustrates one man's struggle to gain recognition of his humanity in the court (as his attorney insists on calling him a hog for a crime he did not commit) and how this recognition will initiate a change in the community.