Topic > A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gains: The Impact of Injustice on Your View of Yourself

Injustice is something that many people experience in today's society. It usually happens to people of color in today's society when someone is accused of something they didn't do. This is similarly the case with the book “Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gains, which is about a young boy named Jefferson who is accused of murder in Lauisanna in the late 1940s and sentenced to the death penalty, without his a real answer is given. possibility of a fair trial. He simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a society full of racial injustice. There is a recurring theme in this novel that racial injustice causes people to change their view of themselves, simply because of the way society treats them. We see this through the use of diction in the novel which is mostly shown when Jefferson is in court. He expresses the fact that he is not given a fair chance to have a proper trial with valid evidence. We also see that this threw Jefferson's characterization into the novel once he was accused of the murder. At the beginning of the book, Jefferson was a person who thought of himself as innocent, but after spending more time in prison he began to think of himself as a "pig" even though he is innocent. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, injustice is shown in Gains' novel, "A Lesson Before Dying," when the main character, Jefferson, is on trial and it is clear to the reader that he was not given a fair trial. For example, when he is in court it is stated that "the defense argued that Jefferson was innocent of all charges except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time" he conveys that he actually did nothing but the court never told him given the chance to prove he was innocent, they just saw him and because he was black they automatically assumed he was guilty. This brings us back to my theme of injustice within the novel because if they had been honest with him, they would have given him a chance at a fair trial and found out that he was innocent. Also, throughout the story we see that Jefferson starts to believe what everyone says about him and what people think about him. This includes them saying he is a pig and he soon starts acting like one because he starts to believe he is the horrible person people say he is. For example, when he begins to believe that he is a pig, he begins to behave rudely towards people who try to help him understand that he is not a pig, he is a man. He tells his teacher Grant: 'I'll show you how an old pig eats' and then “knelt on the floor, stuck his head in the bag and began to eat, without using his hands. He even looked like a pig." This explains to my team that injustice can lead people to change their view of themselves because Jefferson knows he is innocent but because people believed he was guilty he started to believe it himself. Keep in mind : This is just one example. Get a Habit Article Now from Our Expert Writers Get a Custom Essay In conclusion, the theme that injustice can change one's view of oneself in a Lesson Before Dying is demonstrated using the proves that Jefferson changed his view of himself from thinking he was a good person to thinking he was a pig However, it is also important to consider the time period this book is based in because during the 1940s racism was a huge problem and the people of.