Today, we talked about Gaines' use of local color and Regionalism to create verisimilitude in A Lesson Before Dying.
Select a passage from this novel that you think most presents this
local color and helps to increase the novel's verisimilitude. Quote
that passage and tell us what in it you truly could hear or visualize. ( The deadline to post a response is midnight, Wednesday, August 20, 2014.)
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Gumbo, pecan trees, Stetson hats, the quarter, plantations, fried chicken....
Today, we talked about Gaines' use of local color and Regionalism to create verisimilitude in A Lesson Before Dying.
Select a passage from this novel that you think most presents this
local color and helps to increase the novel's verisimilitude. Quote
that passage and tell us what in it you truly could hear or visualize. ( The deadline to post a response is midnight, Wednesday, August 20, 2014.)
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"Jefferson had filled three quarters of the first page. The letters were large and awkward, the way someone would write who could barely see. He had written across the lives instead of above them. He had used the eraser so much that in some places the paper was worn through. Nothing was capitalized, and there were no punctuation marks. The letters were thin at the beginning, but became broader as the lead was worn down. As closely as I could figure, he had written: 'I dreampt it again last night. They was taking me somewhere. I wasn't crying. I wasn't begging. I was just going, going with them. Then I woke up. I couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't want go back to sleep. I didn't want dream no more.' There was a lot of erasing, then he wrote: 'If I ain't nothing but a hog, how come they just don't knock me in the head like a hog? Starb me like a hog?' More erasing, then: 'Man walk on two foots; hogs on four hoofs.' (220) In this passage he is showing literally how uneducated black people could be in the south during this time. He describes Jefferson's handwriting as if it were written by a young child just starting to grasp writing with all the erasing in the notebook , the awkwardness of the letters, writing through the lines, no capitalization, and no punctuation marks in the notebook. He also makes it more realistic by describing how the letters got larger, showing that the pencil was wearing down and that Jefferson had no way of sharpening it. By showing the erasing also in the notebook he also shows us someone that, like all people, Jefferson is not happy with what he has written and so decided to delete it from his notebook.
Travis Stennett
"This toilet was for colored people who came to the courthouse, and it was down in the basement."(69)
I believe this quote heightens the level of versimilitude in the novel for both the time period and the region. During that time, whites and blacks were segregated. They were not to use the same restroom, or any other facilities. He makes sure that we all understand the timing that he chose to place his novel in.
"After entering the town, which was marked by the movie theater for whites on the riverbank side of the road, I had to drive another two or three blocks before turning down an unlit road, which led back of town to the colored section."(25) This passage is a great example of Gains use of verisimilitude, because it shows segregation. Segregation was big in the south during the time in this novel. With this information it truly feels real, because I know this could have actually happened.
"I had come through that back door against my will, and it seemed that he and the sheriff were doing everything they could to humiliate me even more by making me wait on them." (37) In this passage Ernest Gaines uses verisimilitude in order to emphasize the power that the white man had over the African Americans. In this time, especially in the South, there was a terrible and unbelievable amount of racism and segregation going on. Gaines does a wonderful job in this passage of showing how the white men would lower the black man no matter what the did or, in grants position, how smart he is.
"Inez left the kitchen as soon as the white men came in. I tried to decide just how I should respond to them. Whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be. I decided to wait and see how the conversation went. To show too much intelligence would have been an insult to them. To show a lack of intelligence would have been a greater insult to me. I decided to wait and see how the conversation would go."(pg.47)This statement is definitely showing the racism between white men and black men in the South. White men during this time felt as if they were the top predators in the food chain. They felt they were superior to all, and that is why it would be insulting to the white men if Grant talked like he was educated. The authors use of verisimilitude in this paragraph shows an example of just how cruel and intimidating the white people were to the other race in the south during this time.
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