New Student Orientation Program
Summer Reading Assignment
Instructions: The Benedict College New Student Orientation in conjunction with the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences' Department of English has assigned the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines as your first required reading as a new Benedict College student.
Your assignment is to purchase the novel and get a jumpstart to your pursuit of academic excellence by reading the novel before you arrive at New Student Orientation. Not only is this a part of your Orientation experience, but it will also be linked to assignments in your Freshman Composition and Freshman Seminar courses. You may purchase the novel from a local bookstore, download or purchase it from an internet bookstore (i.e. Amazon. com). The cost of the novel ranges from $2.00 - $12.00.
A Lesson Before Dying
by Ernest J. Gaines
 Set in the fictional community of Bayonne, Louisiana, in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of Jefferson, a twenty-one-year-old uneducated black field worker wrongfully accused and convicted of the robbery and murder of a white man, and sentenced to death by electrocution. At his trial, Jefferson's court-appointed defense attorney argues that Jefferson lacks the intelligence to plan a robbery, and that, even if he had been involved in the killing, sentencing him to death would be like putting a hog in the electric chair. In spite of this so-called defense, the all-white jury finds Jefferson guilty. To compound the horror of his situation, Jefferson internalizes the attorney's racist depiction of him as a dumb animal.
Determined that Jefferson will die with dignity, his godmother ("nannan"), Miss Emma, turns to Grant Wiggins, a black teacher at the local plantation school, and asks him to teach Jefferson to be a man. Although convinced that there is nothing he can do, Grant reluctantly agrees to visit Jefferson in jail. Over the next several months, while Jefferson awaits execution, he and Grant forge a bond that enables both men to regain their dignity, reconnect with their community, and learn "the importance of standing."
Source: http://education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliffsnotes/a_lesson_before_dying/3.html
Quotes on Reading |
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"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."
- Frederick Douglass |
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"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."
- Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! |
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"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."
- Mark Twain |
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