Question

Can anyone make a rough draft out of my A lesson before dying outline plz do it if you have the book. the info is below and I need it by today at 4:00:

ALBD Essay Outline

1. Intro
a. ALBD by Ernest Gaines is about a boy named Jefferson….....
b. Background Information about Jim crow and segregation,( Dates, facts, what it was)DEFINE ANY UNFAMILIAR TERMS
c. THESIS: The author represents this time period in history very accurately.....
d. Transition sentence: Gaines does this by showing how social norms, education, and justice system were like under the jim crow laws.
Evidence from the book(CHART)
Historical facts: “laws that made the whites occupy a higher social rung than blacks.”(from Niki browns article)


2. Body Paragraph 1: Social norms
A. Evidence from the book: In chapter 7 or 8(too hard to find)
B. Historical facts: “The justices argued that states could establish “separate but equal” facilities; if blacks and whites were treated equally, segregation would be allowed to stand. Yet, in almost all public facilities—schools, hospitals, trains, restaurants, hotels, parks, cemeteries, the armed forces, and jury duty—whites received priority over African Americans. Following the decision, some institutions excluded African Americans altogether.” This was normal back then.

3. Body Paragraph 2: Education
A.Evidence from the book: On page 13 chapter 2: “ Yes I’m the teacher, I said. And I teach what the white folks around here tell me to teach-reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
B.Historical facts: “Thurgood Marshall, sought to dismantle segregation in Louisiana’s public schools. Tureaud believed that segregated education, and the meager resources allotted for African American children, perpetuated poverty and inequality across generations. With the assistance of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Tureaud sued the state of Louisiana for paying African American teachers lower salaries than their white counterparts.”
4. Body Paragraph 3: Justice System
A.Evidence from the book: On pages 8 and 9 in Chapter One
B.Historical facts: “Homer Plessy, an active member of a New Orleans civil rights organization, the Comité de Citoyens, bought a first-class ticket on a train and attempted to sit among whites. After he was arrested for breaking the law, Plessy sued the railroad company, his lawyers arguing that segregation denied him equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1896, however, the US Supreme Court upheld Louisiana law in its decision on Plessy vs. Ferguson.” The reason they arrested Homer Plessy is because of the Jim Crow Laws applied to African Americans.

5. Conclusion : In the book, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
, it explains the everyday life and struggles in the 50s and 60s. Those years represent the Civil Rights movement. The book takes place in Louisiana, which was a state where African Americans were slaves and had little to no rights. The Civil Rights movement needed real heroes who could stand up for not only themselves but for others also. Jefferson, an African American boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessed a murder but got blamed for it because he was black. In order to convince the jury that he is innocent, his lawyer called him a hog in from of the judge in the court, claiming that killing him on the electrical chair does nothing, just like if there was a hog in that chair. Jefferson died like a man, but those like Grant, who was a school teacher,
are the real heroes, not only he stood up for Jefferson but also he represented the whole African-American community

Answer 1

Though Ernest J. Gaines’s powerful novel A Lesson Before Dying is considered a fictional work, it is rooted in truth in two ways. For one thing, it is loosely based on a true story: In 1945, a black teenager named Willie Francis was detained and sentenced to death by electrocution for the murder of a pharmacist. In complete contrast to A Lesson Before Dying’s Jefferson, Francis eventually did confess to the crime (though allegedly, under duress) and managed to survive not one, but two attempted executions. Some other hard-to-ignore facts: The jury was all white. There was never really any evidence to detain Francis in the first place. Be sure to introduce students to Francis’s story, as it mirrors and contrasts that of Jefferson’s in quite interesting ways.

Most importantly, though, A Lesson Before Dying is true, and brutally so, because of the very-real themes it presents, particularly about race, prejudice, and death. Slavery had been abolished by the 1940s, but its effects still lingered through segregation and the unjust Jim Crow laws. And just like with “real” history, these themes resonate today, as racism and inequality are still prevalent. For example, the novel demonstrates the negative correlation between under-funded education and the success rate of students of color, through the fates of Grant Wiggins’s students. These students who do not succeed are more likely to work in the fields or even end up in jail. Gaines’s novel will surely educate students about the horrible treatment African Americans endured during this period of inequality and hate. Encourage open and meaningful discussion; allow students to express outrage, confusion, sadness, or all of the above. Consider reflecting on how readers might (or might not) have felt differently about Jefferson’s situation had he not been sentenced to death and only imprisoned, or had he committed the crime after all (like Willie Francis). These nuanced conversations will likely lead to greater questions: Where is the line between justice and injustice? How might we correct the flaws in our court system today?

These themes alone are enough to make A Lesson Before Dying a valuable, necessary part of your syllabus, but in case you aren’t convinced, there is plenty more to learn from the novel. You can facilitate students’ analysis of Grant’s pessimistic tone, several instances of symbolism (the butterfly, the flags), and the various philosophical allusions that crop up. We hope these highlights below will convince you to give this heartbreaking, historically significant work a try.