61 pages • 2 hours read
Ernest J. GainesA Lesson Before Dying
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Grant drives Miss Emma to Bayonne to visit Jefferson in the jail at the courthouse. Grant describes the courthouse with confederate flags flying out front and bathrooms for “Whites only” inside. The white deputies search Grant and Miss Emma before they can go inside. Miss Emma brings food and clothing for Jefferson. The prisoners are segregated by race and most are teenagers that Miss Emma refers to as “children.” The deputy locks Grant and Miss Emma in the cell with Jefferson for the hour. At first, Jefferson ignores them and lays on his bunk. There is no place for the visitors to sit, so Miss Emma sits on his bunk, too. Grant notes Jefferson’s unkempt appearance and vows to bring him a comb next time. Despite her efforts, Miss Emma cannot get Jefferson to look at her, talk to her, or eat the food she brought. Jefferson looks at Grant and asks him if he is the one who will be “throwing the switch” to the electric chair. He does not seem to recognize his teacher. Jefferson asks if they will kill him tomorrow. Then he turns away from them and faces the wall. Miss Emma is distraught at Jefferson’s demeanor, and Grant puts his arms around her as they walk out.
Chapter 10 Summary
The second and third visits to the jail go much the same way as the first. Jefferson does not have anything to say, and Miss Emma cries when she leaves and tells the guards to give the food to the other “children” (prisoners) in the jail. On the fourth visit, Grant goes to pick up Miss Emma, but she does not appear. Instead, he honks the horn outside her house until his aunt comes out and chastises him. The aunt has Grant come into the house to get the food basket Miss Emma prepared, but Miss Emma is too sick to go. Grant expects he will not have to go then, but his aunt clearly expects him to go on his own. Miss Emma continues to say Grant doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do, but Grant’s aunt expects him to politely and respectfully continue visiting Jefferson. Grant accuses her of assisting the white men in humiliating him by making him have to continuously cow-tow to their racism in this town. He says she is forcing him into exactly the situation she wanted him to escape by going to college.
Chapter 11 Summary
Grant eventually leaves Miss Emma’s and heads off to make his first solo visit with Jefferson. The sheriff is at the desk this time, but he acts as though he does not recognize Grant at first. They go through the usual routine of searches, and then the sheriff reminds him that if there is any trouble, he will cancel these visits. The deputy walks Grant back to the cell block, only this time, Grant walks beside him instead of behind him because Miss Emma is not with them. Grant brings enough food to feed the entire jail, and, as per usual, he hands out pocket change to the other prisoners as he walks past their cells. Jefferson asks Grant if he brought him some corn, because “that’s what hogs eat.” Jefferson continues to refer to himself as a hog, and Grant repeatedly reminds him he is a man. Jefferson put his head into the food basket and makes snorting sounds while eating like an animal. Grant asks Jefferson if he wants him to stop visiting. Grant tells him that the sheriff doesn’t want him to visit either: “You want me to stay away and let him win? The White man?” (68). Despite that Jefferson lays down on his bunk, faces the wall, and refuses to speak to Grant, Grant stays for the remainder of the hour and keeps up appearances for the deputies that all is fine. Before leaving, Grant asks Jefferson if he has any message for his “nannan,” and when he doesn’t answer, Grant says he will tell her how much he enjoyed the food because that will make her happy.
Chapters 9-11 Analysis
While Chapters 1-8 serve as the novel’s exposition, Chapters 9-28 detail what happens in the months between October 1947 and April 1948 as Grant, Miss Emma, Tante Lou, and later, Reverend Ambrose, work to support Jefferson on death row. Chapter 9 demonstrates the small cultural behaviors that indicate the impact of racism, the respect people have for elders, and the way people use food to express love. There is also a motif of looking versus seeing; the white sheriff looks at Grant without recognizing him, Jefferson looks at Grant without seeing him, and Jefferson turns away from his visitors and refuses to look at them. This becomes especially meaningful later in the novel when it is Grant who can no longer look at Jefferson.
After three disappointing visits to the jail, Grant accuses his aunt of being complicit in the humiliation he endures. With nowhere to turn with his anger, Grant blames the one woman who raised him. Grant does not want to keep being thoroughly searched, escorted, and monitored by the white deputies; Grant subjects himself to disrespect each time he has to cross under the confederate flags and enter the courthouse. He resents feeling guilty over Jefferson’s condition and thinks he should not have to visit him on his own. Grant’s reluctance to seize an opportunity where he could really make a difference is telling. He gets angry with his aunt for making him confront the racism he so tries to avoid, and he must also confront his feelings of powerlessness and failure to be the kind of teacher Jefferson needs.
In these three chapters, there are four visits to the jail. The first three visitations include Grant, Tante Lou, and Miss Emma. The fourth visit is the first time Grant visits Jefferson by himself. At this visit, Jefferson intentionally acts like a “hog” by snorting his food and refusing to eat with utensils. Jefferson refers to himself as a hog and has embraced the expectations laid out in the courtroom. In addressing this behavior, Grant asks Jefferson if he wants him to stop visiting. He says that the sheriff would like him to stop visiting, too. Grant raises the stakes when he says that canceling the visits would be letting the white man win. Grant then stays the remainder of the hour to “keep up appearances,” even though Jefferson is through with the visit. In this scene, Grant aligns himself with Jefferson and depicts their visits as an act of resistance against racism and oppression. Rather than ignoring the racist society he lives in, as he was trying to do before his aunt “forced” him to face the racism at the jail, Grant is acknowledging it and trying to defy it for Jefferson’s sake. This moment reveals changes in Grant’s character.
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By Ernest J. Gaines
