User:Abbymach/A Lesson Before Dying/Bibliography
You will be compiling your bibliography and creating an outline of the changes you will make in this sandbox.
 | Bibliography
As you gather the sources for your Wikipedia contribution, think about the following:
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Bibliography
editAnnotated Bibliography
Auger, Philip. “A Lesson about Manhood: Appropriating ‘The Word’ in Ernest Gaines’s ‘A Lesson before Dying.’” The Southern Literary Journal, vol. 27, no. 2, 1995, pp. 74–85. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078123. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.
Philip Auger’s “A Lesson about Manhood: Appropriating ‘The Word’ in Ernest Gaines’s ‘A Lesson before Dying’” looks into Ernest Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying. Auger’s article discusses how manhood is presented in the novel. Auger looks at how Gaines presents the relationship between Grant and Jefferson as they both travel down a path of becoming a man. The only difference is Grant is learning to live as a man and Jefferson is learning to die as one. Auger describes how race is a big part of this novel. Each of the characters in the novel is affected by race and treated a different way because of their race. Race also is a big part of identity. Identity, a major theme in the book, is something Grant as well as Jefferson must develop to reach manhood and become “a man.”
This source is going to be extremely helpful to me as I complete my wikipedia project. This will be helpful as it includes information for almost every aspect I want to add onto my wikipedia page. First of all, this source discusses Gaines and some background on him that I believe will be important to add to my wikipedia page. It includes a plot summary in the source, which I will add as the current plot summary of the wikipedia page I am adding to is quite bare. I will also be using this source in my themes section. This source discusses a theme of “manhood” as well as “identity.” I believe these two themes will be a great addition to the section of themes I will be adding. This source also mentions “education” as well as “religion”, these are other themes I will be adding as well. Lastly, this source has a lot of background as well as history. This will be perfect information for my background as well as the setting section.
Folks, Jeffrey J. “Communal Responsibility in Ernest J. Gaines’s ‘A Lesson Before Dying.’” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 2, 1999, pp. 259–71. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26476861. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.
Jeffrey Folks’ “Communal Responsibility in Ernest J. Gaines’s ‘A Lesson Before Dying” discusses Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. This source firstly considers Gaines’ personal upbringing and what it brings to the novel. Folks then discusses the novel and notes some of the plot summary. Mainly, this source looks into communal responsibility. This means especially Grant’s responsibility to his community and his family and how it was presented in the novel, A Lesson Before Dying. Folks even look into Gaines' own responsibility to the community and his story. Folks also discusses the reception and reactions to the novel from different media outlets and newspapers. Folks discusses how the background of the novel and history of setting made this book so special and significant. Folks also notes Gaines writing style as well as controversial topics in the novel stating Gaines began the novel with a “conventional narrative of victimization (Jeffrey 262).” Lastly, this article looks into the characters and their development throughout the story when being affected by themes such as religion as well as education.
This source has so much information for the wikipedia page. I will be able to add onto the themes section, especially on “religion” as a theme, which the article spent a few pages discussing. I will as well be able to add the theme of “education” to the wikipedia page. I also can add a lot on setting and background from this source as Folks added so much information on the history and background the novel was set in. The biggest part from this source that will help my page will be on the theme of “community” or “communal responsibility.” I will be discussing Grant’s responsibility to his community in regards to Jefferson, his family, Vivian, and his students. Additionally, Jefferson had communal responsibility when Grant said he had to try for Miss Emma.
Gaines, Ernest J.. A Lesson Before Dying. Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines tells a story of an African American man, named Jefferson, on death row for a crime he did not commit. In Jefferson’s trail he was displayed as someone who lives a meaningless life and described as a “hog.” This made Jefferson’s family very upset, especially Miss Emma, Jefferson’s godmother. Miss Emma and Tante Lou (Miss Emma’s best friend) knew Jefferson deserved to die, not as an animal, but as a man. Therefore, Tante Lou asked Grant, her nephew, to visit Jefferson in prison and teach him how to die as a man and with pride. Grant was reluctant at first because he thought he would not be of any help as he can not reverse the jury’s decision so it wouldn’t be worth the trouble. Yet, Grant realized it was more about helping his family so he visited Jefferson. Throughout the novel, the readers see Grant and Jefferson’s progression and character development. Grant went from being an angry teacher who just wanted to leave his small town with his girlfriend Vivian to learning how to be a man himself. Grant became a kinder teacher, one who truly cared for his students, and more intune with his community. Jefferson learned how to die as a man, with his head up high.
I decided to use this source as it is the book I am doing the wikipedia project on. Therefore, this source will help me in many ways. I will use this source to add on the plot summary as the current plot summary is very concise. I will also be using this source to add a themes section onto my wikipedia page. Lastly I am using this source to expand on the setting as well as background on the book sections. I believe this source will be a great starting point for an abundance of information.
Vancil, David E. “Redemption According to Ernest Gaines.” African American Review, vol. 28, no. 3, 1994, pp. 489–91. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3041985. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.
Redemption According to Ernest Gaines by David Vancil discusses Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. Vancil looks at the novel in a broad way explaining in short, what happened to the characters, their development, and the plot summary. Additionally, Vancil explains what happened to Gaines when writing this novel, and how it was a difficult book to write. A book that took ten years of hard work to complete. Vancil explained some different themes he thought were very important in the novel. These themes are “the dilemma of community and self and the nature of race and freedom (Vancil 1).” Vancil also looks at Gaines’ writing style. He discusses Gaines' writing point of view. Most of this source Vancil looked into Gaines’ use of irony. He compares irony from A Lesson Before Dying to Gaines' other works, noting he has never used irony like this. The irony was used in multiple ways throughout the novel. Irony was used in humorous as well as tragic ways throughout this story of morality.
I decided to use this source as it has a lot of information despite its short three page structure. This source will be used to add information on the background section as Vancil explains what was happening to Gaines while writing the novel. Additionally this source explains some themes in ways I did not originally grasp from reading the novel. I will be adding these to the theme section I will be creating. This will be the section I will be working on the most therefore this source will definitely help add the information I need. I am also thinking of adding a section on Gaines’ writing style. This article would be a great asset as Vancil discusses his writing style most of the source. Vancil looks into the novel’s point of view and use of irony. I think this addition to the wikipedia page would be useful as this source has bountiful amounts of information.
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References
editOutline of proposed changes
editClick on the edit button to draft your outline.
| | Now that you have compiled a bibliography, it's time to plan out how you'll improve your assigned article.
In this section, write up a concise outline of how the sources you've identified will add relevant information to your chosen article. Be sure to discuss what content gap your additions tackle and how these additions will improve the article's quality. Consider other changes you'll make to the article, including possible deletions of irrelevant, outdated, or incorrect information, restructuring of the article to improve its readability or any other change you plan on making. This is your chance to really think about how your proposed additions will improve your chosen article and to vet your sources even further. Note: This is not a draft. This is an outline/plan where you can think about how the sources you've identified will fill in a content gap. |