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 25-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary
Grant and the visitors leave the courthouse and go their separate ways. Grant heads to the Rainbow Club to wait for Vivian so he can tell her the good news about his successful visit with Jefferson. He is in a good mood and thinks that he is relaxed enough for things to go well in bed with Vivian for a change. He also thinks about how the Reverend looked at him with envy because it was Grant who has influence with Jefferson and not the Reverend himself. As Grant waits for Vivian, two biracial or “mulatto” bricklayers are at a nearby table bad-mouthing Jefferson. Grant has two drinks before he realizes what they are talking about. He tells himself to cool off and not fight, but he ends up approaching the table anyway and tells the men to shut up. He knows they are trying to pick a fight because the biracial men hate the Black men and think the Black man is the lowest of all, so they bring their prejudice to the only place in town that lets them drink indoors. As the tallest bricklayer begins to stand, Grant punches him and knocks him backward over the chair. Grant and the bricklayers end up in a barroom brawl swinging fists and chairs at each other until Grant is knocked out. Claiborne sends the old men at the bar to go get Vivian. When he regains consciousness, he is still on the floor with his head in Vivian’s lap, and she is asking him to stand up for her.
Chapter 26 Summary
Grant recuperates at Vivian’s house to avoid the police. Vivian tells Grant that it was Claiborne who knocked him out because Grant would not stop fighting. Vivian says he should have walked out of the bar, and Grant says he could not do that; Jefferson can’t just walk out of the jail. Now Vivian is telling him that he is no condition to go home and so must stay the night, which will put her custody of the kids in jeopardy. Grant begs her to let him go home because he does not want her to get in trouble, and she says he should think about that before he decides to get into the fight. Grant tries to stand with difficulty. Vivian calls Dora and tells her to keep the kids overnight, then she prepares a meal for Grant and herself. Vivian tells Grant that she is not mad but disgusted. Grant keeps saying he will leave, but he doesn’t go. Vivian gets upset and asks him what love is, and he cannot answer her. She tells him that her children’s father won’t grant her a divorce unless he can see his kids every weekend. Grant tries one last time to leave but doesn’t. He goes back inside and buries his face in Vivian’s lap.
Chapter 27 Summary
On Sunday after church, Miss Eloise, Miss Emma, Miss Inez, and Reverend Ambrose come back to the house for coffee and cake. Grant is lying on his bed because he is not able to focus on grading papers. Reverend Ambrose wants to talk about Grant helping to save Jefferson’s soul for Miss Emma’s sake. He accuses Grant of being selfish and uneducated because he does not know the sacrifices his people have made, and he does not feel like he owes them anything. Grant explains that he will not tell Jefferson to kneel, nor will he say he believes in heaven. Grant insists he will not lie to Jefferson ever again. The Reverend tries to make a case for lying because it brings comfort to the dying in their times of greatest pain. He accuses Grant of being “lost,” and Grant agrees. Grant says he believes in God, but he can’t say he believes in heaven or going to church. He agrees to tell Jefferson to listen to the Reverend, but he won’t tell him to kneel.
Chapter 28 Summary
Grant visits Jefferson in the jail and notices that Jefferson has been writing and erasing in the notebook Grant gave him. Jefferson wrote about a dream he had and questions the difference between a man and a hog: Why don’t they just stab him or hit him in the head the way they do with hogs? Grant does not know what to say in response, so he offers to bring a pencil sharpener. Jefferson asks Grant when Easter is and if that is the day “He died.” Grant explains that tomorrow is Good Friday, and Easter is when “He rose.” Jefferson speaks to himself when he says that Jesus never said a word as they put him to death. Grant tells him talking to the Reverend and praying would be good for Miss Emma. Jefferson asks Grant if he prays and if he thinks Jefferson will go to heaven. Grant says he doesn’t know but that he hopes Jefferson can “believe” so that maybe one day Grant can, too. Jefferson recalls that Reverend Ambrose tells him to give up his earthly possessions, but Jefferson can’t think of any. He compares himself to Christ and says he must go to the cross for everyone, and they ask a lot of him. He wonders who went to the cross for him? He asks Grant if dying will make him a man and Grant says “yes.” Jefferson asks Grant what it will feel like and then tells him he is “alright.” Jefferson then opens the bag with the sweet potatoes.
Chapters 25-28 Analysis
Interestingly, following the chapter where there is a description of humanity and manhood, now we see a dehumanizing bar fight. Grant describes his two opponents as “flesh and bone and baseball cap turned backward” (163). This description objectifies the men and denies them their humanity. Later, when Grant is recovering from his injuries, he even refers to Vivian as just a “voice.” And the one thing everyone needs Grant to do by the end of Chapter 25 is “stand up.” This is the same idea he once offered up as an example of what separates a man from a hog. Though Grant has made great intellectual strides in recognizing what it means to be a man, he has not yet succeeded in applying these to his own life.
Grant and Vivian have a serious disagreement about this bar fight. She is very disappointed in his self-centeredness, and he is insistent that he did not have the choice to walk away, just as Jefferson does not have that choice. Vivian puts him in his place on this point. He does not consider the consequences of his actions at all, and he never considers her. She is “disgusted” by this. She says she will lay flowers at his grave someday because he is engaging in the very behaviors that lead to the early death of Black men. In her eyes, this epitomizes the hopelessness of the uninterrupted cycle that they find themselves in. Just when they want things to just be about them, they must carry the weight of 300 years of racist history and contemporary injustice along with their relationship.
The Reverend asks Grant to tell Jefferson to kneel before he gets in the chair, but Grant will only try to help him stand. The generation gap once again shows itself. The Reverend believes that people need to know there is something beyond this life, but Grant is still trying to make this life meaningful. The Reverend accuses him of not being educated because he does not know his own people and all the sacrifices they have made for him. In this exchange lies the controversial role of the Black church in the Black community. Grant sees religion as oppressive and confining, while Reverend Ambrose argues it is liberating and soothing. By the end of the novel, Grant shares his new appreciation for the potential of religion to the free the mind from the physical world, but he never fully embraces this practice for himself.
When Grant next visits the jail, Jefferson does more talking than he ever has. He compares himself to Christ, and for the first time, Grant seems to understand why everyone needs Jefferson to stand tall and die a man for them. He is doing for them what Christ supposedly did for his followers. He is the sacrifice. Grant notices how Jefferson is now standing tall as he speaks about how he has never had any life worth living on earth. When he asks if dying will make him a man, Grant says it will and that they all need him. Grant also admits to Jefferson that he himself is lost. Now, it is Grant who can’t look at Jefferson and looks down, looks at the wall, or can’t speak, reversing their earlier roles. Jefferson challenges Grant on asking him, Jefferson, to do for others what no one has ever done for him. In the end, Jefferson tells him he is “alright.” As both men gain greater insight into who they are and what they have to offer, Jefferson finds confidence and peace while Grant feels guilt and shame.
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By Ernest J. Gaines
