Comparing Dignity in A Lesson Before Dying, Jane Pittman, and Of Love a

Dignity in S byhern Society in A Lesson Before destruction, muniment of Jane Pittman, and Of Love and Dust The ante-bellum Southern social brass put blacks in a low economic and social class and limited their pursuit of happiness. The aristocracy firmly held blacks in emotional and spiritual slavery. Cajuns, Creoles and ugly whites maintained a low status in high society, which frustrated them because they felt they should be superior to blacks and equal to whites. Racism was a base of southern society and a hope to improve life and gain respect. Ernest J. Gaines grew up in Southern Louisiana and his aunt Augusteen Jefferson taught him the art of living with dignity (Current 201). In The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, the main character, Jane, narrates her life that spans from the Civil War to the 1960s. She portrays the lives of black people fighting against the stigma of social inferiority in order to live out their dreams. Of Love and Dust depicts rebellious radic al characters striving for new standards of equality in the reformation of a small traditional community. A Lesson Before Dying shows Grant Wigginss and Jeffersons personal battles toward reforming themselves, and their communitys battle to earn self-respect. Living in subordination compromises freedoms of socio-economic mobility. Gainess characters rebel by fighting against suppression to achieve deserved rights and privileges. They achieve dignity through the struggle to hold onto the honor won from society. . Ernest J. Gaines describes people surviving within the social system at the same time as they outdo it to find dignity and freedom from prejudices. Living in subordination compromises freedoms of soci... ... Yearbook, 1994. New York Gale, 1995. Estes, David C. ed. Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines. Athens University of Georgia, 1994, 1-29, 89-123, 139-157, 250-264. Gaines, Ernest J. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York Bantam, 1971. _ ____. A Lesson Before Dying. New York Vintage, 1993. _____. Of Love and Dust. New York Vintage, 1967. Graham, Judith, ed. Ernest J. Gaines. Current Biography Yearbook 1994. New York H. Wilson, 1994, 200-204. Larson, Charles R. End as a Man. Chigago Tribune. May 9 1993, 5. Rpt. in coetaneous Literary Criticism Yearbook, 1994. New York Gale, 1995. Senna, Carl. Dying like a Man A Novel about Race and Dignity in the South. The New York propagation Book Review. August 8 1993, 21. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Yearbook, 1994. New York Gale, 1995.