Ernest Gaines - a Lesson Before Dying

Ernest J. Gaines is considered by many critics to be a giant in his genre, and although he is not as "militant" or "intense" in his writing as Richard Wright, or James Baldwin, he makes his points about racism, about poverty, and about cultural bias, with a very strong sense of narrative and character development. This paper will address the characters in Gaines' novels, and it will also look into the background in which Gaines grew up into manhood. Though the civil rights movement is now just a point in the history of the United States, and today's news tends to focus on America's war in Iraq and on terrorism, for many African-Americans and others struggling to become part of the "American Dream," Gaines is a writer who hits home with honesty.

The civil rights movement came about because there was so much...
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