The Issue of Causality and Direct Instutionalized Discrimination of Coloured People in "A Lesson before Dying" by Ernest J. Gaines

The great nation known as the United States of America became viewed as a strong country and was glorified by many people around the world, as people from England arrived to form the new world. The dreams that a young child was dreaming about was told it was possible if they lived in America. Though its reorganization around seems to have a positive attitude, the life of a person other than white person from England is not treated well. In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying, we journey through the 1940s, and analyze the lifestyle for colored folks. I would argue that color people life seem to deal with causality and direct instutionalized discrimination within the novel that can relate in our current society.

Life is known to be have certain up and downs for every individual, yet it hard to deal with reality when one comes upon a difficult situation. Causality is included in everyone’s life, which is defined by Dr. Close as the dominoes in life where the cause of something is the effect of a previous event and the cycle continues. In today society, we can turn on our television and hear about certain crime or law-breaking situation where the individual is taken to jail for their action is proven guilty. For instance, in the novel I read about the young colored male named Jefferson who was charged for the murder of three males because he was the only one alive at a store shooting. Even though he had no intention of purchasing since he had no money, though the shooting dealt with buying alcohol, he was spotted by someone else walking out of the crime scene with an alcohol bottle in his hand. Clearly, Jefferson ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time causing him to get punish even though he was not the one that killed the three males. As a colored person he was not treated the same in the court house when deciding he should or not should be consider guilty. During this time period colored people still were struggling for their rights including respect. As a colored male, Jefferson had a disadvantage to his court case, meaning his own skin color lead to him becoming a guilty for a crime he did commit. The results in a situation can be analyze and thought about to understand why it end up that way. Causality sometimes become hard to trace back to the first cause leading to the current effect. As for the colored people they lived their life by the way the white people viewed they deserved to live since they were not the right skin color to them. Another example about causality from the novel includes the character Grant Wiggins, who had to help Jefferson become a man before he dies. Since Grant was raised by his Aunt Emma and Tante Lou his whole life, they asked him to perform the task dealing with Jefferson. Although it was difficult to communicate with Jefferson in the jail cage, I was able to notice the bond the men were forming after several visits. The talks that Mr. Wiggins was exchanging with Jefferson not only was help Jefferson understand his purpose in life as well as contributing to Mr. Wiggins life attitude. Meaning the Aunt Emma and Tante Lou informing Grant to talk to Jefferson were leading to other outcomes that were not really intended. When certain outcomes occur in life it doe not always have an unsatisfying results. Also, one cannot simply blame the previous effect because that was the outcome of another previous cause. In today society, the way people live their life still includes cause and effect that they deal with every day. We might cause something, and it may not affect us instantly but could take time such as the punishment Jefferson was going to receive.

In the 1940s the United States was still dealing with segregation between the white and color people meaning many things were labeled in the community to allow a certain race to have certain privileges. The color people struggled with the treatment of equality in United States after the end of slavery. By Dr. Close we are able to realize that these color people dealt with Direct Instutionalized Discrimination. Also known as D.I.D., meant it was a lifestyle were certain expectation were given across the nation under a legal rights which was viewed in society as the right thing to do from the white supremacy, since they had power over the colored people in that time period. Throughout the 1900s, we learn in class the conflicts colored people dealt with due to the color they were born with. For instance, in the novel the community had white and color people living there but the stores and their location were separated for each race to use it. The color people had many of their building such as grocery store and school that was actually in the church located at the back of the community. Since color people dealt with the discrimination of their skin tone they were treated liked undesired humans. This discrimination continue in the States throughout the next decades. Another example, to understand direct instutionalized discrimination is from the punishment Jefferson was given. Jefferson was claimed guilty and his punishment was death sentence by electrocution a decision for punishment date was given by the government. They decided when it was best to end the life of colored male like it was nothing much to them for a life to be taken away under their decision and authority. Colored people were treated unfair it was obvious that it was due to their race was well as their gender depending in the situation.

After reading the novel A Lesson Before Dying we can witness the lifestyle the colored people lived with their interaction with white people. Many people such as I can understand the causality and direct instutionalized discrimination the colored people in the book lived their life with. In today society discrimination is not such a big deal like in the past but D.I.D. can still be easily found in the life of a color person living in America.