The Healing-Solidarity in Gaines's A Lesson Before Dying

게인즈의 『죽음 앞의 깨달음』에 나타난 치유하는 연대

Gaines depicts the process of transformation of a black young who accepts his execution with dignity in A Lesson Before Dying. There two personas of the protagonist, Jefferson, appear in this novel. The former seen in the black and white community is the persona of falsehood and submission, and the latter appeared in the black community is the true persona. The former, the pig persona in black-and-white community is created, forced onto them by whites and the human persona in the black community is made by their own standards without being forced. Jefferson has been depersonalized by his pig persona. He implements their false persona by mimicking pigs to confront its reality. And then he retrospects the pleasure of relationship throughout his own life. Grant's expensive gift, the radio, becomes a trigger to realize the significance of his existence and the social solidarity. Moreover, many black visitors look at him with expectant eyes of fulfilling their historical burden. After all, Jefferson is executed as a human being with dignity, and the transformation of Jefferson from a pig to a human is getting rid of the white values and standing on the black values. In other words, it is the procedure of creating the new myth out of the false myth, from meaningless life to meaningful death.