| Grant Wiggins, the first member of his family to attend university, has returned to his hometown of Bayonne, Louisiana to teach in the plantation school. When a former student, a simple-minded young man named Jefferson, is sentenced to die after getting mixed up with some bad company that killed a white shopkeeper but were killed themselves in the gun battle, the doomed boy's mother asks Wiggins to visit the kid in jail and make him realize he's not just an animal but a man, before he dies. Wiggins does not want this task, but his aunt Lou, with whom he lives, insists. The teacher has to negotiate the gauntlet between suspicious, unsympathetic white jailers and an unresponsive, ungrateful "pupil." This beautiful, heartfelt novel skillfully brings to life a time and a place, and depicts the subtleties and hypocrisies of race relations, the limits and consolations of faith, and the emotional process of putting a man to death. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book? - thoughtful Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's Political/social activism Yes Plotlet: Ethnic/Regional/Religion Crime & Police story Yes Story of Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Ethnic/regional/gender life Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Ethnicity/Nationality Main Adversary Identity: - society Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 7 () United States Yes The US: - Deep South Small town? Yes Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee - very gullible, like Gomer Pyle - hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids Misc setting Writing Style Sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - vague references only - descript of kissing Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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