A Lesson Before Dying: The Superwomen in African American Culture
Ernest Gaines Illustrates the role of women and feminity in African American culture and communities by using a variety of literary devices such as allegory and heroism.
Heroism is used to amplify the women’s roles of maintaining their community and the people within it. In A Lesson Before Dying , the women of Bayonne have taken on the responsibility of ensuring everyone is on the right path. Throughout the novel, there is an absence of black men in the community to help assist with protecting the communities’ morals. This generated the feeling in Miss Emma, along with other women, that black men ”have been ill-equipped to protect her virtue and that of others like her”. Because of the absence of black men in African American communities, the female characters take on the role or responsibility of helping their community maintain its spirituality, mentality, and physicality. A primary example of heroism in the novel is Miss Emma because ”If she allows Jefferson to surrender his dignity, then she will have allowed him to Jeopardize the dignity of the community.”
Her strong need to protect Jefferson’s dignity as a man leads her to “... assure his final days to be dignified, spiritually stable ones...”. This displays her sense of responsibility to preserve the community and the men within it. In the novel, the women in Bayonne supply the men with emotional nourishment that often correlates with physical nourishment, such as food, this allows the men to stay resilient and hopeful. Throughout the story, the“women participate in and incite the heroism of Grant and Jefferson by a number of actions that reinforce their communal ties.”, such as serving or cooking food.
Food correlates with emotional nourishment, which has become their role to provide because the process of cooking and sharing of food connects women with their community. The female characters provide emotional nourishment and communicate love through the activities associated with food and eating, “In the dayroom, Emma shows Jefferson that she’s brought him a feast of beef, rice, and biscuits. Jefferson doesn’t eat any of the food, even when Emma puts the food next to his mouth. Tante Lou sees the pain and sadness in her face.”.Jefferson's refusal to eat Miss Emma’s food is Jefferson denying the emotional nourishment or love she is trying to display through physical nourishment. The women in A Lesson Before Dying have displayed heroism through their consistent behavior of selflessness needed for their community to prosper.
