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Fire, Heat, and Warmth
In addition to the kindling the old men bring to the church to warm the schoolhouse through the winter, wood makes one other symbolically loaded appearance in A Lesson Before Dying. When Grant visits Jefferson in the dayroom, accompanied by Tante Lou, Reverend Ambrose, and Miss Emma, he tells Jefferson that he must become a better man, and compares the process of self-improvement to that of polishing a rough piece of wood. While the wood may seem ugly and splintered at first, the woodworker’s care and attention reveals the beautiful object trapped beneath a rough exterior. In this analogy, we can assume that Grant is the woodworker and Jefferson is the rough piece of wood. It’s important to keep in mind that the woodworker in the analogy doesn’t add anything to the wood; by the same logic, Grant doesn’t give Jefferson new information about good and evil. Instead, Grant reminds Jefferson what Jefferson already has: the ability to be courageous and moral, for the sake of Miss Emma and for his entire community. Polishing a rough piece of wood, then, represents the process of education and self-discovery that Jefferson embarks on in Gaines’s novel.
Wood Quotes in A Lesson Before Dying
The A Lesson Before Dying quotes below all refer to the symbol of Wood. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8
Quotes
“We got our first load of wood last week,” I told him. “Nothing changes,” he said. “I guess I’m a genuine teacher now,” I said. He nodded, and coughed. He didn’t seem to want to talk. Still, I sat there, both of us gazing into the fire. “Any advice?” I asked him. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” he said. “Just do the best you can. But it won’t matter.”
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Wood Symbol Timeline in A Lesson Before Dying
The timeline below shows where the symbol Wood appears in A Lesson Before Dying. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...he teaches, and thinks about all the work he has to do, in particular, finding wood to heat the school. He teaches about twenty families’ children, and he asks each family...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...superintendent’s visit, two old Black men, Henry Lewis and Amos Thomas, bring a load of wood, carried by a mule, to heat the school through the winter. As they take the...
(full context)
Henry Lewis knocks on the back door, telling Grant that they’re dropped off all the wood. Grant thanks him and Amos Thomas for their help, and then tells his students that...
(full context)
Grant remembers being a student in the classroom where he now teaches. He chopped wood then, surrounded by students his age who would grow up to live in other towns...
(full context)
Chapter 24
...for himself. He makes an analogy: in his spare time, Farrell takes rough pieces of wood and polishes them until they are smooth and beautiful. Human beings are like these rough...
(full context)
