By

Ernest J. Gaines

Setting: This award-winning novel is set in a small Louisiana Cajun community in the late 1940s.

Background: The reader is summoned to confront the entire bitter history of black people in the South. This book is about the ways in which people declare the value of their lives in a time and place in which those lives seemingly count for nothing. It is about the ways in which the imprisoned may find freedom even in the moment of their death. Gaines addresses the basic predicament of what it is to be a human being, a creature striving for dignity in a universe that often denies it.

In his own words: "I write for the African-America youth in the country, especially the South, so that they can know who they are and where they came from and take pride in it . . . (And for) the white youth in this country, and especially the South, because unless he knows his neighbor of three hundred years, he only knows half his history."

Theme: While racism and prejudice is clearly at the novel’s forefront, other issues include love and redemption, the pursuit of personal happiness, community values, the nature of religious belief, justice and the death penalty, family relationships, and social responsibility.

Quote: "This majestic, moving novel is an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives." - Chicago Tribune