Quotes
List here any quote, from Ernest Gaines's book A Lesson Before Dying. Quotes that inspire you, or give you a strong visual image, or maybe you just admire the author's use of words . . . poetic, lyrical, straightforward, cultural, etc. . . .
We are reading A Lesson Before Dying in celebration of Ernest Gaines's birthday: January 15, 1933. "Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday." ~ Ernest J. Gaines
Inez left the kitchen as soon as the white men came in. I tried to decide just how I would respond to them. Whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be. I decided to wait and see how the conversation went. To show too much intelligence would have been an insult to them. To show a lack of intelligence would have been a greater insult to me. I decided to wait and see how the conversation would go.
ReplyDeleteSunday is the saddest day of the week.
ReplyDeleteAbove, a low ashen sky loomed over the plantation, if not over the entire state of Louisiana. A swarm of black birds flew across the road and alighted in a pecan tree in one of the backyards to our left. The entire plantation was deadly quite, except for the singing coming from the church up the quarter behind us.
ReplyDeleteJust outside the pulpit was the little pine Christmas tree with its green and red strips of crepe paper for lights, its bits of lint cotton for snow, and the narrow strings of tinsel for icicles. And there was the lone gift against the tub of dirt.
ReplyDeleteI cry, not from reaching any conclusion by reasoning, but because, lowly as I am, I am still part of the whole.
ReplyDeletemy lite on but they aint no mo lite on in the place an the place is quite quite but nobody sleepin
ReplyDeletethey got a moon out ther an I can see the leves on the tree but i aint gon see no mo leves after tomoro
i dont know if they got a heven cause samson say they cant be an boo say they aint non fo no niger but reven ambrose say they is one for all men an bok dont kno
i been shakin an shakin but im gon stay strong
i aint had no bisnes goin ther wit brother an bear cause they aint no good an im gon be meetin them soon
Its quite quite an i can yer my teefs hitin an i can yer my hart
when i was a little boy i was a waterboy an rode the cart but now i got to be a man an set in a cher
i can yer randy but i aint listnin no mo cause he for the livin an not for me
its late an i dont know what time it is but i kno its late an i jus went to the tolet an i jus wash my face
day breakin
sun comin up
the bird in the tre soun like a blu bird
sky blu blu mr wigin
good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell im a man good by mr wigin im gon ax paul if he can bring you this
sincely jefferson
Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free.
ReplyDelete