Dies, But Is Not Defeated , a black man condemned to die by the electric chair in the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, is perhaps the strongest character in African-American literature today. is a courageous young black man that a jury of all white men convicts of a murder he has not committed ; yet he still does not let this defeat destroy his personal character. Ernest Gaines portrays this way to illustrate the fundamental belief that mankind’s defeats do not necessarily lead to his destruction. The author uses such a ....