A Lesson Before Dying Chapter 15 Summary

  • After their little romp in the fields, Vivian asks Grant whether he has started working on his school Christmas program. He has not.
  • She wonders whether or not she should meet Grant's aunt, because she had bad luck with the whole in-law situation in her first marriage.
  • She is light-skinned, so when she married a dark-skinned boy her family freaked out and refused to see him. Most of them quit talking to her, too.
  • Grant convinces Vivian to meet his aunt, and when she comes home from church with her three friends, Miss Emma, Miss Eloise, and Inez, they are not sure what they think of the new lady.
  • Tante Lou is not too happy with Vivian because she's from Free LaCove, where they don't like dark-skinned people, and because she's a Catholic. She asks them what they'll do about religion since Grant doesn't go to church.
  • Grant and Vivian prepare coffee and serve cake to the ladies, then go out onto the porch to get some relief from the interrogation.
  • When Vivian goes back in to say goodbye all the ladies tell her that she has "quality". She heads back home.