Light In
August
William Faulkner
Third Period
Felix Chan
Summary
• Lena Grove is a country girl who is searching for Lucas Burch.
Burch is the one who impregnated Lena.
• She wants to go to Jefferson to find him. She hitch hiked on a
wagon to get to Burch. She is from Doane's Mill, Alabama. This is a
place where all the trees are cut down and the machines are
rusted. Armstid is a man who helps females. He gave Lena a ride
to his home and convinced his wife to let her stay. His wife Mrs.
Armstid does not like Lena for she is not married to Burch and
therefore is a symbol of major moral wrongdoing. She gives Lena a
small porcelain bank if Lena leaves by morning.
• The next day she arrives at a town near Jefferson for a ride to the
city. When she arrive there a house is on fire.
• Lena Grove is the main speaker of this chapter
Character Development
• Lena Grove – A person who is pregnant with Lucas Burch child. She
wants to travel to Jefferson to find Lucas. She is simple and refined.
• Armstid – A person who is kind to the pregnant girl, he helps Lena to
have shelter for a day and carries her to a nearest town to Jefferson.
• Mrs. Armstid – Armstid’s wife she is strict but reassuring and doesn't
allow moral corruption.
• Lucas Burch – the one who impregnate Lena. In chapter one there is
little about this character.
• Faulkner unique style for putting original prose to reveal information of
that character. He uses italics to show a character’s way of thinking. He is
a modernist who creates a world where everything is a realistic place and
through the view point of the character. The complexity of the character
is achieved by looking inward at his/her action and inner thought.
“Other chunks”
• Doane's Mill – a decayed place where all the trees are cut down. A place
with evil intentions and dark wilted places.
• Isolation – one of the main themes in the story. Lena is one of the
character who is in isolation because of her unmarried status while
having to mother her child.
• Christian – a part of rules that is set by for all Christian for what is right
and wrong.
• “A man. All men. He will pass up a hundred chances to do good for one
chance to meddle where meddling is not wanted. He will overlook and
fail to see chances, opportunities, for riches and fame and well doing, and
even sometimes for evil. But he won't fail to see a chance to meddle. “
• - Faulkner criticize that the mans fall is the mans desire to have and
needs to meddle someone’s else place to get out of there same old place
and wife all the time. To start somewhat a new person something
different then what they usually do.
Caroline Ciener
Main Points
• Byron Bunch reminisces on when Joe Christmas first began to
work in the mill as a tattered, lonely man.
• Christmas moves onto the grounds of Miss Burden where he
resides in a cottage in her backyard and sells whiskey illegally to
make ends meat.
• Bunch turns to Reverend Gail Hightower for help.
• Christmas quit his job at the mill and Joe Christmas and Joe Brown
became very close, very quickly.
• A fire breaks out at the Burden house and Byron watches the
smoke rise as he works and does nothing about it.
• The burning of the house represents the death of Miss Burden.
• Lena Grove disrupts Byron’s work when she comes in and says she
is looking for a man named Lucas Burch
• Byron falls in love with Lena Grove, love at first sight.
Setting
• The men are found at the mill
• The cottage on Miss Burden’s land
• At Byron’s work watching the smoke billows
Themes
• Burdens of past: Byron Bunch thinks back to
Joe Christmas’ time at the mill. Whether
these are good memories or bad, he seems to
describe his time in a negative way using lots
of angry diction.
• Burning of the house:The burning of the
house when Byron sees it is a clear
representation and symbolism of Miss
Burden’s death.
Alex Fox
Significant Quotes
•
•
“It is because a fellow is more afraid of the trouble he might have than
he ever is of the trouble he’s already got. He’ll cling to trouble he’s used
to before he’ll risk a change.” -Byron Bunch
This quote spoken by Byron Bunch connects with Faulkner’s style
in that it shows how insightful and real Faulkner is in his writing. This
quote also helps to establish a connection between Bunch and Hightower
as they both feel the same way.
• “From a distance, quite faint though quite clear, he can hear the sonorous
•
waves of massed voices from the church: a sound at once austere and
rich, abject and rod, swelling and falling in the quiet summer darkness
like a harmonic tide.”
This quote shows the very detailed and descriptive nature of
Faulkner’s writing while also conveying Hightower’s feelings for the
church and his former way of life. You see the theme of detachment with
Hightower yet you understand that he feels as if he still belongs in the
pulpit
Evident Themes
• Solitude/outcast (Hightower has been ostracized by the
community, is rarely seen)
• Racism (beating of Hightower by KKK)
• Remnants of war/heroic past (the evident presence of the
grandfather, a Civil War cavalryman who was killed)
Plot Development/Character
Development
Chapter 3 is significant in that it fully introduces and explains the
circumstance of Gail Hightower’s isolation and his true personality
You see the development of the relationship between Byron Bunch
and Hightower and how the two are related in character
Point of View
• The point of view is critical in this chapter in
that it is told from the perspective of an
observer of all these happenings.
• Slightly biased
• Some questions are left hanging out there,
unanswered
Catherine Hinshaw
Plot
•
•
•
•
•
•
Opening Scene: Byron Bunch and the Reverend Hightower sit facing each other in the Rev.
Hightower’s office, Byron begins speaking to Hightower about his experience with Lena’s arrival
Hightower at first fails to see the connection between the burning house and Lena, Bunch then
informs him that the burning house was “that old Burden house”. Hightower also was not aware of
Brown and Christmas’s residence in the cabin behind Miss Burden’s house.
Bunch proceeds with his story as he tells the Hightower about Brown’s bootlegging. At this point,
it is understood that Bunch had also told Lena this same information, revealing to both her and
Hightower (at separate instances) that Brown is the man that Lena is actually looking for.
Bunch figured out a way to prevent Lena from continuing her search that evening. He sends her
to the Beards who let her stay there for the evening. While talking to Hightower about his
encounters with Lena, he mentions that Christmas is said to be “part negro.”
The next part of his story to Hightower focuses on Brown and Christmas as relating to the fire. A
man saw Brown, drunk, in the burning house of Miss Burden, attempting to prevent him from
going upstairs. Appearing suspicious once Miss Burden was found upstairs practically
decapitated, Brown confesses that Christmas had made threats to kill Miss Burden and that he was
“part negro.”
Closing Scene: Bunch and Hightower remain in the Reverend’s office as Bunch admits he has not
yet told Lena about the situation Brown is in at the moment.
Themes/Quotes
• “And then I looked up and there she was, with her face all fixed for
smiling and with her mouth all fixed to say his name, when she
saw I wasn’t him. And I never knowed any better than to blab the
whole thing.” (pg 78)
• “And then she says ‘Did he have a little white scar right here by
his mouth?’” (pg 80)
• “I reckon a woman in her shape (and having to find a husband
named Burch at the same time she thought with dry irony)
ain’t got no business…” (pg 86)
• Isolation- especially evident through Lena in her pursuit for the
man some take to be her husband
• Identity (or lack thereof)- Lena searches for Lucas Burch, who has
changed his name, and she wishes to change her identity by
marrying Burch
Character Development/Point of
View
•
Third Person- Omniscient
– Third person tell the story Bunch conveys to Hightower about what he told Lena
•
•
•
•
•
Elastic narrative
Hightower is seen, through his reactions to Bunch’s story, as a thoughtful, almost
wise man. This is extremely ironic when one takes into consideration
Hightower’s past history with the community.
Although Brown presents himself through police questioning as an innocent
man (at least concerning the incident regarding Miss Burden), his character as
someone who cannot be entirely trusted is further developed. Taking into
consideration what little background information exists about Christmas at this
point, combined with Brown’s information to the police, Christmas’s character
has a very negative connotation.
Lena, despite everything she should be overwhelmed with, lacks much concern
or worry and thus is presented as somewhat naïve to her surroundings.
Bunch is oddly concerned with Lena’s story and possible future, as is revealed
through his conversation with Hightower. Lena’s arrival may indicate a possible
turning point for him as a character.
Chad Hoskins
Main Points
• -Joe Brown arrives home at their cabin late one night, stumbling
and drunk. Out of annoyance, Joe Christmas proceeds to hold him
down and hit him repeatedly.
• -Christmas stays up late that night, thinking a lot about Miss
Burden and how he wants to forgive her for lying to him.
• -Christmas streaks in the middle of the road and eventually settles
down in the barn outside.
• -The next morning, Joe Christmas makes his way to a clearing
where he baths and shaves in the river and eventually wanders
through a black part of town.
• -After meeting with a few black families, he goes back to Miss
Burden’s with a sense of fear in what is about to happen.
Setting
• Joe Brown and Joe Christmas at the cabin
• Joe Christmas naked in the street and
sleeping in the barn
• Christmas shaving and wandering through
the black community
• Miss Burden's house
Courtney Hudson
• In this chapter we find out about Joe
Christmas when he was a little boy. Around
the age of five he is trying to steal toothpaste
from a dietician. While he is trying to take
the toothpaste the dietician and a younger
male doctor come into the room to have sex.
• Joe hides behind a curtain and tries not to
get catch, but while the dietician and the
man make love Joe gets sick from eating the
toothpaste. He is then discovered and the
dietician treats him horribly. Later on the
dietician becomes paranoid that Joe will tell
people about her and the other doctor
having sex.
• The dietician tries to get Joe switched into
another orphanage because he is biracial.
Learning this plan, the janitor of Joe’s present
orphanage disappears with Joe in order to
save him. But he is taken into custody for
trying to steal the boy. Joe is then adopted by
Mr. McEachern who is an unemotional,
religious man.
LeeAnna Kincaid
Summary
• In the beginning of Chapter seven the narrative jumps to three
years after Presbyterian preacher, Mr. McEachern adopts Joe
Christmas. He is yelling at Joe for not having his catechism
memorized and then proceeds to beat him until he passes out.
After waking up McEachern forces Joe to kneel at the side of his
bed and pray for forgiveness for not having his catechism
memorized. While McEachern is gone, his “mother” brings him a
tray of food but Joe reacting violently angrily throws it on the
floor only later does he eat it off of the floor. The story then jumps
to several years later at the age of fourteen now Joe Christmas and
other farm boys lure a black woman to a shed to have sex. When it
is Joe’s turn he beats the woman repetitively until stopped by the
others. At seventeen Joe sells his calf to buy a suit which of course
McEachern finds out about and beats him over.
Significance
• In this chapter Joe is portrayed as an animal several different
times. When he is eating the food off the floor he is compared to a
“dog” or “pig.” When he is beating the black woman he is again an
animal but this time it is not so vulnerable but even scary. These
comparisons of Christmas comes back to the overwhelming theme
of identity, he is unable to see who he is because he is trapped in a
“cage.” He is not only imprisoned in the fact that Mr. McEachern
keeps him locked up; he is unable to release his emotions without
receiving consequences. His lack of identity causes many
problems; he can’t explain why he does things or even why he
can’t stop himself from doing these things. This chapter shows
many different signs of Joe and his lack of identity showed
through his vulnerable state.
Significant Quotes
•
•
•
•
“…Years after that night when, an hour later, he rose from the bed and went and
knelt in the corner as he had not knelt on the rug, and above the outraged food
kneeling, with his hands ate, like a savage, like a dog.”
Joe Christmas is often treated like a dog having to eat his dinner off the floor,
being beaten for the smallest things, and constantly being watched. His search
for identity becomes hard when there is always someone there to tell him he is
doing something wrong.
“It was not the hard work which he hated, nor the punishment and injustice. He
was used to that before he ever saw either of them. He expected no less, and so
he was neither outraged nor surprised. It was the woman: that soft kindness
which he believed himself doomed to be forever victim of and which he hated
worse than he did the hard and ruthless justice of men.”
Joe Christmas reveals his severe hatred for women, at this point of the book it is
evident this it true by his beatings of women. It is not yet revealed where this
hatred began but this is a key element in understanding part of Joe’s identity.
This is another characteristic he is slowly sharing.
Kim Korzen
• Summary: Chapter 8 details the majority of Joe
Christmas’s affair with Bobbie, the waitress and prostitute.
• Key characters: Joe Christmas, Bobbie, Mr. and Mrs.
McEachern, Max and Mame and the boy who tells Joe
about women
• Repeated images: the rope, Joe’s dead watch, Bobbie’s big
hands, eyes (Bobbie’s and Mr. McEachern’s), Mame’s blond
hair, the forest and the urns in it, money, blood
• Point of view: Third limited. Mostly the story is told from
Joe’s perspective but it switches to Bobbie’s briefly.
Important Events
• -Joe meets Bobbie, and becomes infatuated
almost instantly
• -After learning about periods, Joe kills a sheep
and washes his hands in the blood
• -Joe walks quickly away when Bobbie tells him
about her illness, and sees urns in the forest
• -Bobbie tells Joe she is a prostitute, and Joe cries
• -Joe confides in Bobbie about the possibility he
is part Negro, she doesn’t believe him
Literary Devices
• -Flashback: The entire relationship is told as a flashback, because in the
present Joe is sneaking out of the house to meet Bobbie.
• -Tone: In the chapter’s beginning, the tone is mysterious because Joe
knows his destination, but it is not yet clear in the story.
• -Allusions: Joe washing his hands in the blood of a sheep (or lamb) alludes
to the representation of Jesus as the Lamb of God; Mr. McEachern calls Joe
Romeo.
• -Imagery: Images are used throughout the chapter to convey or
reinforce certain ideas or moods. For example, Bobbie’s big hands (and
her name) make her appear masculine, and reaffirm the idea that Joe is
disturbed by feminine things; he is drawn to Bobbie because of her
masculinity, as shown by her hands.
Morgan Malasky
Point of view
• McEachern
• Joe Christmas
Themes
• Rejection
• Hurt
• Truth
• Obliviousness of listening and looking
Plot Development
• Joe knocks out his stepfather, possibly killing
him, after McEachern begins verbally abusing
Bobbie. Joe takes the money Mrs. McEachern
has been saving and leaves to get Bobbie,
there he finds out the truth about Bobbie and
is rejected and left beaten on the ground.
Character Development
• Joe moves on from his old life, what he has
done makes it final and he cannot go back to
the way things were before, the truth of what
Bobbie is and how she treated him afterwards
has closed Joe, from this point on he never
opens up to anyone else.
Becca Martin
Recurring Themes in Chapter 10
Significance of memories
• This theme is crucial in the novel considering the majority of it consists
of the memories and recollections of Joe Christmas. These memories and
history of Joe Christmas show to shape him as a character.
• “Knowing not grieving remembers a thousand savage and lonely
streets.” Pg. 220
Identity
• The theme of identity is significant in this chapter with not only Joe’s
continued quest, but with the introduction of Miss Burden. Throughout
Chapter 10, Joe remains futile in his attempts to establish any form of
identity by avoiding formality and permanence in any given situation.
The reader also continues to see the inward struggle in Joe Christmas
with his physical identity concerning race.
• “He did not know the name of the town; he didn’t care what word it used
for a name. He didn’t even see it, anyway.”
Faulkner’s Style
• Faulkner’s style is most notable on page 221 with the stream of
consciousness. The sense of abandonment and absolute solitude is
portrayed best through the exact thoughts of Joe and exact
recount of what was occurring around him. By associating the
reader with Joe’s surroundings, the reader is then able to
somewhat understand Joe by hearing what he hears, and feeling
what he feels, and putting themselves in the situation.
• “…for sweet jesus what does he want with it he doesn’t use money
he doesn’t need it ask bobbie if he needs money they give it to
him that the rest of us have to pay for it leave it there I said like
hell this ain’t mine leave it to bobbies it ain’t yours neither unless
sweet jesus you’re going to tell me he owes you jack too that he
has been f.ing you too behind my back on credit and I said leave it
go chase yourself it ain’t but five or six bucks…” Pg. 221
Character Analysis: Joanna Burden
• Miss Burden is introduces in Chapter 10 as a reject of the town of
Jefferson due to her family’s reputation as Yankees. She sponsors
numerous All Black colleges, and was rumored to have had
relations with numerous individuals in the Black community.
• Joanna Burden represents the continued theme of Isolationism.
Like Gail Hightower, Joanna is a victim of societal isolation versus
personal isolation.
• As she develops a complex relationship with Joe Christmas, the
reader beings to understand the meaning behind her name,
“Burden”. She is both an emotional and physically demanding
burden on Joe Christmas in the she demands intimacy, which by
learned behavior, Joe automatically rejects. She reflects all female
relationships in Joe’s life.
Kyle McGee
Point of view: Joe Christmas
Summary: This chapter describes how the relationship between Joe Christmas
and Ms. Burden begins. At the start of their relationship, they talk very little,
even though they spend their nights together. Their relationship is at times
turbulent, and at one point Christmas throws a meal Ms. Burden has prepared
for him into a wall. Later, Ms. Burden comes to talk to Christmas, and she tells
the story of the Burden’s. This includes how Nathaniel Burden, Ms. Burden’s
father, went to Mexico, returned with a wife and child, and how Ms. Burden’s
grandfather and brother were killed by the ex-Confederate Colonel
Sartoris. After this, Christmas reveals that he believes himself to be part Black.
Themes:
The Nature of Womanhood
Heritage and its Impact on the Present
The Nature of Relationships
Plot Development: In this chapter, we finally see more of Miss Burden besides
being the silent host to Joe Christmas. Her background is revealed, as well as
why she is referred to by the people of Jefferson as a “Yankee.” For Joe
Christmas, he continues to fail to understand women, as well as showing an
extremely violent side of his personality.
Quotes
• “But beneath his hands the body might have been the body of a dead
woman not yet stiffened. But he did not desist; though his hands were hard and
urgent it was with rage alone. ‘At least I have made a woman of her at last,’ he
thought. ‘Now she hates me. I have taught her that, at least.’” Page 236
• “He went to the kitchen door. He expected that to be locked also. But he did not
realize until he found that it was open, that he had wanted it to be. When he
found that it was not locked it was like an insult. It was as though some enemy
upon whom he had wreaked his utmost of violence and contumely stood,
unscathed and unscarred, and contemplated him with a musing and insufferable
contempt.” Page 237
• “‘She’s trying to. I had expected it to have gray in it She’s trying to be a woman
and she dont know how.’” Page 240
Quotes (cont’d)
• “It was in play, in a sense: a kind of deadly play and smiling seriousness: the
play of two lions that might or might not leave marks. They locked, the strap
arrested: face to face and breast to breast they stood: the old man with his
gaunt, grizzled face and his pale New England eyes, and the young one who
bore no resemblance to him at all, with his beaked nose and white teeth
smiling.” Page 246
• “‘Remember this. Your grandfather and brother are lying there, murdered not by
one white man but by the curse which God put on a whole race before your
grandfather or your brother or me or you were even thought of. A race doomed
and cursed to be forever and ever a part of the white race’s doom and curse for
its sins. Remember that.’” Page 252
Jacqueline Walker
•
Joe Christmas enters what he refers to as the ‘second phase’ of his relationship
with Ms. Burden in which she continued to cook for him but they avoided each other
except late at night when he entered her bedroom (or the closet, sitting room,
etc…).
•
This second phase faded into the third as the affair became too routine and
Christmas felt too restricted and dependent. As Christmas realized he was too
deeply involved with Ms. Burden, she was falling in love, and gaining an aura of
femininity not present before in her “coldfaced, almost manlike” features.
•
Christmas gave in to her whims, such as climbing through the window to meet
her and exchanging secret notes, but her new feminine promiscuity seemed to him
more sinful than their escapades ever were before, as Christmas associated
femininity and women with sin and weakness. He realized he must leave her, but he
feels he cannot escape, they are “locked like sisters”.
•
Christmas observes that he keeps his bootlegging a secret not because Ms.
Burden would have minded, but because he feels the need to keep secrets from the
women around him.
•
Now Ms. Burden now wants to always meet in the bedroom, and talks of a child.
She wants to tie herself to him permanently. Christmas begins to leave more
frequently for ‘business trips’, in which he sleeps with prostitutes. Ms. Burden tells
Xmas she is pregnant and that she wants him to take over her affairs and ties to the
negro community, and she plans to will her things to him.
•
He avoided her for several months, when he finally goes to her he realizes she is
old, and it was menopause, not a baby. He insults her and calls her worn out. As if in
agreement, she says it would be better if “we both were dead”.
•
He meets her again soon after, late at night and finds her praying. She begs him
to pray with her before he kills her but he refuses her final wishes As he stands
over her kneeling body in the darkness he remembers the beginning of their
affair, the first time they met in the dark.
Trent Miller
• Citizens gather around the crime scene of Miss Burdens
death and the burning fire while the Sheriff works to find a
suspect. Once a $1,000 reward is offered Joe Brown claims that
Christmas is the killer and hounds are now on the trail of
Christmas.
• While Byron contemplates his plan with Hightower to lure
Lena into marrying him, although Hightower disapproves.
• Miss Burden attempts to emotionally connect with Joe
Christmas which he resents any type of feminine intimacy
much like Mrs. McEachern. This ultimately leads to Miss
Burdens death and the arson of her house.
• “So they looked at the fire, with that same dull and static
amaze which they had brought down from the old fetid
caves where knowing began, as though, like death, they had
never seen fire before.” – This is a comment on the human
attraction to any sort of accident. It is innate that humans
find violence or anything relating to it so interesting.
• “Among them the casual Yankees and the poor whites and
even the southerners who had lived for a while in the north,
who believed aloud that it was an anonymous negro crime
committed not by a negro but by Negro and who knew,
believed, and hoped that she had been ravished too: at least
once before her throat was cut and at least once afterward.” –
The community is just hoping that a black man has
committed this crime so that their racist mindset may be
supported even more so than it already is.
• “Because the other made nice believing.” – The Jefferson
townspeople have a selective perception and believe what
they want to believe.
Justin Morris
Summary:
Chapter 14 acts as a pivotal chapter for the development of Joe
Christmas. The sheriff is informed of Joe's shenanigans during a
Christian revival meeting, and the sheriff's team and dogs go after
Joe's trail. Joe eludes them, and the bulk of the chapter focuses on
Joe's mini-journey on foot as we glance further into Joe's psyche.
JC as a Christ character:
-Traveling on foot
-Fasting and then overcoming the temptation of hunger
-Emphasis on days of the week
-Joe's experience in this chapter can be related to Jesus'
temptations during Lent, with the devil's various temptations
along his way.
Significant Imagery:
•
•
•
Joe travels in a straight line, disregarding easier paths around obstacles
Swapping shoes with the woman in the cabin.
Joe cutting himself shaving, and then washing in the cold river. This could
symbolize a harsh rebirth or entrance into enlightenment.
Significant Quotations:
•
•
•
•
"Yes I would say Here I am I am tired I am tired of running of having to carry
my life like it was a basket of eggs" p337
Suggests Christmas' imminent death.
"He had grown to manhood in the country, where like the unswimming sailor his
physical shape and his thought had been molded by its compulsions without his
learning anything about its actual shape and feel." p338
Describes how Christmas is only now beginning to understand the land that
birthed him, as the woods seem to be more of a comfort to him than his birth or
adopted parents ever were. This could suggest a mother earth type relationship
between Joe and his surroundings, furthering the idea of a Christ allusion, as
both Joe and Jesus came from something above humanity.
The final paragraph:
• Some of the most pertinent text relating to the evolution of Joe
Christmas as a character.
• "Looking, he can see the smoke low on the sky, beyond an imperceptible
corner, he is entering it again, the street which ran for thirty years (JC
died at 33). It had been a paved street. where going should be fast. It had
made a circle and he is still inside of it. Though during the last seven
days (holy week) he has had no paved street, yet he has travelled further
than in all the thirty years before, And yet he is still inside the circle,
"And yet I have been further in these seven days than in all the thirty
years: he thinks. "But I have never got outside that circle. I have never
broken out of the ring of what I have already done and cannot ever undo.
He thinks quietly, sitting on the seat, with planted on the dashboard
before him the shoes, the black shoes smelling of negro: that mark on his
ankles the gauge definite and ineradicable of the black tide creeping up
his legs moving from his feet upward as death moves.(foreshadows Joe's
death, his departure from travelling on foot suggests his swift and
charioted journey towards death)" p339
Josae Neptune
Summary
• We are first introduced to the Hines in chapter fifteen and their
lifestyle. They live in a small bungalow with a filthy unkempt
yard. They moved to Mottstown thirty years ago. The couple is
young and tiny. Uncle Doc has the look of a crazed man and wears
filthy clothes. He first worked in Memphis, but when he lost or
quit that job he would do odd jobs for the people in Mottstown.
The Negroes of the community would try to help the Hines by
supplying them with cooked dishes and would always leave the
Hines’ home with the dishes empty. Once we stopped working the
small jobs around the community he would go to the Negro
churches and viciously preach the superiority of the white race.
When Joe Christmas was found in town and was being taken to the
jail, Uncle Doc shoved his way through the crowd and began to hit
Christmas with his hickory stick.
Summary
• Two men take Uncle Doc home and his wife, a short pudgy
woman, meet them at the front door. Uncle Doc calms down when
they get inside and Mrs. Hines sets him downs into a chair and
asks him what did he do with Milly’s baby. A citizen of Mottstown
tells the second part of chapter fifteen. Christmas was found
walking through the town until someone recognized him and the
town began to attack him. People spotted Mrs. Hines, with Uncle
Doc behind her, trying to find a way to see Christmas. She wore a
purple dress with a large white plume on a hat. First she went to
the jail where Metcalf told her she needed permission from the
sheriff to see Christmas and that he was in his office at the
courthouse, and then to the sheriff’s house. When Mrs. Hines
returned to the jail, Christmas was being lead to two cars headed
to Jefferson. Mrs. Hines pushed her way through the crowd and
finally was able to look Christmas in the face. The rental cars from
Salmons were too expensive so Mrs. Hines waits for the 2 am train.
Character Development and
Symbolism
• Uncle Doc comes off as a fallen crazed prophet.
• Mrs. Hines is shown as the distant wife of Uncle Doc.
Purple is used to relate her with Joe Christmas the Christ
figure. The plume represents the fallen angel that is Joe
Christmas.
• Christmas’ past begins to clear and we find him coming to
terms with his death by walking in the open of Mottstown
and grooming in the various stores. This is as if he is
getting prepared for his own funeral.
• The first person narration allows us to feel the distance
that the Hines have created within Mottstown.
Anne O’Brien
Chapter Summary:
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•
•
Hightower accuses Byron of manipulating Lucas Burch's situation in order to further his own suit
with Lena
Byron brings the Hineses to Hightower's house, where they tell the story of Joe's birth
Flashback: The Hineses' 18 year-old daughter Milly was impregnated by a passing circus
performer who told her that he was Mexican
Doc Hines discovered them together and killed the man, for which crime he was acquitted when
the circus owner corroborated Doc's claims that the man was black, not Mexican
Doc Hines went out in search of a doctor to perform an abortion on Milly, but failed; instead, he
rampaged through an African-American church service and was jailed after pulling a gun on
those who tried to restrain him
Doc Hines returned from jail around Milly's due date; instead of going for the doctor when she
went into labor, he stood armed guard and watched as she died in childbirth
Doc disappeared with the baby to Memphis and left it on an orphanage doorstep. He got a job as
the janitor at the orphanage and returned home when the boy, Joe, was adopted by the
McEacherns
End Flashback: Byron and Mrs. Hines ask Hightower to give Joe an alibi (that he was with the
reverend on the night of Ms. Burden's murder) so that his grandparents can see him for one day
Furious, Hightower refuses and throws everyone out of his house
Character
Development
Point of View
• Although the narrators of Milly's
story change throughout its telling,
chapter 16 is predominantly 3rd
person omniscient, with certain
passages of internal dialogue from
Byron and Hightower. Mrs. Hines
tells the bulk of Joe's back-story, but
her narrative is punctuated by
furious 3rd person outbursts from
Doc Hines, who is obsessed with the
"bitchery and abomination" of his
daughter and of the dietician.
•
Byron continues his role as an
intermediary between Rev. Hightower
and the outside world. Hightower
himself maintains his insularity,
viewing himself as distinct from
"mechanical time" and fixating on
memories from before his societal
exile. Doc and Mrs. Hines serve largely
to relay Milly's story in this chapter,
but Faulkner characterizes them
through their past actions. Mrs. Hines
is physically and emotionally at the
mercy of her unstable and fanatical
husband, who, like Simon McEachern, is
a religious zealot. Doc Hines is
intensely racist and impulsive - his
volatility is contrasted by the
constancy of the repressed Mrs. Hines.
Themes:
•
•
Doc Hines' actions continue the theme of negative religiosity
Mrs. Hines reprises the role of the vanquished mother figure, as seen with Mrs.
McEachern
Milly resembles Lena in her youth, sexual awareness, and liberality
Hightower and his obsession with the past reflect the theme of spiritual damage
•
•
Quotes:
•
"It seems to him that the past week has rushed like a torrent and that the week to come, which will
begin tomorrow, is the abyss, and that now on the brink of cataract the stream has raised a single
blended and sonorous and austere cry, not for justification but as a dying salute before its own plunge,
and not to any god but to the doomed man in the barred cell within hearing of them and of two other
churches, and in whose crucifixion they too will raise a cross." p.368
•
"It's the Lord God's abomination, and I am the instrument of his will." p. 380
•
"But he kept in touch with God and at night he said 'That bastard, Lord' and God said 'He is still walking
My earth' and old Doc Hines kept in touch with God and at night he said 'That bastard, Lord' and God
said 'He is still walking My earth' and old Doc Hines kept in touch with God and at night he wrestled and
he strove and he cried aloud 'That bastard, Lord! I feel! I feel the teeth and fangs of evil!' and God said
'It's that bastard. Your work is not done yet. He's a pollution and an abomination on My earth'." p.386
Regan Palmer
Chapter 17
Lena goes into labor is the major part of this chapter, but Byron asks Hightower to help
him with the delivery because he did not arrange for a doctor. He then tries to go find a
doctor but the doctor took so long that when he returns the baby is already born and Mrs.
Hines is holding the baby. Mrs. Hines starts to go crazy and is convinced that Lena is her
daughter and that the new baby is Joe Christmas (which can relate to the thought that
Christmas is related to Jesus Christ). Lena is having starting to get nervous with Mrs. Hines
and does not like the fact that she is seeing them both as someone different and Byron
leaves to go find Joe Brown to let him know the events of the night because he feels like it
is important for him to know. Hightower soon leaves but has to walk home which is 2 miles
because his mule is gone, and he is just happy that he took the time to put his shoes on. He
goes back home and makes himself breakfast and coffee and then decides to sleep again.
But he is having a hard time sleeping so he ends up going back to the cabin to see Lena and
finds her alone and she tells him about Mr. and Mrs. Hines how he snuck out and she went
off to go find him. Hightower then goes on to talk about Byron with Lena because he
knows that she was expecting Byron and not him. He tells her to just simply let him go.
Hightower leaves and when he gets to the mill he finds out that Byron quit his job and that
he is most likely at the courthouse for Joe’s case.
Quotes:
• A fellow running from or toward a gun ain't got time to worry whether the word for what
he is doing is courage or cowardice.
• He seemed to stand aloof and watch himself, for all his haste, thinking with a kind of grim
unsurprised: ‘Byron Bunch borning a baby. – this is a part of the main importance in this
chapter when Byron is in distress for not having a doctor ready for Lena and is going
around town like a mad man getting Hightower and trying to find a doctor.
• Not of exhaustion, but surrender, as though he had given over and relinquished completely
that grip upon that blending of pride and hope and vanity and fear, that strength to cling
to either defeat. or victory, which is the I-Am, and the relinquishment of which is usually
death.- this is to show how exhausted Hightower is, he is having trouble sleeping and this
event of the night has just simply burned him out and he cannot do much more.
• ‘Luck,’ Hightower says; ‘luck. I don’t know whether I had it or not.’- I think he is talking
about how he is lucky to have been able to help Lena and things actually go fine. It was all
luck that this worked out not exactly that it was his luck. He doesn’t really know if he had
luck or all that strength just came to him in some way.
Characters:
• In this chapter I think the character that has changed the most would be Hightower. He is
exhausted and seems to have experienced so much. He had helped Lena in so many ways
and tries to help her even more. But that is what he is there to do but he is doing it in a way
that is very bold and the way he has seemed to aged in just a night shows that he
experienced a lot in just one night.
Themes:
• Confusion- Mrs. Hines was confused about who Lena and the
baby were, Hightower is lost to why Byron has quit his job at
the mill
• Chaotic – Byron has to run around like a mad man trying to
help Lena in any way that he can. Hightower is having to
deliver the baby and cannot sleep and Mrs. Hines is freaking
out about the baby being Joe Christmas.
• Distress- the entire chapter is very stressful for everyone. No
seems to be stopping and just resting except for Lena and
that is just because she has just given labor everyone else is
on the move and can’t seem to stay asleep and relax.
Soumyaa Thushyanthan
Brief Summary
•
Byron plans to set off and venture onto his own life, and manages to
organize a way for Joe Brown to visit Lena in the cabin with her newborn.
Brown, who sees the newborn and Lena for the first time, quickly escapes
from the cabin into the woods. Byron, who is spying and sees Brown
escape, runs after Brown and they both face-off and fight. When Byron is
on the ground after a strong blow from Brown, Brown walks over to a
nearby railroad, jumps on a passing train, and disappears.
Themes
• Fluidity of Time: In this chapter, Faulkner begins with Byron’s
perspective of the events, and then switches over to Brown’s perspective
of event. Then, the points of view come together to tie in the ultimate
fight between the two. This “time travel” through multiple perspectives
is a key note in Faulkner’s writing style for this chapter
• Identity/Perspective: From receiving Byron’s view of bringing Lena and
Brown together for the child and then reading Brown’s perspective of
seeing Lena, the reader understands Byron’s brave/emotional character
and Brown’s cowardly/arrogant character.
Quotes:
• “Then a cold, hard wind seems to blow through him. It
is at once violent and peaceful, blowing hard away like
chaff or trash or dead leaves all the desire and the
despair and the hopelessness….” Pg 425
– Significance: This passage signifies Byron’s change and his new
fervor after the fight
• “No. I never worried. I knowed I could depend on you.”
Pg 431
– Significance: This sentence shows Lena’s consistent naivety to
Joe Brown, despite his abandonment
Character Development:
• Byron shows the greatest change in this chapter
after his fight with Brown. Byron no longer is a
follower, he is his own person and is finally free
from feeling inferior to those around him
• Lena does not show a drastic change in
character, but she seems to have grown
minimally after her encounter with Brown with
her newborn
• Brown still has not changed from his cowardly,
arrogant ways; he is still afraid of reality and
escapes from potentially being connected with
it after seeing both Lena and his baby
David Serfes
Chapter Themes
•
•
•
•
The lasting effects of memory: Faulkner believes that not only can it shape characters’ actions
(like Joe Christmas’), it can leave have such a traumatic effect on someone that time and reality
can become distorted. For example, because of the tragedy surrounding her grandson’s birth,
Mrs. Hines most likely sees the birth of Lena’s child as the birth of her grandson so long ago. “So I
don’t think it is so strange that for the time she got not only the child but his parentage mixed
up, since in that cabin those thirty years did not exist…” (p. 447)
A religious fanatic committing sins in the name of faith: Doc Hines thinks himself as a messenger
from God, but continues to call for the town to lynch his grandson in the name of God: “[he was]
preaching lynching, telling the people how he had grandfathered the devil’s spawn and kept it in
trust for this day.” (p. 447)
Struggle for racial identity: Faulkner comments on the prejudices of the actions of white and
black people; there was a perception that black people are inherently more savage and capable of
vile acts, while white people were honorable and could not easily commit sin. “it was the black
blood which snatched up the pistol and the white blood which would not let him fire it.” (p. 449)
Life and fate as a chess game: There are repeated references to “a Player” and “the Board.” This
reflects Faulkner’s belief that no matter how much men think they are in control of their own
fate or destiny, they are really being manipulated by a powerful force (God as the Player) in this
life (the Board.) This is an example of human futility in the grand scheme of things. “He was
moving again almost before he had stopped, with that lean, swift obedience to whatever Player
moved him on the Board.” (p. 462)
Plot Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
At the start of the chapter, we find out that Joe Christmas escaped from jail and fled to
Hightower’s house, where he allowed himself to be killed
The first section of the chapter introduces the elite lawyer Gavin Stevens. He puts Mr. and Mrs.
Hines on a train departing Jefferson, promising to send Christmas’ body on a later train if they
make the funeral arrangements.
Stevens meets a friend at the train station, and begins recounting Christmas’ story and his
demise. He extensively speculates on why Christmas fled, determining that Mrs. Hines convinced
him to do so because she thought Hightower would save him.
The second half of the chapter introduces a fanatical patriot and white supremacist, Percy
Grimm. He lives in Jefferson and is in charge of a state National Guard outpost in the town. He
gathers men to help preserve order in Jefferson while Christmas is still in town. When Christmas
escapes, he puts himself in charge of the ensuing manhunt and takes off on a stolen bicycle
He chases Christmas into Hightower’s house, where Gail Hightower, previously pistol-whipped by
Christmas, accosts him, claiming that Christmas was in his house with him the night of Joanna
Burden’s murder.
Grimm ignores him and engages Christmas in a gunfight in the kitchen, finally killing Christmas
with five gunshots through the table he was hiding behind. Afterwards, Grimm castrates him as a
final insult.
“Upon that black blast the man seemed to rise soaring into their memories forever and ever.
They are not to lose it, in whatever peaceful valleys, beside whatever placid and reassuring
streams of old age, in the mirroring faces of whatever children they will contemplate old
disasters and newer hopes.” (p. 465)
Plot Development (cont’d)
•
•
•
•
Continues with the third person omniscient point of view; Faulkner describes
the thoughts and actions of each character from an unknown omniscient
narrator.
Gavin Stevens is introduced simply to provide his educated musings for the
reader to take into consideration. He is “A Harvard graduate, a Phi Beta Kappa,”
and “his family is old in Jefferson.” Faulkner wants the reader to take Stevens’
musings seriously, and lists his educational and social achievements for the
reader to do so.
Percy Grimm and his fanatical patriotism and air of superiority add to the final
struggle with Joe Christmas. Christmas’ mixed heritage collides with the
burning zeal of a white man who believes himself to be racially superior and a
glowing example of humanity. Grimm is a perfect foil for Christmas because he is
driven, born to be a soldier and incapable of thinking for himself (living to follow
orders) whereas Christmas wanders through his life without a purpose, unsure of
who he really is and trapped by his own thoughts and memories.
Christmas’ castration after his death is the ultimate insult, emasculating him and
taking away the one thing he was certain of in his tumultuous life: his manhood.
Caitlin Shafer
Main Character: Reverend Hightower
Other characters: Hightower’s family (grandfather, father, mother, and slave
woman)
Plot Summary (all within the mind of Hightower):
• Rev. Hightower reflects on his family members that he calls “phantoms”
(p.474).
• He analyzes his father’s relationship to his grandfather and how there was
a great deal of disapproval and disagreement between the two men
(p.468).
• The only thing the grandfather would have appreciated is that his son
learned how to perform surgery on both “the invader and devastator on
his country”. Hightower’s father fought in the war for four years on the
side that he opposed.
• “The very fact that he could an did see no paradox in the fact that he
took an active part in a partisan war and on the very side whose
principles opposed his own, was proof enough that he was two separate
and complete people, one of whom dwelled by serene rules in a world
where reality did not exist.” (pg. 473)
• Hightower wonders about his marriage and whether
or not he used his wife in order to be given the
church of Jefferson. Next he contemplates Christmas
and dwells on the goodness within the man. As the
chapter ends Hightower feels death approaching like
the stampede of cavalry he is imagining from the war.
• “He hears above his heart the thunder increase…it
seems to him that he still hears them: the wild bugles
and the clashing sabers and the dying thunder of
hooves.” (p.492-493)
• In this chapter Hightower accepts his past for what it
is and puts it to rest. He will no longer allow himself
to be haunted by the past and has decided to find his
own self-identity.
Themes:
• Search for Identity and Isolation
•
In this chapter we can see glimpses of
Faulkner's reoccurring theme of
one's struggle for identity and the isolation
of the individual.
• -Hightower's father fighting a war he didn't
agree with
• -Hightower's father being an outcast to his
own family when it came to slavery, religion,
and profession
• -Hightower's confusion of motive behind his
marriage and position in the church
• The significance of Hightower within these
themes is that he falls into the category
because of first his father's and then his
decision to not feel the need to conform to
society. Had his father chosen a different path
for himself and continued a line of a slaveowning family Hightower's life and fate would
not be the same.
Vivek Somasundaram
Point of View
• Perspective changes to an unnamed furniture dealer who is
recollecting the story to his wife.
Plot Summary
• The furniture dealer is filling up gas when Lena asks him if he will
give her and Byron a ride. Initially the dealer consents because he
believes that the couple is married, but upon closer examination
of when they camp out together he realizes that the couple is not
married and they are currently still searching for Lucas Burch.
The dealer witnesses Byron attempt to convince Lena to stop
looking for Lucas Burch, but Lena does not reply, she simply
smiles at Byron. Frustrated with Lena, Byron storms off in to the
wilderness and then returns and attempts to “lay” with Lena. This
attempt is immediately rejected by Lena and then Byron storms
off in to the woods for a second time and the dealer and Lena,
calm and collect, eat breakfast and prepare to leave. Just as the
truck is turning a curve, Byron is seen, waiting to board the truck
again. As Byron gets in the truck again, the dealer updates the
couple that the truck will soon be entering Saulsbury, Tennessee
and Lena reflects about how far she has come.
Analysis
• Faulkner keeps to the circular structure of the novel by beginning
and ending the narrative with Lena. Lena and Byron’s relationship
is also clearly defined as a symbiotic connection that voids
sexuality. Though Byron attempts to leave Lena twice in this
chapter, it is evident that he can not and that Lena and Bryon
both need each other to survive. Also it seems to the reader that
the reason Lena and Byron are travelling is to find and connect
with Lucas Burch, but upon deeper examination it is found that
there is a much more complex motivation behind her constant
“moving”. Lena is moving, because her character is in a situation
where if she stops moving, she will have to settle down and live
the rest of her life in that area. However, she does not settle down,
rather she continues to trek through both the roads of the South
and the roads of her soul. Her refusal to stop shows that she is a
strong character who will not stop moving until she finds some
sort of enlightenment, much like Joe Christmas and Reverend
Hightower experienced earlier in the novel.
Important Quotes
• “He looked like a good fellow, the kind that would hold a job steady and
work at the same job a long time, without bothering anybody about a
raise neither, long as they let him keep on working. That was what he
looked like. He looked like except when he was at work, he would just be
something around. I just couldn’t imagine anybody, any woman,
knowing that they had ever slept with him, let alone having anything to
show folks to prove it”. Pp 496. (Direct Characterization of Byron)
• “He hadn’t even mentioned marriage, neither. But that’s what he was
talking about, and her listening placid and calm, like she had heard it
before and she knew that she never even and to bother to say either yes
or no to him. Smiling a little she was. But he couldn’t see that” pp501
(Byron and Lena’s relationship)
• “Yes, sir. You cant beat a woman. Because do you know what I think? I
think she was just travelling. I don’t think she had any idea of finding
whoever it was she was following. I don’t think she ahd ever aimed to,
only she hadn’t told him yet. I reckon this was the first time she had ever
been further away from home than she could wlk back before sundown in
all her life……….That’s what I think” pp 506. (Direct Characterization of
Lena)
Historical
Content
Eliza Albritton
Modernism in Literature
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
http://www.enotes.com/light-august/historical-context
Post WWI
Modernists reflected the spirit and zeal of the era.
People had lost faith in government, established religions, and other traditional
institutions.
http://www.online-literature.com/periods/modernism.php
Beginning of the division between “high” art and “low” art.
Poets took the biggest advantage of the changing times.
The “Lost Generation” of American authors has become well known in their
connection to Modernism.
Recording the workings of consciousness was popular in literature.
Major Modernist authors include:
–
–
–
–
–
Joseph Conrad
T.S. Eliot
William Faulkner
Ernest Hemmingway
Virginia Woolf
The Great Depression
• http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/ab
out.htm
• Economic catastrophe that effected North America,
Europe, and other industrialized parts of the world.
• By 1933, 11,000 of the country’s 25,000 banks had failed.
• By 1932, unemployment had risen to around 30
percent of the workforce.
• Exposed the weaknesses and imbalance of the US
economy.
• The Dust Bowl affected the Southern Plains and
thousands of people migrated westward.
Faulkner’s Life
•
•
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulknerbio.html
Grew up in Oxford, Mississippi.
Was in the Canadian and British, Royal Air Force during WWI.
The human drama in Faulkner's novels is based on the actual, historical drama of
the time period and the culture of the old South.
Many of his novels involve the theme of racial prejudice in the south.
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/
While trying to be admitted into the air force, he changed the spelling of his
name from Falkner to Faulkner because it looked more British.
His first volume of poetry was published in 1924 and was entitled The Marble
•
•
•
Claimed he wrote As I Lay Dying “in six weeks, without changing a word.”
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lightinaugust/context.html
Had a daughter who died within the first few days of her life in 1931.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Faun.
Sydney Anderson
Stream of consciousness:
• “Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer
than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders . . . ” (Ch. 6, pg.
119)
• The chapters are written to reflect the mind of the person that is
narrating at that point. In this excerpt, Faulkner emphasizes the
way that Joe Christmas slips back into his memories of growing
up. The rest of the chapter is written in a way that a person of
Christmas’s social stature would speak, or think, with slightly
disconnected fragments and crude words. Hightower’s chapters
are more eloquent because he is more educated and put together,
but they have disturbing moments as the darker, solitary side of
him takes over. Lena’s chapters are very straightforward and
simple, with colloquial language that matches her character.
External vs. Conscious vs.
Subconscious
• External : conversations held between characters or things said out loud
by the narrator
• Conscious : “ ‘She’ll make the first sign. ‘ “ (pg. 239) thoughts held by the
narrator that he/she knows they are having
• Subconscious : “By God, if that’s him, what are we doing, standing around
here? Murdering a white woman the black son of a “ thoughts that are
held by the narrators, but they have no control over
• These thoughts and conversations help develop the complexity of
characters by letting the reader see farther into their minds than the
characters can themselves.
Circular/Elastic Plot Structure :
• The whole story begins with the pregnant young woman
Lena, who then meets Byron Bunch, and through him we
are introduced to Gail Hightower, and then to Joe
Christmas. The two main characters, Lena and Joe, never
meet in the book, but their stories would not be complete
without the opposition held by the other person’s. The
story line also jumps between different times in the past,
and the present. During these flashbacks in the characters’
lives, critical elements of the personalities are revealed
and more is added to the plot, but while still leaving us
with questions about the truth and the meanings behind
the christian fanatics, racial slurs, identity crises, brutal
attacks, hopeful thoughts, and moments of redemption.
Characters
Jessica Cotter
•
•
•
Lena Groves- Lena is the outside of the circular structure and thus the beginning
and the ending of the book. She is a woman who is on a journey to find Lucas
Burch, the man who impregnated her and moved away with a promise of sending
word. Lena comes to Jefferson following Lucas and leading others with her
presence. The theme she connects to is the burden of the past, almost in the
sense that she reverses it. Lena has the most obvious burden from the past, a
baby in her stomach or her arms, yet she is the least weighed down by her past of
all of the characters.
Gail Hightower- Hightower is the middle ring of the circular structure and the
connecting instrument between the other two protagonists. He is a man who
used to be a minister in Jefferson but after his wife’s suicide he was no allowed to
preacher. He serves as a trusted man much after that though with the solution to
Lena and Christmas’s problems coming through his house. The theme he
connects to is the burdens of the past as his whole life as we see it is defined by
his wife’s suicide and his having been forced from the church.
Joe Christmas- Joe Christmas is the center of the circular structure and the meat
of the book. He is a man of possible mixed race who has been abused most of his
life and, during the present of the book, is being hunted as the murderer of
Joanna Burden. The theme he is connected to is the search for identity.
Throughout the book, Joe tosses himself between the worlds of various races and
people, only at the end seeming to come to terms with his mixed blood.
•
•
•
•
Joe Brown/Lucas Burch- Lucas is Lena’s lost lover and the close friend of Joe
Christmas throughout the book. He worked at the mill and was very quick to sell
Joe out for a thousand dollar reward. The theme he connects to is the search for
identity. This is shown through his constant swings of allegiance and desires. He
is originally portrayed as Joe’s friend and the love of Lena’s life but turns on
them without much warning.
Byron Bunch- Bryon is a resident of Jefferson who works at the mill. He meets
Lena early on and quickly falls in love with her, leading to him assisting her
throughout the rest of the novel. He puts much faith in Hightower, constantly
coming to him for everything. Byron represents the theme of gender roles. He
does this by being extremely submissive to Lena and not taking on the supposed
male attitude of the time, mainly the negative perception of her child.
Joanna Burden- Joanna is the woman who Joe murdered and is also the woman
who was his lover for many years. Joanna is an isolated woman who takes in Joe
Brown when he arrives. She is a white advocate for the black community as well,
which adds to her isolation. She subverts the theme of lack of identity because
throughout her whole affair with Joe she seems to know exactly who she is and
exactly what she wants and she goes for it even if Joe doesn’t agree.
Simon McEachern- McEachern is the adopted father of Joe Brown. He is a crazed
Christian and subjects Joe to many beatings in the name of religion throughout
Joe’s childhood. He is also the first human Joe kills in the book. He connects t the
theme of Burden of the past because he is one of those burdens that bog Joe
down.
• Doc Hines-Doc Hines is Joe’s grandfather who appears halfway
through the book. He believes Joe is the devil’s curse on him
because he was conceived through a man whom he believed was
black and throughout the book preached that Joe should be killed.
Doc Hines represents the theme of race division as his whole
conflict in the book revolves around Joe’s possible black blood.
• Mrs. Hines-Mrs. Hines is Joe’s grandmother who appears halfway
through the book. She appears to be a steadfast, sturdy woman
who truly cares for her grandchild and wants to help him. Mrs.
Hines goes with the theme of gender roles because while she
seems to play submissive throughout her past, when she is seen in
Jefferson she seems t be the anchoring for her family.
• Bobbie Allen-Bobbie is a prostitute whom Joe falls in love with
early in his youth. She treats him as a customer but does seem to
care about Joe to some extent. She leaves town though after
McEachern attacks her. Bobbie represents the theme of gender
roles as she is shown in manly qualities, such as her hands and her
name, though she is a woman.
Symbols
Grace Shore
Food Symbolism
• Food symbolism: Throughout the book there is plenty of food
mentioned to symbolize Faulkner's intent with his characters.
Mainly influencing Joe Christmas, food continues to pop up with a
deeper intent. Such as the nature of food, it is a natural and
necessary thing that gives those who nourish there bodies
pleasure and ecstasy, in a more scientific approach, food and sex
are one of the two things that can trigger the pleasure sensor in
your brain. having knowing that in comparison to Joe Christmas
food is a source of his problems; the dietitian and the toothpaste,
his adopted mothers offering thrown to the floor, and even the
impending hunger when he's on the run. Many of which it was his
fault, so logically it comes to the expression of denied
pleasure(happiness) that eventually starve him aka kill him.
Christian Symbolism
• Christian symbolism: A long with the general amount
of symbols of crucifixes and churches accompanied by
the fact the Hightower was a priest. Joe Christmas
becomes a symbol himself as his name Christmas refers
to Jesus Christ, becoming the dubious Christ figure of
the novel. alluring the readers from his origins as
being born from a unwedded woman that at the time
should be a virgin, going as far as following in his
footsteps, i.e. time in the wilderness and relations with
a prostitute. Joe excluded there also is the sheep's
introduction during the hunt, a bloody sacrifice for
joe's sexual urges referencing to Christ being a
shepherd (sheep) and a woman's menstrual cycle
(blood) sacrificing any good nature in Joe and
becoming the foil of Jesus as he follows a different
road.
Where there’s smoke there’s fire
symbolism
• Where there's smoke there's fire
symbolism: What is also present in Light
in August is the choice of fire. Going with
the phrase were there's smoke there's fire,
the most evident is Mrs. Burdens house
fire. As it was only the smoke first
mentioned before any actual realization
of the fire itself just like the ill omen was
naturally followed by the gruesome
murder. Smoke becoming a signal of
warning and often used to distribute
messages i.e. moss code tells the reader at
the very beginning the up incoming fire
throughout Jefferson.