Sanctuary by William Faulkner | Characters, Summary, Analysis

 Sanctuary by William Faulkner | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Faulkner introduced Temple Drake, one of his most successful characters of the fictional Yoknapatawpah county in 1931 through his fifth novel titled Sanctuary. He again wrote another novel titled Requiem for a Nun in 1951 that was a sequel to Sanctuary and continued the story of Temple Drake.

William Faulkner said that he wrote this novel to make financial gains and was not internally motivated for its story. He said, “To me, it is a cheap idea, because it was deliberately conceived to make money. ... I took a little time out, and speculated what a person in Mississippi would believe to be current trends, chose what I thought would be the right answer and invented the most horrific tale I could imagine.” However, with time, this novel by Faulkner proved to be one of his best tragic horror stories. It is one such novel in which villainy simply outweighs heroism.

Characters of Sanctuary

Temple Drake is a student at the University of Mississippi. She belongs to a rich family, the daughter of a prestigious judge. She is young, beautiful, voluptuous, and infamous for being a fast girl. A fast girl is a promiscuous girl who doesn’t indiscriminate against her sexual partners. Popeye is a criminal with a dark past. He is connected to the Memphis Underworld. He is physically impotent. He rapes Temple Drake with a corncob and then abducts her and keeps her in a room at a brothel as his sex slave. Lee Goodwin is a bootlegger, employer of Popeye, and Tommy. Lee Goodwin is wrongly accused of murdering Tommy, he is then convicted and lynched as Temple Drake gives wrong and untrue testimony against him. Tommy is a half-wit member of Lee Goodwin’s bootlegging crew. He is murdered by Popeye while trying to protect Temple Drake. Horace Benbow is a lawyer who represents Lee Goodwin's trial for Tommy’s murder. He is intelligent and well-intentioned yet fails to save Goodwin against Temple’s false testimony. He is facing a troubled marriage. Ruby Lamar is Lee Goodwin’s common-law wife, that is, she is not actually married to him but lives with him and bears his children. Nobody liked her in the city for living a sinful life with a criminal like Goodwin. Gowan Stevens is a self-centered alcoholic irresponsible man who takes Temple to the Goodwin House. He runs away abandoning Temple alone to face Popeye. Miss Reba is a brothel owner where Popeye takes and keeps Temple. Red is a petty criminal whom Popeye forces to have sex with Temple as he watches because he is impotent. Later on, he kills Red as he feels that Temple may fall in love with him. Narcissa Sartoris is Horace’s sister, she is vain and self-absorbed but helps her brother. Pensacola is Horace’s estranged wife.

Summary of Sanctuary

In May 1929, Horace Benbow leaves his home in Kinston, Mississippi after a fight with his wife and reaches Jefferson, his hometown in Yoknapatawpah county. He decides to go to his widowed sister Narcissa Sartoris’s house where she lives with her son and mother-in-law aunt Jenny. On the way to his sister’s home, he stops at Old Frenchman Homestead to drink some water. This place is occupied by Lee Goodwin, a notorious bootlegger. Horace encounters Popeye, a criminal associate of Lee, and they stare at each other. Popeye takes him to meet Lee Goodwin and other gang members. Popeye introduces Benbow as "Professor." Benbow meets Ruby Lamar, a twenty-something woman who serves as the cook. Ruby is considered to be Goodwin's wife although it is not a legal arrangement. Horace rests at the plantation and leaves for Jefferson at night as he gets a ride. He reaches Narcissa's home and they argue over him leaving his wife at Kinston. Horace meets Gowan Stevens, a local young man who has been courting Narcissa. Horace leaves his sister’s house and goes to his paternal house that has been vacant since his parents’ death.

Gowan is a rich brat belonging to a wealthy family who just returned from the University of Virginia where he got alcoholic. He has a date with Temple Drake, a student of the University of Mississippi, daughter of a reputed Judge of Jefferson. Temple Drake is infamous as a promiscuous girl. During the date, Temple and Gowan make a plan to go to Starksville the next morning by train. However, after leaving Temple at her home, Gowan engages in drinking and passes off. In the morning, he wakes up late and finds that Temple has already left. He rides by his vehicle and catches Temple at the next station and suggests that they should drive together to Starksville. Temple agrees even though it was against the University rules.

During the travel, Gowan decides to stop at Old Frenchman Place to get some alcohol. When he reaches there, he crashes his car to an old fallen tree that Popeye kept across the drive to avert police in case of a raid. Luckily, Tommy sees them and helps them recover. He takes them to the mansion where they meet Popeye and others. Lee Goodwin was away from the plantation. Temple realizes that something bad is about to happen as she is terrified by Gowan’s strange behavior and these strange people.

Temple meets Ruby, who immediately sees that the young girl does not belong at the plantation or anywhere in her world. Ruby tries to convince Temple to leave the plantation. Temple tries to convince Gowan to leave but she fails as Popeye offers more whiskey to Gowan. After the nightfall, Goodwin returns to the plantation and he gets upset after knowing that Temple and Gowan are staying for the night. He also joins Popeye, Gowan, and Van, another member of his bootlegging gang, and starts drinking. Ruby told Temple not to be with the men in the same room but she didn’t listen and chose to remain with Gowan. Van knowingly provokes Gowan to start an argument. He then moves towards Temple with a sinister plan. Gowan realizes that he needs to protect Temple and intervenes and then Van starts a fight with him and beats him. Temple gets distressed, she is fearful of bootleggers and she is worried that her family reputation will be ruined if people come to know that instead of attending her school, she is spending the night with bootleggers. She is condescending and this angers Popeye.

Gowan is taken to another room and Temple throws him on a bed. Tommy and Ruby try their best to protect Temple. In the morning, Gowan decides to run away abandoning Temple at the plantation. Tommy realizes the situation and tries to protect Temple by hiding her in a corn crib in the barn. When Popeye comes to know that Gowan has left Temple, he devises a sinister plan and starts looking for her. Soon he finds Tommy and Temple in the barn. As Tommy tries to intervene, he shoots him dead. After killing Tommy, Popeye rapes Temple using a corncob as he is impotent. After raping and enjoying her body thoroughly, he puts her in his car and drives away to Memphis, Tennesse, where he has some underworld connections.
At Jefferson, Goodwin is accused and jailed for the murder of Tommy. Horace, being a lawyer takes up the case of Goodwin and soon comes to know that Popeye murdered Tommy and abducted Temple. He tries to help Ruby Lamar and her children but her sister Narcissa refuses to help.

Meanwhile, Popeye keeps Temple in a room at a brothel owned by Miss Reba. Miss Reba is too much impressed by Popeye as she finds Temple a great catch. Popeye continues to torment Temple and he starts bringing Red, another criminal of Memphis to his room at the brothel to have sex with Temple while he watches.

One day, a co-worker of Temple’s father visits the brothel and sees Temple. He informs her father about Temple’s whereabout and Horace also gets the information after paying that man. Horace visits the brothel and meets Temple in absence of Popeye. Temple tells him her ordeal and how she is continually being raped. Horace tells her to help him save Lee Goodin by giving a testimony that Popeye had murdered Tommy. However, Temple has lost her innocence and will to return to the old respected world. When a servant of Miss Reba lets Temple leave, she decides to go to Popeye instead of meeting Horace. Popeye takes her to a house where he is living with Red. Temple tries to have furtive sex with Red but he repels her. Popeye notices that Temple might be in love with red. He decides to send Temple back to the brothel while he kills Red. However, when Miss Reba comes to know that Popeye has murdered Red, she turns against him and throws them out.

In Jefferson, Horace argues in court to save Goodwin. The next day, Temple surprisingly arrives in the court and gives false testimony against Goodwin. She says that Goodwin murdered Tommy and raped her. Horace is devastated as he loses the case and Goodwin is sentenced. The crowd gets mad and Goodwin is lynched and set ablaze by the crowd. The crowd also talks of lynching Benbow, the lawyer who tried to save such a sinister man but Benbow somehow escapes. When he reaches back to his home, he finds his wife Pensacola who visited to see him.

After some days, Popeye is caught for some other crime that he didn’t actually commit. He is sentenced and hanged. Temple returns to his father who takes her to a Sanctuary in Paris, France to recover.

Analysis of Sanctuary

The novel is a realistic horror story in which evil is shown defeating goodness. Temple is a fast girl who is not afraid of making friends with men but she isn’t a corrupt person. When Popeye abandons her, she finds that she is actually enjoying the torture and degradation she is going through. When she gets a chance to leave and save herself, she decides to go back to Popeye. Popeye is impotent and she tries to make a relationship with Red which he declines while he had sex with her in presence of Popeye. A movie by the title The Story of Temple Drake was made in 1933 and in 1961, a movie titled Sanctuary was released which included the story of its sequel Requiem of Nun too.

In 1007, the Russian movie Cargo 200 also had a similar plot as that of Sanctuary.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss other works by William Faulkner. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Of Education by John Milton | Summary, Analysis, Context

 Of Education by John Milton | Summary, Analysis, Context

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Of Education was a reformative tract written by John Milton in the year 1644. Milton published it as a single eight [age quarto sheet without a publishing date and name of the author. However, it was reprinted and added in John Milton’s collective work titled ‘Poems, etc. upon several Occasions With a small tractate “Of Education — to Mr. Hartlib” in the year 1673.

Of Education offers the views of John Milton about the contemporary education system of England and how it should be changed for improvement. In his own words, this tract represents John Milton’s clearest views “concerning the best and noblest way of education.”

According to Milton, education serves both social and spiritual or moral purposes. On one hand, education helps “fit a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war” on the other hand, education also serves the purpose to “repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to be like Him, as we may the nearest by possessing our soul of true virtue”

In this essay, Milton is not gender-neutral and he is explicitly suggesting that he is not much concerned with the education of girls as they could not be “brave men and worthy patriots.”

Milton maintained this view throughout his life and even in Paradise Lost, he represented Eve as a submissive, inferior companion of Adam who is a little farther to God than Adam and hence, is lower in the hierarchy. Also, whenever Raphael, Michael, or other Archangels visited Paradise to consult, instruct, or teach Adam, Eve willfully remained absent from the conversation as she preferred to gain all required knowledge from and through Adam (that is, the male companion, or the husband, is the teacher of wife). This Miltonian idea was against his contemporaries such as Moravian educator John Comenius who suggested a pleasurable method of education applicable to and intended for all — boys and girls, the able and the dull, all social ranks.” Even Simon Hartlib and his circle of trusted advisors believed that girls should have equal opportunities for education.

Like John Amos Comenius, Milton proposed a natural method of learning classical languages including Greek and Latin, and devoting much lesser time to learning Grammar. He believes that it would be better for students if they devote more time to reading, learning, and experiencing classical literature during their early years, rather than wasting their time in parroting grammatical rules and regulations that one can understand and learn by themselves while learning literature. According to Hartlib, Comenius, and Milton, the current system of education which was in continuation with the medieval education system and stressed more on the grammar of Latin and Greek rather than books, was a waste of time. Milton stressed that historical and literary study as “steadfast pillars of the State” and believed that the object of education was to make good citizens of the state. Thus students should devote more time in learning historical and literary books instead of wasting their time learning grammar.

Milton got his school education from St. Paul’s School founded by Erasmus and Thomas More and he had their influence on him. Furthermore, he practically applied his ideas of education as he himself ran a school in his home for his nephews and other boys.

While discussing the medieval curriculum in his tract, Milton clarifies that the old education system makes learning generally so unpleasing and unsuccessful. He targets grammar as he is critical both of the amount of time spent on it as well as its mechanical emphasis: “we do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one year”.

Milton says that the progress of students is delayed by “forcing the empty wits of children to compose theme, verses, and orations” while he suggests after attaining some basic idea of grammar and language, students should “be won early to the love of virtue” by having “some easy and delightful book of education” from among the ancient classics read to them. The objective is not simply to teach grammar, but to “inflame [students] with the study of learning”. This, for Milton, was best accomplished through the reading of great literature.

Milton supported the humanistic approach to education against the medieval didactic process of learning. The humanistic theory is composed of three beliefs: first, that education disciplines one in preparation for life as an active citizen; second, that in-depth readings of ancient writers is a critical facet of this discipline; and third, an animosity towards medieval educational practices, which emphasized scholasticism over public life. Milton suggested that education should inspire as it challenges, “infusing into [students’] young breasts such an ingenious and noble ardor, as would not fail to make many of them renowned and matchless men.”

Milton further criticized the sequence of medieval curriculum as he derides the medieval practice of presenting their young unmatriculated novices, at the first coming, with the most intellective abstractions of logic and metaphysics after having only recently left “those grammatic flats and shallows where they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with lamentable construction."

Instead, he suggested that young students should begin with the easiest arts that are most obvious to the senses. Instead of the deductive method, he supported the inductive method of education that should start with sensible things that students can practical experience. He suggests that students should progress to learning, harder, abstract, invisible things only after mastering the former, practical, empirical inductive education. Thus, while the art of logic and rhetoric was the main base of Medieval education, Milton suggested that rhetoric and logic must be taught at the end. Furthermore, Milton believes that students should be introduced to poetry along with other soft easy arts at the beginning of education as he says that poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed, rather precedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.

Thus Milton proposed a curriculum that included grammar, arithmetic, geometry, religion, agriculture, geography, astronomy, physics, trigonometry, ethics, economics, languages, politics, the law, theology, church history, poetry, rhetoric, and logic. Milton believed that students should be prepared to be good, successful, productive citizens of the state in the future.

So this is about the Tracts Of Education by John Milton. We will continue to discuss his other works. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

The Divorce Tracts by John Milton and other prose works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. John Milton began as a poet but after the publication of Lycidas in 1637, he actively took part in the civil unrest and started publishing prose works, tracts, and pamphlets in favor of Puritan and Parliamentarian cause. He enthusiastically wrote many texts and pamphlets against episcopacy. From 1640 to 1660, John Milton predominantly wrote prose works. One of his earliest prose works was Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England which was published in 1641.

Of Reformation by John Milton

John Milton often raised and supported the ideas of individual liberty and the limits of social and religious institutions. Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England is a pamphlet with two in which Milton discussed how Anglican Chruch is gradually becoming as corrupt as the Roman Catholic Church is and why the English Church requires stern reformation and changes. Milton further published four more pamphlets on the same line discussing the church hierarchy and Presbyterianism. In Of Reformation, Milton expresses religion as a living body and suggests that proper reformation and changes will improve the body. He further attacks the church system and says that any mediating agency between an individual soul and the Almighty would hinder this pure connection between man and God. He literally criticized the church, government, and liturgy and suggested that these institutions harm the religion. Milton suggests that the Church tries to offer a shape to God while though God does have a shape, it is beyond human perception and thus, any attempt to give a body to God will corrupt the divinity. He metaphorically compares religion with a human body with various parts. In Book II, John Milton offers the Tale of Wen in which Wen tries to establish that he is the supreme and most important part of the body. However, a philosopher appears and discusses the role of Wen and proves that Wen is just a parasite that is exploiting the other parts of the body. Milton then compares the Church system with Wen.

In this pamphlet, Milton opposed the establishment of the Central church government as was the case of the Roman Catholic Church (under Pope) and Anglican Church (headed by the Monarch of England). Instead of central authoritarianism, Milton supported local governance and suggested that individual congregations should govern themselves.

The Divorce Tracts

From August 1643 to March 1645, John Milton published four pamphlets in 18 months and all of them offered his idea of the need for freedom to divorce. He suggested that the freedom to divorce will prove to be beneficial for both sexes. These four tracts were The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The Judgement of Martin Bucer, Tetrachordon, and Colasterion.

In all these tracts, the central idea was that divorce could be “to the good of both sexes.”

The full title of the first pamphlet was The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: Restor'd to the Good of Both Sexes, From the Bondage of Canon Law and it was published in August 1643. The Judgment of Martin Bucer was published in July 1644 in which he supported the pro-divorce arguments of German protestant reformer Martin Bucer. In Tetrachordon, John Milton offered his viewpoint of the four important scriptural texts about Divorce. These four scriptural passages deal with divorce and these are Genesis1:27–28, Deuteronomy 24:1, Matthew 5:31–32 and 19:2–9, and I Corinthians 7:10–16. Tetrachrodon was published in March 1645, and in the same month, Milton published the fourth tract on divorce titled Colasterion which means “rod of punishment” in Greek.

Background

In June 1642, John Milton got married to Mary Powell, a 17-year-old young girl. He was 34 years old. Mary Powell belonged to a royalist family and she was also a royalist while Milton was a supporter of Parliamentarians. Milton believed that Mary Powell was intellectually inferior to him, also, she was too young to him. Furthermore, while Mary Powell belonged to an affluent family and was raised with all comforts, John Milton lead an austere lifestyle by nature. This created a rift between the newlywed couple and Mary soon decided to desert John Milton alone and went back to her family home. In The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, John Milton not only offered the reason and logic behind his argument for freedom of divorce between an incompatible couple. At that time, the subject of Divorce in England was ruled by the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. Strictly speaking, divorce was almost forbidden and was only allowed in extreme cases of adultery. Milton couldn’t blame Mary Powel for adultery and hence, his divorce to her was impossible. Milton thus raised the logic of individual volition and personal liberty.

The argument of the Tracts on Divorce

In a way, Milton opposed the Spiritual authority over marriage as mentioned in Matthew 19: 3 – 9 while offering his idea of marriage based on human nature. He opposes marriage as merely a means to procreate or reproduce, or as a remedy against fornication. Rather he emphasizes human nature and why God created an able companion for man. He argues that the purpose of marriage is "the apt and cheerful conversation of man with woman, to comfort and refresh him against the evils of solitary life" Milton says that if a couple is "mistak’n in their dispositions through any error, concealment, or misadventure" for them "spight of antipathy to fadge together, and combine as they may to their unspeakable wearisomnes and despaire of all sociable delight" violates the purpose of marriage as mutual companionship. Thus, according to Milton, if a married couple finds that they are mutually incompatible and cannot bear being with each other, they must be allowed to legally and respectfully divorce each other.

Milton continued to support and express his idea of the purpose of marriage and did so even in Paradise Lost in which he describes how Adam felt lonely while observing other animals enjoying the fruits of companionship. Adam then begs God to offer him a companion and God creates Eve from Adam’s rib.

Achievements of Doctrine on Divorce

Milton vociferously argued in support of the freedom to divorce and raised his argument in front of the Westminister Assembly. He argued that divorce is a private matter. Though his argument was not fully accepted, the Westminster Assembly agreed that in certain circumstances, as in the case of adultery or abandonment, divorce must be allowed. The Westminster Assembly was broadly a Puritan organization. Milton himself was a Puritan. While Puritans were supposed to follow Scriptures word by word, it was a big win for Milton as the Westminster Assembly agreed to loosen the rules on Divorce in special cases of adultery and abandonment. Despite that, Milton couldn’t divorce Mary Powell and in 1645, Mary Powell returned to Milton and both of them successfully led married life.

So this was it about the initial prose works of John Milton. We will continue to discuss his other works in the upcoming videos. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Absalom, Absalom! By William Faulkner | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Absalom, Absalom is one of the most successful novels by William Faulkner. Its success, along with the success of The Sound and The Fury paved way for the Nobel prize of literature for William Faulkner. Like his other novels, the story of Absalom, Absalom depicts the deterioration of Southern American society, before, during, and after the American Civil War. It is a southern gothic novel. As the name suggests, Absalom, Absalom is a novel based on Biblical allegorical content. The story involves three families while the central character of the novel is Thomas Sutpen. The title is an allusion to the Biblical King David and his son Absalom, who fought against the empire of King David. The story is narrated by Quentin Compson to his co-student and roommate Sherve at Harvard College. Quentin was also a notable character of The Sound and The Fury and hence, these two novels can be correlated.

Characters of Absalom Absalom!

Thomas Sutpen is the major character of the novel. He buys and develops a plantation named Sutpen’s Hundred at Yoknapatawpah county near Jefferson, Mississippi. He marries Ellen Coldfield to make a dynasty. He is an indomitable, wilful, and powerful man, a shrewd and daring businessman. He is murdered by Wash Jones in 1869.

Charles Bon is the son of Thomas Sutpen and Eulalia Bon. Eulalia is a part-colored daughter of the owner of a Haitian plantation where Thomas Sutpen was an overseer. When Sutpen learns Eulalia’s part black ancestry, he leaves her and their son Charles. Eulalia and Charles then move to New Orleans Henry Sutpen is the son of Thomas Sutpen and Ellen Coldfield. He is the legitimate heir of Sutpen’s Hundred. Judith Sutpen is Thomas and Ellen’s daughter. She is a strong-willed and determined young girl who falls in love with Charles Bon. Goodhue Coldfield is a methodist and respectful merchant, father of Ellen and Rosa Coldfield. Rosa Coldfield is the younger daughter of Goodhue, she is 27 years younger than Ellen. Clytemnestra (Clytie) is another daughter of Thomas Sutpen by a slave woman.

General Compson is the grandfather of Quentin Compson, a friend of Thomas Sutpen. He tells a great deal about Sutpen. Jason Compson III (Mr. Compson) is the son of General Compson, the father of Quentin Compson. He tells part of the story of Thomas Sutpen. Quentin Compson is a young student at Harvard College who tried to tell what the South is like by telling the story of Thomas Sutpen to his friend and roommate Sherve.

Summary of Absalom, Absalom!

The novel depicts the story of Thomas Sutpen which is narrated by various narrators in parts and each part offers a different insight into the life, success, and failure of Thomas Sutpen. Quentin Compson tells this story to Sherve, his roommate with his own interpretations. Quentin learned about Sutpen through Rosa Coldfield. His grandfather was a close friend of Sutpen and he also told his stories to Quentin. Mr. Compson, father of Quentin also narrates a part of Sutpen’s story.

The story of Sutpen is offered in nonchronological order and it begins with Sutpen arriving in Jefferson, Mississippi with some slaves and a French architect whom he managed to work for him. Sutpen buys 100 square miles of land from a local native American tribe and starts building his plantation along with a huge mansion within it. From his early days, Thomas Sutpen had learned that money and power can let a man have all the pleasures that they want. His only desire is to create a huge fortune and have able an able heir to establish his dynasty. To achieve his aim, he decides to marry. He makes friends with a local reputed merchant Mr. Coldfield and proposes to marry his elder daughter Ellen Coldfield. With time, Ellen offers him two children, a son named Henry and a daughter named Judith. Thomas loves his kids and cares a lot for them.

As Henry grows young, he decides to go to the University of Mississippi for higher studies. At the University, he meets Charles Bon and though Charles is ten years senior to him, Henry makes a close friendship with him. He invites and takes Charles to Sutpen’s Hundred for the Christmas leaves. At Sutpen’s Hundred, Charles wins the hearts of everybody with his suave mannerism. Judith starts liking him and soon they fall in love. Charles and Judith express their desire to marry and initially, everybody agrees to the engagement. However, Thomas realizes that Charles appears too much familiar to him. He decides to know more about him and realizes that Charles Bon is his own son from his earlier marriage during the days he used to work as an overseer at a Haitian plantation.

He remembers how he married the daughter of the owner of the Haitian plantation where he used to work. He had a son from his first marriage. However, soon he came to know that his wife, Eulalia Bon was of mixed breed and she had 1/16th lack blood in her birth. Thomas Sutpen couldn’t accept this betrayal and decided to nullify his marriage with Eulalia and leave his wife and son. However, he leaves all his wealth and fortune that he made in Haiti to his wife and son as moral compensation. Eulalia takes her son Charles to New Orleans to start a new life.

Though the family accepts Thomas Sutpen’s decision to cancel the engagement of Charles and Judith, Henry is not satisfied by it and Judith turns rebellious. Henry decides to confront his father and ask for the reason for his opposition to Judith’s marriage with Charles. Sutpen reveals that Charles is Henry’s and Judith’s half-brother, his own son. Henry feels heartbroken. He refuses to believe Thomas and repudiates his birthright. Then he goes away with Charles to his home in New Orleans.

After some time, Charles and Henry return to the University of Mississippi where they enroll as soldiers in the Confederate Army to fight in the Civil War. During the war, Henry continues to face the dilemma of love between his sister Judith and his friend and half-brother Charles. Ultimately, he takes the side of Judith and Charles and decides to let them marry. When Thomas Sutpen comes to know this, he meets Charles and tells him why he left his first wife Eulalia and son Charles. He reveals that Eulalia had part-colored black ancestry and hence Charles is also not pureblood but a mixed breed. This changes Henry’s view about Charles and Judith. Thomas says that Henry must do everything possible to stop them from marrying and Henry agrees. As the Civil War ends, Henry enacts his father's interdiction of marriage between Charles and Judith, killing Charles at the gates to the mansion and then fleeing into self-exile.

Thomas Sutpen also returns from the war and finds out that wanderer northerner Carpetbeggars have captured most of his land and his famous Sutpen's Hundred is now limited to only a square mile area. His wife has already died and his son Henry is in exile. To repair his dynasty again, he proposes Rosa Coldfield, the younger daughter of Ellen to marry him. While Rosa accepts his proposal of marriage, Thomas Sutpen lays a strange and insulting demand that Rosa must bear him a son before the wedding takes place. Rosa declines and she is forced to leave Sutpen Hundred. Thomas makes a cordial relationship with Wash Jones, a squatter who lives on Sutpen’s plantation, and makes an affair with Milly, the 15-year-old granddaughter of Wash Jones. He only desires to have a son, an heir to his fortune but much to his dismay, Milly gives birth to a daughter. On the same night, a female horse in his stable sired a male horse. In his disappointment, Sutpen insults Milly and casts her out of his mansion. He tells her that she and her daughter is not worthy of sleeping even in his stable where a horse gave birth to a male. Milly goes to her grandfather and when Wash Jones hears all this, he feels betrayed and anguished. In his anger, he murders Thomas Sutpen before murdering his own granddaughter and her daughter. Finally, he commits suicide while resisting arrest.

When Quentin comes to know about these tragedies, he decides to visit Sutpen’s Hundred and takes Rosa back to her home. There Quentin and Rosa find Henry and Clytemnestra. Henry is very ill as he suffers in his exile. Clytemnestra, being his half-sister tries to help him. When Rosa finds them, she feels very sad and returns to bring back some medical aid to help and save Henry. However, when Rosa returns with medical men after some three months, Clytemnestra mistakes them to be law enforcement men trying to capture the remaining of Sutpen’s Hundred. She starts firing against them and soon a gunbattle erupts in which Henry and Clytemnestra both die. Now, none of the Sutpen’s family members remains alive except one black grandson of Charles Bon, a young man who is mentally handicapped. His name is Jim Bon and he lives on the Sutpen’s Hundred.

Analysis of Absalom, Absalom!

The story of Thomas Sutpen is told by different characters with their perspective while none of them know the truth about Sutpen. Rosa Coldfield depicts him as a harsh coldblooded man with no compassion. She blames him for ruining Sutpen’s family by rejecting Charles Bon’s marriage to Judith. However, she is unaware of the truth of Charles Bon and doesn’t know that Judith and Charles had the same father and their relationship was incestual. She further doesn’t know that Charles Bon was of mixed breed. Henry opposes his father and agrees to the marriage of Judith and Charles even after knowing that they are brothers and sisters. But when he comes to know about the part black blood of Charles Bon, he decides to oppose their marriage and murders Charles Bon.

The whole story is allegorical and reminds the story of King David and his son Absalom. Absalom was the third son of biblical King David who also had a sister named Tamara. Absalom was the most handsome man in King David’s empire while Tamara was the most beautiful girl. Her half-brother Amnon, who was the eldest son of King David rapes her. Absalom decides to take revenge against him and kills him after two years. In the novel, Thomas Sutpen is depicted as King David while Henry allegorically appears like Absalom who murders Charles Bon, the eldest son of Thomas Sutpen for having an incestuous relationship with his sister. However, while Henry decides to accept incest between Judith and Charles, he couldn’t accept Charles Bon’s partial black blood. This shows the typical hatred of the South against blacks during the times of the Civil War.

This is it about Absalom, Absalom! We will continue to discuss American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Paradise Lost by John Milton Book 12 | Theme, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. In Book 12, John Milton continued depicting the vision of Adam that God permitted him to have with the help of Michael.

This vision is a punishment to Adam as he comes to know how his and Eve’s wrongdoing will create ruins. He learns one of his firstborn sons will murder his brother. He learns how the whole of humankind will fall and get corrupted and will meet Death as a result of the Great Flood. At the same time, the same vision offers a ray of hope to Adam who realizes that God will continue to show mercy on man and there will be virtuous heroes like Enoch and Noah who will save Humanity and man’s connection to God.

Summary of Book 12

Book 12 begins with the biblical story of Nimrod. Adam sees that Noah successfully led the re-establishment of humankind in obedience to God. One of Noah’s great-grandsons was a great hunter, a brave warrior, and an able leader. His name was Nimrod. Nimrod was called the “first heroic warrior on earth.” Michael says that men ‘shall be his game.’ Just like Satan, Nimrod also falls prey to self-pride and challenges God. He creates a tower so high that no flood can endanger it. The tower is very strong made of mortar and solid rocks. The tower is named as Tower of Babel and Nimrod wishes to reach Heaven through this tower. Despite his vociferous attempts, God is still calm and instead of punishing him harshly, he decrees that now men will speak different languages. Thus, the men working under Nimrod start speaking different languages and fail to comprehend each other. This way, Nimrod’s pretentious attempts fail.

Adam is saddened by the acts of Nimrod. He wonders why some men are allowed to have dominion over others who are free by nature? Michael explains that this is all because of Adam’s own fall. Michael says that since men cannot control their whims and passions, other men take control of societies and rule over them. God sends unjust rulers to control some groups to restrict their personal freedom.

Michael then explains that wickedness continues to rise again and hence God chooses a particular group of people led by their faithful leader Abraham, who carries the seed that will give birth to the Son, the Saviour of mankind. Michael then recites the story of Jacob and Joseph quickly while explaining the enslavement of Israelites in Egypt. He further depicts the rise of Moses who leads the exodus from Egypt. Moses leads men to a desert where God appears and gives commandments to Moses. Moses then makes laws based on those commandments for the societies of people. Adam again asks why men need so many laws? Michael says that since now men are not pure as a result of Adam’s fall, they need laws to keep remembering things that they should do and things that should not be done. Michael further says that even laws will fail to protect men until the Saviour incarnates on earth and sacrifices himself for all mankind.

Joshua leads Israelites to the Promised Land where they make societies and start living under the rules of kings and judges. One of the kings is David who is just and virtuous. His lineage will carry the seed of Saviour. David’s son is Soloman who builds a great Temple where the Ark of Covenant will be safely kept. Michael then says that Sin will again triumph and men will fall prey to corruption and death. Ultimately, God will allow the whole nation into captivity in Babylon. The society will be divided into small factions which will continue to struggle against each other until Jesus the Saviour takes birth from the womb of a Virgin during Roman rule.

Adam is curious and wants to know how the Son defeats Satan. Michael says that the Saviour's victory won’t be easy nor it will be a literal fight of the Son against Satan. The Son fought and defeated Satan and threw him out of Heaven. Satan knows that he cannot win against the Son. However, to save humans, the Son will become human in Jesus and will suffer for his beliefs and will be executed by his fellow men. However, after three days, the Son will rise from the dead and thus will defeat the Death. Jesus will then send his disciples to various parts of the world to spread his message. Those who obey God’s command will be saved and will have eternal life. Michael says that at the end of the time, Jesus will judge all the living and the dead and will take the truly faithful people to the most wonderful paradise of all.

Adam is pleased by knowing that ultimately humankind will again reach the Paradise that is lost because of his and Eve’s fall. However, he is sad because of the ordeal that humankind and the Son himself will have to go through because of his sin. Yet, he feels that it is the greatest pleasure to know that ultimately, death will lead mankind to the greatest reward. Adam feels that his disobedience will now appear to be a good mistake or happy blame because of which, mankind will reach the most wonderful paradise where humans will be able to live eternally with God. Adam says that his hope and possibility appear to be a greater good than his having remained sinless and obedient eternally in the Garden of Eden. Michael is pleased by Adam’s reasoning and he says that now is the time when Adam and Eve must leave the Garden of Eden. Michael says that Adam should add faith, virtue, patience, temperance, and love to his understanding and he will lead a good life and ultimately be with God.

Michael then instructs Adam to wake Eve and tells him to let her know all that he told Adam later on. Meanwhile, Eve was also having a revealing dream. As she wakes up, she appears calm and says that she has learned much from her dream and she knows that her place is with Adam. Eve says that she will follow Adam wherever he leads her. As she learns that she will seed the Saviour, the Son, she becomes happy. Michael holds the hands of both Adam and Eve and leads them out of the Garden of Eden.

Analysis of Book 12

The vision of the future of mankind works as a punishment for Adam as he comes to know how painful and excruciating the future will be for mankind because of his fall. However, he is comforted by the fact that he and Eve will seed the Son who will incarnate as a human to free all humankind free of Sin and Death. He uses his reason to comprehend that despite the ugly episode of his disobedience, it was just a way to let men reach a much better paradise where men will be able to live with God eternally.

With the example of Nimrod, Milton offered his own idea of personal freedom and anarchy. Adam expresses displeasure as he sees some men dominating others. Milton believed in the ability of individual persons to make their own decisions about their lives and God. When a man uses his own rational faculty, he is most free. However, because of Adam’s own fall, men will find it difficult to follow reason as they will fall prey to whims and passions as Adam did and will become slaves to their own desires. Yet, Milton believed that complete freedom will not lead to anarchy as it happens in closed societies such as Churches. Milton further offers his ideas of legal framework and laws. He suggests that while laws are helpful to identify and punish wrongdoing, laws cannot eradicate sin, corruption, and crime.

Book 12 further distinguishes between the fall of Satan and the Fall of Man. Adam and Eve’s disobedience was a sin of their appetite. Eve wishes to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and Adam was subservient to his own passion for Eve. On the other hand, Satan committed the Sin of Reason. He used reason and convoluted it to convince Eve to take the fruit and fall. Thus, Satan used reason for fraudulent purposes and this is considered the greatest of sins.

The vision serves another important purpose in the poem as it strengthens the major theme of Paradise Lost which is Man’s fall. Milton makes it as a series of stories of man’s fall and ascension and again fall and again ascension until Jesus takes birth and sacrifices himself to save entire humankind. Throughout the vision, the poem suggests a story of fall and ascension, freedom and slavery, reason and animal appetites. Milton describes human history as a series of falls from God’s grace as men disobey God from time to time and act irrationally. As men disobey God, they create corruption and reach their doom (as in Tower of Babel) and are again saved and returned to the continual cycle of God’s grace.

In the end, Michael takes Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eden and the poem ends in hope of a chance to eternally live with God in the most wonderful paradise of all.

Adam describes his learning through the vision as --

Henceforth I learn that to obey is best,
And learn to fear that only God, to walk
As in his presence, ever to observe
His providence, and on him sole depend,
Merciful over all his works, with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things, by things deem'd weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly-wise
By simple meek; that suffering for Truth's sake
Is fortitude to highest victory,
And to the faithful Death the Gate of Life (561-571).

This is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Paradise Lost by John Milton Book 11| Theme, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The first version of Paradise Lost was published in 1667 and it contained 10 books. Later on, Milton published the second version in 1674 with 12 books or parts. While the central story of Paradise Lost is Man’s Fall, Book 11, and Book 12 were added to justify the story by explaining the logic behind the events of previous books. God is omnipotent and omniscient. God created Lucifer with a nature prone to pride and that led to Satan’s fall. Satan accuses God created him with a nature that was prone to pride, and, therefore, destined to fall. God created Adam and Eve prone to vanity and passion. It appears as if God planned the fall of Satan and Man both. The poem suggests that God knew Lucifer, Adam, and Eve all will fall at their turn. Thus, the rebellion of Satan against God appears as if it is a struggle against a tyrant. However, if God planned Satan’s fall, he knew Satan would rebel. So the question arises if Adam and Eve and Satan were all predestined to fall, are we, as well, destined to act by our natures in a way that God has already ordained? Eve and Adam disobeyed God by taking the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but was it such a great crime that deserved banishment, guilt, and death?

Milton began Paradise Lost by suggesting that his main aim with this work is to explain and justify the ways of God to man. In book 11, Milton offers justification for the acts of God. On one hand, Satan blames God as a tyrant against whom he rebels, on the other hand, Milton explains how Satan was wrong, how hierarchy is good, and how God’s actions are justified.

Summary of Book 11

Inspired by God’s grace, Adam, and Eve begin praying again. As God hears their prayer, the Son appears and suggests that God should show mercy and forgiveness to Adam and Eve. The Son further says that he will relieve Adam and Eve of their sins through his incarnation and death as a human. The Father agrees that Adam and Eve deserve mercy but He says that Adam and Eve can no more live in Paradise. He then calls a meeting of all angels and announces His decision. He says that now when Man is impure, Adam and Eve must be banished from Paradise. However, God says that through their prayers while leading a good and moral life, Adam and Eve may again be reunited with God after their death.

God then asks Michael to visit the earth and announce His decision to Adam and Eve in such a manner that it may not break their hope. He allows Michael to let Adam see a vision of the future to understand God’s decision in a better manner.

On Earth, Eve is still pensive and depressed but Adam anticipated that their prayers have reached to God and He will show mercy on them. He reassures Eve and says that she will be able to seek revenge against Satan, the serpent. Eve is still feeling guilty about bringing Sin and Death to earth. She believes that she doesn’t deserve to have such a role in God’s planning. Like Satan, Eve has some complaints against God as she knows that whatever happened, happened because God allowed it. Yet, she says that she will try to obey God to the mark and live peacefully in Paradise while accepting her fate.

Michael arrives on earth and meets Adam and Eve. He tells them all about the decision of God and tells them that they cannot live in Paradise anymore. Listening to this, Eve starts crying and Adam feels saddened and hopeless. Eve worries that she will have to leave the Garden, the flowers, fruits, and animals, the river bank where she met Adam, and the bower where they used to spend their nights in love. Adam on the other hand is sad because he feels that this decision will make him further away from God and he will no longer be able to communicate with Him. Michael soothes them and says that God is everywhere and Adam and Eve will be able to pray and communicate with God even after leaving Paradise, wherever they go. Michael says that Adam is the king of the whole earth and not just of Paradise. He says that Adam and Eve may go anywhere on Earth after leaving the Garden.

Eve is hopeless and continues to weep. Michael soothes her further and puts her to sleep. He then takes Adam to the top of a high hill to show him the vision of humankind’s future. The mountain was so high that Michael and Adam could see almost the entirety of the earth’s hemisphere. Adam sees two men offering sacrifices. Michael explains that these are Caine and Abel, firstborn sons of Adam and Eve. Adam shockingly sees that Caine murders Abel and he is filled with remorse. Death of Abel in his vision was his first experience of Death. Michael then shows Adam the other ways in which death will attack humankind. Adam sees images of disease, war, and old age. Adam worries about his own death and asks if there is any other alternative to death? Michael says no but he says that obeying God and leading a virtuous life can allow people to live long and fruitful life till God permits.

Adam sees a group of men and women dancing, enjoying, playing games, and having amorous courting. Adam feels better while seeing this. However, Michael explains that these people are atheists who live for pleasure and deny God. Michael says that these people will also be devoured by death. Soon Adam sees scenes of huge wars, the plundering of cities, mass murders, and slaughtering of men and women. Michael says that violent men will praise war while many horrendous conquerers will be praised as war heroes. Michael then says that there will appear a man named Enoch who will try everything possible to stop and end these wars. Other people will despise him and will try to kill him but God will protect him and take him safely to His abode.

The vision further reveals the effect of Sin and Death as Adam sees men and women dancing and engaging in violent sexual activities. Adam feels some guilt as he remembers how he used Eve after taking the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Michael says that there will be an era where sins of the flesh will strengthen. Adam sees a single man preaching against these immoral acts but nobody hears him. The man then goes to the mountains and reaches the highest peak along with his family and various sorts of animals. The man then makes a boat and soon great floods engulf the ground. Michael explains that the man who builds the boat will be Noah who will take all species of animals along with his family to a safer place while rest of the humankind will suffer death due to the great flood. Adam further sees that the clouds get clear and the flood comes down as God appears and greets Noah. God promises that He will never again destroy the earth by flood. Adam feels relieves and satisfied as he comes to know that Noah will make it sure that virtue and obedience to God will continue on earth.

Analysis of Book 11

Milton again clarifies the hierarchy in his world. God sends Michael to let Adam have the vision and Michael puts Eve to sleep before he reveals the future to Adam. Obviously, Eve is below the rank of Adam. In previous books too, whenever archangels talked to man, they chose Adam in absence of Eve to discuss any serious matter. Similarly, God Himself appeared and spoke to Adam after creating him. However, when God created Eve, He didn’t visit her after she gained consciousness. She just heard a celestial voice and direction to proceed.

Adam and Eve now understand that obeying God is the only virtuous path. Eve laments her role as the cause of Sin and Death in the world. However, she complaints that she deserved a better role in the design of God. Thus, Eve realizes that nothing could happen against the will of God, nor anything will happen against it in the future.

The other part of Book 11 deals with the visions of the future shown to Adam. The vision proves that everything is destined and though it appears as if human free will is some force to reckon with, however, in absence of God’s guidance, inspiration, or command, Adam and Eve could do nothing good, nor bad. God inspired Man to repent and pray for forgiveness and salvation, it was God’s plan for the birth of His Son on earth. God didn’t inspire Lucifer to repent and let him be cursed as Satan, a victim of his own pride. This is because for a hero as His Son, a tremendous villain was required to be defeated and who could fill the bill better than Satan?

Adam sees Caine and Abel and how Abel was murdered by his own brother. He further sees how war will cause the death of millions, and during all these saddening pictures of the future, he sees Epoch bringing a ray of light to the world. He sees how men and women will indulge themselves in merry-making and carnal pleasures and though he feels good while seeing this, thus, suggesting his own weakness against passion. But Michael informs him that these people will also suffer horrendous death because they are atheists who care more for their own pleasure and deny God. Adam also learns about the death of good men following the virtuous path who fall like ripe fruit after attaining certain age that God permits. While seeing all these effects of Sin and Death that Adam and Eve brought to the world, Adam sees rays of hope and redemption through the examples of Epoch and Noah. The whole sequence of visions contains a careful emotional balance between grief at the corruption of sin and joy at the redemption of the moral person. The vision will continue in book 12. There is a stark difference between the tone and the way Angels communicate with Adam before and after the fall. Before the fall, Angels were more intimate and careful towards Man, after the fall, Angels instruct, and the man listens. This is about Book 11 of Paradise Lost. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

Light in August by William Faulkner, Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Light in August is a Southern Gothic and Modernist novel by William Faulkner that was published in 1932. The novel is naturalistic with a violent subject matter accompanied by death and the effects of the past. The Southern Gothic genre, unlike the Gothic genre, doesn’t rely upon mystery, suspense, and the supernatural. Rather, Southern Gothic literature tells stories of dark humor, depicting the problems of society by developing complex characters. Southern Gothic literature typically focuses on the history of South America, racism, slavery, civil war, fear of the outside world, fear of change, and violence. The novel is written in modernist style telling many stories with acute polarities like good and evil, light and dark, the burden of past on present, and fragmentation of individual identity in parts. The novel tells stories of various alienated characters and their struggle against a Puritanical rural society.

Characters of Light in August

Major

Lena Grove is a teen pregnant girl from Alabama who visits Jefferson, Yoknapatawpha County in search of her lover who ran away after impregnating her. Byron Bunch is a young man working in a mill in Jefferson. Lena comes to know that a man named Bunch is working there and she assumes that he is Burch as the name sounds so similar and goes to meet him. Bunch inadvertently falls in love with her and tries to help in finding the father of her unborn child. Gail Hightower is a former minister of Jefferson who was forced to retire after his wife’s affair was revealed in public and she committed suicide. Lucas Burch (Who sounds similar to Byron Bunch) is the lover of Lena who abandoned her when he came to know that she is pregnant. He changes his name to Joe Brown and starts living in Jefferson and works in the mill. He is also a bootlegger. He is young, tall, and has good looks to impress women, though her coworkers find him empty and useless. Joe Christmas is an orphan of ambiguous racial descent. He believes he has some black blood in him. He was raised in an orphanage until doubts of his black heritage forced the matron to set an adoption. for Joe Christian. His adopted father was strict and cruel. After killing his adopted father at 1ge 18, he escaped and wandered from city to city till he ends up in Jefferson where he somewhat settles with Joana Burden. He is so tormented by the racial identity that he often becomes violent with others. Though he hates women and rarely shows any emotion, he makes a relationship with Joana.

Joanna Burden is the sole survivor of the abolitionist family of Jefferson. Her family migrated from New England to Jefferson. She is unmarried and the town people consider her a Yankee, and thus an alien. She lives alone in a big villa outside the town. She sexually gets involved with Joe Christmas. She is murdered presumably by Joe Christmas at the beginning of the novel and her house is burned to ashes.

Minor

Eupheus Hines is the grandfather of Joe Christmas who hates him and gives him to an orphanage when he is born as Joe’s mother Milly Hines died while giving birth to him as an unmarried teen pregnant girl. Eupheus believes that his father was not white. Milly claims that Joe’s father was a Mexican and she dies while giving birth as Eupheus declines to call a doctor. Mrs. Hines is the grandmother of Joe who saw her once only at his birth. She doesn’t hate Joe and wants to see him again. When Eupheus learns that Joe Christmas is being captive on suspicion of murdering Joana Burden, he visits Jefferson with Mrs. Hines and tries to incite a lynch mob against Joe Christmas. Mrs. Hines tries to save him. Mr. McEachem and Mrs. McEachem are the adoptive parents of Joe Christmas. They are a Presbyterian couple. Mr. McEachem tries to instill religion in Joe Christmas. He is very strict and disapproves of Joe’s growing disobedience. He is presumed to be killed by Joe. Mrs. McEachem is a kind woman who tries to protect Joe Christmas but Joe hates her.

Mr. Armstid and Mrs. Armstid are a couple who pick up Lena on her way to Jefferson and let her stay at their home at night. Later on, Mr. Armstid gives her a ride to the city on his wagon. Mrs. Armstid doesn’t approve of Lena’s teen pregnancy before marriage and sees her with disdain. Yet she is helpful and gives some money to Lena to help her. Bobbie is a waitress at a restaurant in Memphis. Joe Christian falls in love with her but his adoptive father doesn’t approve of it. Bobbie leaves Joe as he presumably killed his father. Gavin Stevens is the district attorney of Jefferson and offers his insight over some of the events at the end of the novel. Percy Grimm is the captain of the State National Guard. He castrates Joe Christmas and kills him.

Summary of Light in August

There are many intertwined stories in the Light in August. Though the main stories are of Lena Grove and Joe Christian. Lena is a teen pregnant who is traveling to Mississippi in search of her baby’s father who left after impregnating her. She is going to Jefferson where she heard that a man named Byron Bunch works at a mill. His name resembles the name of her lover Lucas Burch and she assumed that Lucas is hiding there in Jefferson with a changed name.

In Jefferson, a brooding stranger with an ambiguous racial profile arrives at the mill in search of a job. He gets a job and starts living in Jefferson at the house of Joana Burden, an unmarried woman, the lone survivor of an abolitionist family who lives on the outskirts of the town. Joe Brown is another stranger who gets a job at the Mill. Joe Christmas and Joe Brown soon become friends and they get involved in bootlegging. Later on, they leave their jobs at the mill and start selling liquor illegally.

Meanwhile, Lena meets Byron Bunch and realizes that he is not the man she is seeking for. Byron is intrigued by Lenna and immediately falls in love with her. But he is a good shy man and fails to express his feelings. Rather he promises Lena to help her search for Lucas Burch. Byron informs Gail Hightower, disgraced former minister of Jefferson about his intentions to help Lena Groove as he cares for her. Meanwhile, Lena comes to know that Lucas Burch is living as Joe Brown in Jefferson. Joe Brown is being held in jail as a suspected murderer of Joana Burden whose house was burnt down after her murder. Another suspect of the murder is Joe Christmas who is absconding.

After describing the current scenario, the narrative changes to explain the past of various characters.

As a child, Gail Hightower was too much influenced by his grandfather who was a confederate soldier who was killed in the town during the civil war. As an adult, he secures a church and becomes a minister. However, his young and beautiful wife is unfaithful to him and suffers mental health problems. One day she is found dead as she falls from the window of a balcony at a hotel in Memphis where she was staying with another man. The ensuing scandal results in the forced retirement of Gail Hightower.

Joe Christmas was left in the footsteps of an orphanage. As he grows up, the dietician of that orphanage mistakenly believes that he overheard her while she was having sex with a young doctor in her room. To avoid any scandal, she threatens Joe Christmas to keep shut otherwise she will reveal her biracial identity to other kids of the orphanage. She further discusses the plan with the janitor Eupheus Hines to send Joe Christmas to a black orphanage. Eupheus, who is actually the grandfather of Joe decides to kidnap him and take him to Little Rock. However, Joe is soon found and returned to the same orphanage. A couple of weeks later, he is adopted by a sternly religious man Mr. McEachem. Mr. McEachem is a strict Presbyterian and he cruelly beats Joe regularly for minor mistakes. His wife shows love to Joe but because of his past experience with the orphanage’s dietician, Joe hates women and repels Mrs. McEachem. As he becomes an adult, he falls in love with Bobbie, a local waitress at a Memphis hotel. One day, Mr. McEachem catches Joe Christian with Bobbie at a dance bar. They argue and a fight erupts that results in the murder of Mr. McEachem. Bobbie scorns Joe and leaves him. To avoid jail, Joe runs away and wanders off from the city to city. He reaches Jefferson and gets a job at the mill.

At Jefferson, Joe Christmas makes acquaintance with Joana Burden and starts living at her manor in the outskirts. Gradually, he develops a sexual relationship with the lonely woman who wishes to have a baby. However, Joe Christmas doesn’t want to become a father and he is only interested in occasional sex with Joana. Their relationship is full of passion, violence, and long periods when they ignored each other.

At the mill, another new worker Joe Brown joins the workforce and becomes a friend of Joe Christian. Gradually they start producing and selling illegal liquor in Jefferson. Joe Christian invites Brown to live with him at Joana’s manor. Joana soon goes through menopause and she loses all interest in sex. Yet, she wants to continue her relationship with Joe Christmas and forces her to adapt to the religious path. One day, she forces Joe Christmas to pray with her at the gunpoint. In retaliation, Joe Christmas attacks her with a sharp razor and kills her. Later on, he burns her house with her dead body in it. Joe Brown is imprisoned as a suspect for the murder though it becomes clear that Joe Christian was the real murderer as he runs and becomes a fugitive. Joanna Burden’s nephew in New Hampshire offers a $1,000 reward for the capture of his aunt’s killer.

Joe Christmas avoids getting caught for many days but eventually is apprehended on the streets of Mottstown and brought back to Jefferson. When Eupheus Hines hears about Joe Christmas being caught as a culprit for murder, he decides to visit Jefferson with his wife. Eupheus tries to incite the crowd and instill anger to create a mob lynching to kill Joe Christmas. However, Mrs. Hines wants to protect Joe Christian.

Byron and Mr. and Mrs. Hines visit Gail Hightower where it is revealed that Joe Christian’s father was a Mexican circus worker whom Eupheus Hines shot dead when he tried to elope with his daughter Milley Hines. Milly died while giving birth to Joe Christian and later on, Eupheus left the baby in the footsteps of the orphanage where he worked as a janitor. Byron and Mrs. Hines request Gail Hightower to save Joe Christmas by offering a false alibi that Joe Christmas was with him at his house during the night when Joana was murdered. Gail Hightower gets angry and asks them to leave.

Lena Grove is suffering labor pain and she decides to stay at the burnt manor where her lover used to live with Joe Christian. Byron asks Hightower to help Lena while he goes to look for a doctor. By the time Byron returns with the doctor, Hightower manages to deliver the baby with the help of Mrs. Eupheus Hines who mistakenly believes that Lena is her long-lost daughter (Milly Hines who already died). Byron arranges to have Joe Bown in the same room where Lena is staying with her newly born baby. When Joe Brown sees Lena, he is astonished to find her. When he notices the baby, he realizes that the newly born baby is his. He again decides to avoid responsibility and runs away by jumping off through the window. Byron confronts him in the path but is overpowered by Joe Brown who beats him bad and runs away.

Meanwhile, Joe Christian also runs away from his captors as he was taken across Town Square. He learns about his grandparents at Gail Hightower’s house and reaches there. The bounty hunters follow him to catch him again. Percy Grimm, the captain of the State National Guard catches him in the kitchen of Hightower and shoots him down to death. Later on, he castrates him.

Meanwhile, Gail Hightower is too astonished and sad by the happenings. He is too old and as he muses about his past, he prepares for his own death.

A local furniture mover near Jefferson town reaches his home after a long road trip and tells his wife how he helped and picked off a couple with a newly born child. He says that the girl was in her teens and the man accompanying her didn’t look like the father of the child. The aforementioned couples were Lena and Byron, halfheartedly continuing their search for the biological father of the child.

Themes of Light in August

Alienation is a major theme of the novel. All the major characters of the novel are misfits and social outcasts despised and disdained by the local society. Joe Christian and Lena Grove are both orphans. While Joe Christian gets violence, disdain, and repulsion from society, Lena Groove is looked down upon yet gets assistance and help during her journey. Lena is still accepted because she continues to search for the biological father of her child and hence, agreeing with the conventional norm that men are responsible for a woman’s well-being. Lena represents nature and life. In a way, Faulkner suggests that though men have lost their instant connection with nature, women still possess it. Gail Hightower and Joana Burden both belong to high-class society though they are poor now. Both are despised by the local community who continues to try to make them run away. Byron Bunch is more acceptable in society but he is a lonely and shy person by his own nature. Faulkner has used Christian allegory throughout the novel. Joe Christian resembles with the passion of Christ, Lena Grove and her fatherless child reminds of Mary and Christ. Byron Bunch is reminiscent of a Joseph figure.

So this is about Light in August. We will continue to discuss other major novels by William Faulkner. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.