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.
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