Light in August

Light in August not only shows hostile and narrowminded communities as they are, but also explains the roots of them. Using its nonlinear structure, the novel presents a damaged character and later goes back to help decipher how they became that way. Joe Christmas’s backstory is expanded on in detail, taking up over 100 pages in the middle of the book. Over the decades that follow, Joe never finds a supportive father figure. He spends his early years in an orphanage because his grandfather couldn’t love him. Although Mr. Hines works at the orphanage and keeps an eye on Joe, he doesn’t stop the other kids from bullying Joe and calling him the n-word. Additionally, Joe is born motherless and fatherless because his grandfather killed Joe’s father and let his mother die in childbirth. Mr. McEachern provides Joe with food and shelter but never emotional support. He’s cold and harsh to Joe. He never calls Joe “son,” and all physical contact between the two is violent, culminating in a fist fight and a shattered chair to Mr. McEachern’s face. Mr. McEachern is also cruel to his wife. When Mrs. McEachern tries to lie so Joe won’t get in trouble, Mr. McEachern reacts with malice: “Kneel down. Kneel down. KNEEL DOWN, WOMAN. Ask grace and pardon of God; not me” (165).

Consequently, Joe is prone to violence from an early age. At 14, he hits a Black girl. When he finds out other men are paying to see Bobbie, he strikes her. He goes on to fight with sex workers, and his relationship with Joanna is tumultuous. For as villainous as Joe can be, Light in August shows that he is also a product of his environment. That environment is one dominated by a cruel patriarchy, one in which everyone suffers.

Other characters don’t turn to violence and anger like Joe, but they nevertheless suffer because of the male leaders of their households and communities. Hightower never acts violently. At most, he screams at Byron and Mrs. Hines when they ask him to lie to save Joe. Still, Hightower suffers because of the men in his family. Hightower’s father is a peaceful and godly man, but his grandfather is a violent slaveowner. Hallucinations of his grandfather in battle haunt Hightower throughout his entire life, showing the long-term impact a violent family history can have on future generations. Hightower doesn’t choose to live like his grandfather, but the man’s actions still affect him. Hightower is also poor at communicating with women because he was never taught how. Later in life, Hightower recognizes he didn’t acknowledge his wife’s feelings when she was alive: “Then, if this is so, if I am the instrument of her despair and death, then I am in turn instrument of someone outside myself” (490). Hightower practices kindness more than characters like Joe Christmas and Joe Brown, but he still holds a male-dominated view of the world. As a result, he’s haunted by a male ancestor, and his wife’s death destroys his own reputation in Jefferson.

Joanna likewise suffers in the patriarchal world of Light in August. She never meets her grandfather or half-brother because they’re killed. She ends up living alone on her family’s property in part because members of her family are killed prematurely, a result of men trying to solve their problems with violence. Her father, and Hightower’s father, practice pacifism—a sign that change is possible—but the world at large is still a hostile place.

Lastly, Lena’s search for Joe Brown sets the novel in motion. A man takes advantage of a woman, and the story unfolds. Brown never takes responsibility for his actions, and his whereabouts are unknown at the end of the story, showing that devious behavior isn’t always punished in this world. Across the ensemble cast, everyone in Light in August grapples with the consequences of selfish men.

Faulkner also uses Light in August to portray the normalized racism prevalent in the South in the early 1900s. Named and unnamed characters repeatedly use the n-word, and White and Black neighbors are segregated from each other. Among the cast of main characters, Joe Christmas offers the reader an intimate perspective of the unequal treatment a person faces for being Black or biracial in the South. Once Jefferson learns Joe is biracial, the people of the town hunt him without remorse and take Brown’s word over his. Percy Grimm is a late supporting character, and he demonstrates how being racist and White in Jefferson isn’t only possible, it’s respectable. Percy adheres intensely to White supremacy: “and a belief that the white race is superior to any and all other races and that the American is superior to all other white races and that the American uniform is superior to all men” (451). His worldview doesn’t cause him to be shunned, unlike Joanna, who wants racial equality. Percy’s confident and commanding presence earn him the respect of Jefferson. As he offers to help with Joe’s manhunt, the town gets in line behind him: “the town had suddenly accepted Grimm with respect and perhaps a little awe and a deal of actual faith and confidence” (455). Using main and supporting characters, the novel shows how biracial and abolitionist characters suffer while White supremacists thrive, resulting in pain and suppression.