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How does Faulkner utilize vocabulary and syntax to achieve the "Faulkner style"?
What is the significance of the title of the novel,Light in August ?
Identify the most significant symbol in the novel and justify your choice.
State one possible theme of the novel, and support your position.
Give your opinion on why Light in August is considered an important novel in the canon of world literature, and why it was seminal in the nomination of Faulkner as a Nobel Prize winner.
Describe how the setting complements the primary themes of the novel.
Describe the Faulkner hero.
Compare and contrast one aspect of this novel with another you have read for this class.
Instructor's Recommendation: Describe the various ways that Joe Christmas is a twentieth century allegory of Christ. In other words, Faulkner created the character of Joe Christmas to represent Christ. However, Christmas isn't a perfect one-to-one representation of Christ. Faulkner made changes to the allegory to make a point. How is Joe Christmas different than Christ? How is he the same (besides their initials!)? Speculate on why Faulkner made the changes he did; what is his message?
One of Light in August's central characters, the
Reverend Gail Hightower, is haunted by memories of his grandfather,
who died fighting in the Confederate cavalry. William Faulkner's
great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, was a Civil War veteran,
too. Known as the "old colonel," he later wrote several books,
including a popular romance, The White Rose of Memphis (1882). When
still a boy, William Faulkner heard many inspiring tales about this
family patriarch. One day he told his teacher, "I want to be a writer
like my great-granddaddy."
It is difficult, nearly impossible, to interpret Light in August without noting the Christian parallels.1
Beekman Cottrell explains:
As if for proof that such a [Christian] symbolic interpretation is valid, Faulkner gives us, on the
outer or upper level of symbolism, certain facts which many readers have noted and which are,
indeed, inescapable. There is the name of Joe Christmas, with its initials of JC. There is the fact
of his uncertain paternity and his appearance at the orphanage on Christmas day. Joe is
approximately thirty-three years of age at his lynching, and this event is prepared for
throughout the novel by Faulkner's constant use of the word crucifixion. These are firm
guideposts, and there are perhaps others as convincing. (207)
In fact, there are many more convincing Christian symbolisms, which, in sum, have led to Virginia Hlavsa's suggestion that in Light in August "Faulkner arranged his events and directed his themes to parallel the 21 chapters of the St. John Gospel" ("St. John and Frazer" 11).2
These symbolisms, however, stray from the text of Light in August and seek to unify the novel through
biblical or mythic allusions alone. They attempt to answer the questions of how Light in August functions
as a work of literature by avoiding the novel itself. Because of this, they each fall short of being a
definitive interpretation of the novel. In Francois Pitavy's view, these critics do not base their
interpretations on "methodical analysis." They do not "study each chapter or group of chapters to see how
and why the spatial and temporal breaks occur" (2). Faulkner's use of Christian myths in Light in August
has produced jagged paths for critics to stroll, their backs to the text, inviting what Brooks has called
"symbol mongering" (6).
Still, if only because of their sheer number, the Christian parallels cannot be ignored and must function for
some firm purpose if we believe Faulkner to be a worthwhile artist. Upon perusal of the Christian
parallels, they do, in fact, lead to a discrepancy worthy of exploring that, as yet, has been seldom noted. If
Light in August has enough surface parallels to warrant the claim of a direct parallel in both theme and
action to the Gospel of John, then where, in Light in August, is the crucifix, the most important symbol of
Christianity?3 Faulkner himself would not have been one to leave out such a significant "tool" in his
writing. The "mythical method" which he employed assumes not leaving out important symbols or giving
them only small mention, but using them, distorting them even.
And it is distortion which dominates most of Faulkner's techniques: differing narrations in Absalom,
Absalom!, narrative structure in The Sound and the Fury, especially Benjy's awkward section.
Furthermore, distortion of literary allusions and myths was a significant part of the Modernist period out
of which Faulkner wrote. One thinks of Eliot's "The Waste Land" with its complicated use of allusion and
Joyce's Ulysses distorting the mythic figure's adventures. Faulkner even liked to play within other literary
ballparks as well: "both he and Joyce thought of themselves first as poets, for they both loved to write
under the constraints of form and with the freedom of word play" (Hlavsa, "The Mirror"" 26). The
question, then, could be better phrased: how is the symbol of the cross distorted in Light in August ?
Faulkner may have been giving us a clue to the way in which he distorted the crucifix in Light in August
when he responded to a student at the University of Virginia who directly asked if Faulkner designed any
Christ symbolism for the Joe Christmas character. Faulkner altered his typical "carpenter searching for a
tool"4 metaphor and commented:
No, that's a matter of reaching into the lumber room to get out something which seems to the
writer the most effective way to tell what he is trying to tell. And that comes back to the notion
that there are so few plots to use that sooner or later any writer is going to use something that
has been used. And that Christ story is one of the best stories that man has invented, assuming
that he did invent that story, and of course it will recur. Everyone that has had the story of
Christ and the Passion as a part of his Christian background will in time draw from that. There
was no deliberate intent to repeat it. That the people to me come first. The symbolism comes
second. (Gwynn and Blotner 117)
Faulkner's comment about "the lumber room" appears conspicuous regarding a novel which contains
several wood mills. There is Doane's Mill, and at the planing mill in Jefferson, Lena asks Byron Bunch, "Is
there another planing mill?" Byron replies, "No, ma'am. There's some sawmills, a right smart of them,
though" (44). Ironically, Faulkner answered the question negatively; he did not intend any Christ
symbolism, yet may have been alerting his audience to the way in which he used crucifix imagery from the
Gospel. Faulkner identifies Christmas in the above explanation with wood, the sawmill, and the parallel is
respective throughout the novel. Christ, of course, is also identified with the wooden manger and cross.
Faulkner would not have needed to stray very far from the truth to give the appearance of distorting the
imagery presented in the Gospel. Hlavsa has noted, "Biblical scholars say that unlike contemporary
representations of the road to Calvary, Jesus probably carried only the crosspiece, a post, which was then
affixed to a stationary post" ("The Crucifixion" 129). To distort the myth, Faulkner had only, really, to
present the cross as most agree it would have appeared, as a post or post-like object. Other writers, like
Cottrell (208), have suggested this, but have not examined it.
Repeatedly, images and comparisons foreshadow Christmas' crucifixion by alluding to Christ's "post."
Christmas sleeps by a spring, his back to a tree, and he rises, "stretching his cramped and stiffened back,
waking his tingling muscles" (96). Later, Christmas walks through the streets of Jefferson, looking "more
lonely than a lone telephone pole in the middle of a desert" (99). When chapter 5 closes, Christmas is again
sitting with his back to a tree. "When he heard eleven strike tonight he was sitting with his back against a
tree inside the broken gate" (103). These post images identify Christmas with the post which Christ carried
to Calvary.
Even when the narration takes us into Christmas' past, chapter 6, there is the suggestion of posts with the
"yearly adjacent chimneys streaked like black tears" (104). Christmas' relationship with McEachem further
emphasizes the importance of the imagery. When McEachem checks to see if Joe has learned his catechism,
McEachem "found that the boy was clinging to [the catechism book] as if it were a rope or post. When
McEachem took the book forcibly from his hands, the boy fell at full length to the floor and did not move
again" (132-133). Post imagery is scattered throughout the remainder of Christmas' section with explicit
comparisons in places. Christmas' "body might have been wood or stone; a post or tower. . ." (I 40).
Joanna Burden leaves notes for Christmas in a "hollow fence post below the rotting stable" (226).
Christmas escapes from the congregation who calls him "Satan himself!" (282) by wielding a bench leg, a
post-like object.
It is fairly easy to see that the post imagery surrounding Christmas distorts Christ's cross in some way and
foreshadows Christmas' death, but it seems as if Faulkner's distortion of the cross did not stop there. Other
characters are also defined by their relation to wooden imagery: Lena Grove with trees, Gail Hightower
with his wooden sign, and Byron Bunch with the planing mill. Subsequently, these characters' relationships
to wood also suggest their relationship to the New Testament, to the cross.
Lena's last name, Grove, identifies her both with trees and life. The wood from the trees in the grove
connects her to the crucifixion imagery, yet a grove of trees has positive connotations: life, peace, quaint
order. The fact that she is pregnant further identifies her with life. The peace and life which are suggested
by her wooden name clearly relate her to the New Testament where life is emphasized through the story of
the rise of man.
Gail Hightower, unlike Lena, cannot be as clearly related to either the Old or New Testament. The
meticulous description of Hightower's sign draws attention to itself and is a symbol for his position
between the Old and New Testament. He refers to the sign as his "monument":
It is planted in the corner of the yard, low, facing the street. It is three feet long and eighteen
inches high - a neat oblong presenting its face to who passes and its back to him. But he does
not need to read it because he made the sign with hammer and saw, neatly, and he painted the
legend which it bears, neatly too, tediously .... (49)
Although Hightower himself forgets the sign until he sits by his study window, the narration points out that
the sign is still "a sign, a message" (51). Hightower's sign is made of wood, signifying his crucifixion of
sorts, his spiritual death. He built the sign when he lost his church. Hightower is nearer to Christmas in this
sense than perhaps any of the other characters. Ironically, however, Hightower is not even a Christ figure.
Rather, he resembles an Old Testament figure more than a New Testament figure. The description of the
sign continues: At night, when the street lamp shone upon it, the letters glittered with an effect as of
Christmas.
Rev. Gail Hightower, D.D.
Art Lessons
Handpainted Xmas & Anniversary Cards
Photographs Developed. (50)
Hightower is clearly not a part of the New Testament holiday. The metaphor Faulkner uses to suggest
Hightower's relation to the New Testament is a loose one at best. The wordiness of "with an effect as of'"
presents a strained comparison, one which calls the metaphor into question more than a simple glittered
like Christmas would. When we see that Hightower does not even spell Christmas on his own sign, his
relation to the New Testament holiday is further questionable. Hightower's wooden sign epitomizes his
relation between the Old and New Testaments. He appears to be a New Testament figure, but in reality he
is not.
He realizes this himself in chapter 20 where the narrator explains Hightower's past. Hightower sees himself
as "a charlatan preaching worse than heresy, in utter disregard of that whose very stage he preempted,
offering instead of the crucified shape of pity and love, a swaggering and unchastened bravo killed with a
shotgun in a peaceful henhouse... " (428). Hightower preaches the world of his grandfather to his church,
the Old Testament world of war, death, honor, "bravo." His wooden sign is the symbol of his separation
from the New Testament, the world of the Christmas story which he cannot even spell on his sign. He is
even seen as the figure of Satan when his picture is taken behind the hymn book (59).
The wood of the sawmill where Byron is introduced in chapter 2 defines Byron's place between the New
and Old Testament. The planing mill and its workers belong to the world which will crucify Christmas, an
Old Testament world. Having a planing mill in a story where a crucifixion is emphasized through post
imagery is perhaps enough to foreshadow a crucifixion, but Faulkner makes the suggestion explicit when
"a truck loaded with logs" (43) drives into the planing mill, subtly emphasizing the post imagery which
threads Christmas' narrative. Clearly, the mill reflects the world which will crucify Joe Christmas. It is
fitting, then, that the mill workers cannot see the importance of Joe Christmas' name, as those who
crucified Christ also failed to see his significance. The narration points out, "none of [the workers] had
sense enough to recognize" Christmas' name as significant (29). Byron, however, sees that "there was
something in the sound of [the name] that was trying to tell them what to expect; that he carried with him
his own inescapable warning, like a flower its scent or a rattlesnake its rattle" (29). Thus Byron is set apart
from the Old Testament world of the mill and the workers in the setting of the planing mill, a locale
scattered with wooden suggestions of a crucifixion.
While Byron is clearly not a part of the Old Testament, he is also not a part of the New. When Lena and
Byron meet, Byron's place between the Old and New Testament worlds is emphasized through wood
imagery. Byron notices that Lena is "moving toward a low stack of planks" while she talks (45). "Wait,"
Byron exclaims as if the planks would fall on Lena, drawing our attention to the scene. Instead of
preventing the planks from falling, however, Byron, "almost springs forward, slipping the sack pad from
his shoulder. [Lena] arrests herself in the act of sitting and Byron spreads the sack on the planks. 'You'll
set easier'" (45). Through his pad, Byron is metaphorically between Lena's New Testament world and the
Old Testament world of the planing mill, and it is wood imagery which illuminates this.
The last chapter of the novel concludes its use of wood imagery. Lena, who has not been a part of
Christmas' wooden world, now rides with a furniture repairman, a wooden repairman. The shift to the
repairman's point of view, a conspicuous shift at the end of a novel, perhaps suggests that the narration
will "repair" or conclude Christmas' crucifixion. And indeed, Lena's and Christmas' stories come together
through the wood imagery. Lena looks out from the truck, "watching the telephone poles and the fences
passing like it was a circus parade" (444). Christmas has already been referred to as looking "more lonely
than a lone telephone pole in the middle of the desert" (99). Typically, Lena's narration does not call
attention to poles, planks, or posts of any kind. It is only after Christmas is dead that Lena notices the
cross-like images. This would seem to suggest not only that she is perhaps a Virgin Mary figure carrying a
Christ figure inside her, but also that she herself is the resurrected "life" after Christ's (Christmas')
crucifixion. It seems highly possible in a novel which so skillfully distorts the Crucifix that the process of
Christ's death and resurrection could also be distorted. Ironically, however, Lena (life) exists
simultaneously with Christmas (death), but never meets him because within the context of the New
Testament resurrection comes only after death. In turn, Lena and Christmas never meet because it would
be illogical for the Virgin Mary figure to meet her baby while she is carrying her baby. The emphasis at
the end of the novel (and the beginning) is undoubtedly on life, suggesting through Lena's attention paid to
passing telephone poles that life exists and continues while Christ figures are crucified.
The narratives of Lena Grove and Joe Christmas appear to be separate because of what the characters
represent. Their symbolic selves keep them apart. Likewise, the connection which Gail Hightower and
Byron Bunch have with other characters also appears to be controlled by what they represent. The wood
imagery shows how Hightower and Byron are caught (each in a different degree) between the Old and
New Testament. Thus it is fitting that these two are friends and interact with Joe Christmas, Lena Grove,
and others. All of these characters' narrations, which can appear disjointed, are, in fact, connected through
the distorted image of the wooden cross. Light in August functions as a fluid novel through structured
distortion of the Gospels.
Most of Light in August is set in the towns, villages, and countryside of the early 1930s Deep South. It is a land of racial prejudice and stern religion. Community ties are still strong: an outsider is really identifiable, and people gossip about their neighbors. In this part of the country, the past lives on, even physically. For example, the cabin in which Joe Christmas stays and in which Lena Grove gives birth is a slave cabin dating back to before the Civil War. And finally the South of this epoch is still close to nature. Right outside the town are the woods. All these aspects of the setting lend themselves especially well to Faulkner's favorite themes, for example, the relationships between the community and the individual and between the present and the past.
But Faulkner's setting is quite specific. Faulkner modeled his fictional Yoknapatawpha County on Lafayette County, Mississippi, and the city of Jefferson on his hometown, Oxford, and perhaps on neighboring Ripley as well. He describes his region's smells, sights, and sounds in loving detail: its chirping insects, its summer heat, its unique light. Some of Jefferson is a quite accurate rendering of Oxford--for example, the hilltop over which Lena first sees Jefferson in the distance, the ditch in which Joe Christmas briefly hides when pursued by Percy Grimm, almost all of the route Joe Christmas walks from the town barbershop through Freedman Town and back, and even the schedule of the Jefferson train that the Hineses take. (Note that the farther Faulkner gets from Jefferson the less detailed his descriptions of setting often become.)
Still, Faulkner felt free to modify his sources whenever it suited his fictional purposes. He removed Oxford's intellectual center, the University of Mississippi. And Presbyterians are a larger percentage of fictional Jefferson than of real-world northern Mississippi. This change helps Faulkner explore his interest in Calvinist and Puritan forms of Christianity. Of course, you must also remember that Mississippi in 1932 was quite different from what it is today. At that time racial segregation was enshrined in law; blacks were not permitted to vote, and many brutal lynchings occurred.
Specific residences are almost always Faulkner's fictional creations. The Jefferson of Light in August has four main centers: the town, the planing mill, the Burden estate, and Hightower's home. These latter two settings on Jefferson's physical outskirts reflect their occupants' psychological distance from the larger human community. And Joe's residence in a slave cabin on the Burden estate suggests the lack of equality in his relationship with Joanna, while Lena's stay in that same cabin suggests a symbolic connection between Joe's death and the birth of her child.
Even where setting doesn't symbolize character traits, it can help you understand a character. For example, Faulkner's description of the tiny hamlet of Doane's Mill sheds light on Lena Grove, especially when you realize that Doane's Mill was the biggest town this simple country girl had seen before she began her journey to Jefferson.
1. RACISM
The Southern concern with racial identity is one of Light in August's central themes. When people think that Joe Christmas has even a trace of black ancestry, they treat him completely differently from the way they treat white people. Many of the characters in Light in August seem twisted by their preoccupation with race. Joe Christmas, Joanna Burden, Nathaniel Burden, Doc Hines, and, ultimately, Percy Grimm are among these. But even many of the characters who don't share this mania assume that treating blacks inhumanly is acceptable. The Jefferson sheriff, Watt Kennedy, seems a decent man, yet he whips a randomly chosen black in an interrogation that was unnecessary in the first place.
2. THE SOUTHERN PAST
Two of Light in August's five major characters live in the shadow of their dead ancestors. But you could interpret their relation to these forebears in different ways. On the one hand, you could point to a pattern of decline and say that the present doesn't live up to the heroic days of yesteryear. On the other hand, you could say that the problems of the present come from a failure to shake off the burdensome grip of the past. Here is how you could argue each point of view.
a. The Heroic Past
Gail Hightower's grandfather was a robust lover of life, and his father was a helper of his fellow human beings. But Hightower fails both his wife and his congregation and spends the rest of his life cut off from other people.
Though Joanna Burden's forefathers were not originally from the South, their emigration to Jefferson makes them part of the Souths history too. And like Gail Hightower, Joanna compares badly to both her father and grandfather. They were rebellious wanderers and vigorous family men. She spends most of her time in her house, feels homesick whenever she leaves Jefferson, and never marries or has children.
b. The Burdensome Past
Gail Hightower's problems stem from his obsession with his grandfather, who was not even worth this worship. After all, he died stealing chickens. Likewise, Joanna Burden is the victim of the stern religion and patronizing racism that her father taught her and that he learned from his father before him. Interestingly, the freest character in the novel may be Lena Grove, who seems to live entirely in the present.
3. CHRISTIANITY
Light in August seems to indict a harsh and punitive strain in Christianity, from the orthodox Calvinism of Simon McEachern to the ravings of Doc Hines and the unusual religious amalgam preached by Calvin Burden. In much of Light in August, the Christian religion is self-righteous and vindictive, and even racist and misogynist (antiwoman). Do you yourself know people whose religious views become an excuse for their personal prejudices?
But you could argue that Faulkner counterposes these distorted forms of religion to a more genuine religiosity. Gail Hightower's minister father refuses to own slaves and works as a doctor after the Civil War. Is Byron Bunch's Sunday choir an indication of his underlying piety or only one of his empty routines? Does the Reverend Gail Hightower retain any religious faith and, if so, is this faith responsible for whatever compassion he still shows?
Light in August also features much Christian symbolism. Does this symbolism suggest that Faulkner wants the Joe Christmas story to convey a Christian message? Or, on the other hand, is this juxtaposition of Christian symbolism with the life of a violent man meant to be one additional way of criticizing Christianity? Most readers think that the Christian symbolism emphasizes Joe's suffering and sacrifice without necessarily conveying a specifically religious message.
4. COMMUNITY
a. Community as Conformity
One way of interpreting characters like Joe Christmas, Joanna Burden, and Gail Hightower is as scapegoats. You could argue that the town of Jefferson punishes them for not conforming. Joe Christmas obeys neither the accepted code of behavior for whites nor the one for blacks. Joanna Burden acts like a Northerner by associating with and trying to help blacks. And Gail Hightower is unable to restrain his wife from behaving sinfully. Consequently the community has to punish them in order to reconfirm its own self-image as properly white, Southern, and Protestant.
b. Community vs. Isolation
But you could also argue that Faulkner is showing the perils of isolation from the community. All three of these characters seem warped. None tries to integrate into the community, so is their exclusion the community's fault? Moreover, Jefferson ultimately accepts Hightower; it never does anything worse to Joanna than ignore her; and it accepts Joe Christmas until he kills someone. And Joe Christmas's ultimate executioner is another outsider.
When you think about this theme, consider whether you yourself have ever felt torn between the perils of isolation and the danger of submerging your individuality in a group.
5. MALE-FEMALE RELATIONS
Joe Christmas is hostile to women. Lucas Burch flees women. Until Lena's arrival, Byron Bunch lives alone and tries to organize his life in such a way that he will continue living alone. Gail Hightower drives his wife to suicide. Joanna Burden never marries. But Faulkner doesn't contrast the solitary lives of these troubled characters with any happy, "normal" love relationships until his last chapter. Certainly the Hines and McEachern marriages are miserable, and the Armstids hardly seem loving. Even when Byron Bunch finally goes off with Lena Grove in what might have been a happy, romantic ending, she doesn't let him into her bed. Nonetheless, the relationship of the anonymous furniture dealer and his wife seems to suggest the possibility of happier love matches.
6. IDENTITY
Joe Christmas doesn't know who he is. His uncertain racial identity affects every aspect of his life. Sometimes he claims to be white, sometimes black, but he rebels against both categories. Christmas roams the North and the South, the cities and the countryside, without ever settling into a fixed abode or a long-lasting human relationship. By contrast, Lena Grove never doubts her identity. Even when wandering alone among strangers, she is confident of her purpose, her destination, and even of her relationship with the shiftless Lucas Burch. She reveals a moment of doubt only when old Mrs. Hines confuses Lena's baby with Joe Christmas. Gail Hightower and Joanna Burden are neither as sure of their identities as Lena, nor as doubtful as Joe. Joanna is a Northern abolitionist who feels homesick whenever she leaves Jefferson, Mississippi. For two years she is cool and rational by day, while wildly passionate by night. Then she veers from the extremes of sensuality to those of self-denial. Hightower wants to do good in the world, while he also wants to ignore the world and to live in solitude. He lives in the past but often seems acutely concerned about the events of the present.
7. OTHER THEMES
Light in August has a number of subsidiary themes. Faulkner contrasts the characters' different attitudes to time: Hightower's life is frozen in the past, while Lena lives only in the present. Nature is an issue in the novel: the planing mills are gradually destroying the natural world of forests around them, and different individuals are defined by their differing attitudes to nature. For example, Lena Grove is the character most in touch with the natural. Fate seems to play a role in the lives of characters like Percy Grimm and Joe Christmas. Do any of the characters control their own destinies? Certainly Byron Bunch seems to take charge of his own life. Light in August touches on the problem of evil. The novel portrays widespread bigotry and violence. But Faulkner shows compassion for many of his evil-doing characters and counterposes them to good people like Byron Bunch. Martyrdom is another theme. Among the novel's martyrs are Joe Christmas, Gail Hightower, Joanna Burden, and possibly even Byron Bunch (who suffers and sacrifices for Lena Grove). And, finally, Light in August is concerned with the difficulty of establishing communication between people. Joe Christmas, for example, misunderstands the feelings of both Bobbie Allen and Joanna Burden and is surprised when they turn against him.
Check this out:
Knows remembers believes a corridor in a big long garbled cold echoing building of dark red brick sootbleakened by more chimneys than its own, set in a grassless cinderstrewnpacked compound surrounded by smoking factory purlieus and enclosed by a ten foot steel-and-wire fence like a penitentiary or a zoo, where in random erratic surges, with sparrowlike childtrebling, orphans in identical and uniform blue denim in and out of remembering but in knowing constant as the bleak walls, the bleak windows where in rain soot from the yearly adjacenting chimneys streaked like blacktears.
(Chapter 6, opening paragraph)
Faulkner's style may give you trouble at first because of (1) his use of long, convoluted, and sometimes ungrammatical sentences, such as the one just quoted; (2) his repetitiveness (for example, the word "bleak" in the sentence just quoted); and (3) his use of oxymorons, that is, combinations of contradictory or incongruous words (for example, "frictionsmooth," "slow and ponderous gallop," "cheerful, testy voice"). People who dislike Faulkner see this style as careless. Yet Faulkner rewrote and revised Light in August many times to get the final book exactly the way he wanted it. His style is a product of thoughtful deliberation, not of haste. Editors sometimes misunderstood Faulkner's intentions and made what they thought were minor changes. Recently scholars have prepared an edition of Light in August that restores the author's original text as exactly as possible. This Book Note is based on that Library of America edition (1985), edited by Noel Polk and Joseph Blotner.
In some of his more difficult passages, Faulkner is using the technique called "stream-of-consciousness." Pioneered by the Irish writer James Joyce, the most extreme versions of this device give the reader direct access to the full contents of the characters' minds, however confused, fragmented, and even contradictory those contents may be.
But Faulkner develops his own, more structured variety of stream of consciousness. In his densest paragraphs, he often lets his characters fall into reveries in which they perceive more deeply than their conscious minds possibly could. His characters connect past and present and reflect on the meaning of events and on the relationships between them in a manner that sounds more like Faulkner himself than like the characters in their usual states of mind.
For example, in the Chapter 6 opening just quoted, Joe Christmas is entering the long retreat into memory from which he only emerges after he has killed Joanna Burden. He is just beginning to sort things out, and the free-flowing, emotionally charged jumble of images suggests the workings of his unconscious mind. But Faulkner also uses words and makes observations more sophisticated than you would usually expect from Joe Christmas. This combination is part of what makes his style unique.
Of course, for characters' conscious thoughts, Faulkner uses the style they would use when speaking. And in such passages he puts the thought inside single quotation marks or in italics. For example, in the novel's opening paragraph, "Lena thinks, 'I have come from Alabama: a fur piece. All the way from Alabama a-walking. A fur piece.'" The single quotes seem to indicate thoughts formulated in words. Italics, as in the passage that follows the sentences just quoted, often seem to suggest thoughts not quite so explicitly verbalized. Note also Faulkner's ability to use brief passages of dialogue to make a large variety of Southern characters come to life as individuals. See, for example, Chapter 1's conversation between Armstid and Winterbottom.
Some readers have suggested additional reasons for Faulkner's style. He may use a grand style to elevate characters that are themselves either quite humble (for example, Lena Grove), quite brutal (Joe Christmas), or almost pathetic (at times Gail Hightower and Byron Bunch). Others say that Faulkner likes to force readers to absorb many contradictory feelings all at once. He wants you to see the meaningful connections between a large variety of human experiences. Faulkner himself once said that he wanted to put the entire "world" on a "pinhead." Looked at this way, his all-encompassing sentences create a style appropriate for a novel with three different plots and a host of seemingly unrelated characters. And Faulkner's use of oxymorons may create a tension that mirrors his characters' and his region's often unresolved conflicts.
Certain images recur especially often in Light in August. Ghosts, phantoms, and shadows sometimes suggest the past that still seems to haunt several of the characters. At other times these same phantoms reinforce our sense that many of the characters are not fully alive. Images of circles abound, for example, the wheel of Hightower's final vision, the circle that Christmas thinks his life forms, the circle of the urn that Faulkner associates with Lena Grove. Faulkner often uses the image of the mirror to suggest the ways the different characters reflect each other. Finally, you might note the particular attention Faulkner pays to descriptions of motion and of sound.
Most of Light in August's story is told by a third-person narrator. In some third-person novels the narrator is omniscient (all-knowing) and objective. In others he takes the point of view of the central character. In Light in August the narrator is often objective, as, for example, when reporting dialogue. But what is unusual about this novel is the way in which the narrator's point of view shifts frequently from one character to another. And even when reporting from the point of view of one character alone, the narrator sometimes stays on the surface of that character's speech and thoughts, while at other times he has access to memories so deep the character himself may not be consciously aware of them.
The difference between this shifting point of view and the point of view of an omniscient narrator is important. For example, you first hear of Joe Christmas from Byron's point of view. Byron seems a sympathetic character, so you tend to accept what he says. Later you see Joe Christmas from his own point of view but without access to his deepest thoughts and feelings. When (in Chapter 6) the narrator finally dives into Joe's buried memories, you get a completely different picture of him. But in Chapter 19 you see his final escape and murder from the point of view of Percy Grimm. One of Faulkner's purposes in this approach is to contrast public images with private realities. The Joe Christmas that the town of Jefferson knows is different from the Joe Christmas seen from within, and Faulkner's shifting point of view keeps you aware of that and other such contrasts.
Occasionally one of Light in August's characters tells his story in the first person, for example, the furniture dealer in Chapter 21. But in this novel first-person narration is always addressed to one of the other characters and never directly to the reader. In evaluating whatever material a character presents this way, you must consider not only the speaker but also his audience. For example, the furniture dealer's approach to Byron and Lena is colored by his telling about them in the midst of love play with his wife.
Light in August juxtaposes three different stories. The story of Lena Grove begins and ends the novel. The story of Joe Christmas begins in the second chapter and ends in the third-to-last. The story of Gail Hightower begins in the third chapter and ends in the next-to-last. None of these stories proceeds chronologically. For example, one of the novel's climactic events, the murder of Joanna Burden, has already occurred before Lena Grove arrives in Jefferson at the end of Chapter 1, but we don't see Joe Christmas enter Joanna Burden's bedroom to kill her until the end of Chapter 12.
The primary problem posed by Light in August's structure is whether these three stories fuse into one unified novel. Remember that, except for the accident of all three characters being in Jefferson for the few days between Burden's murder and Christmas's death, their tales are indeed separate and distinct. Who is the central character? The middle third and by far the largest section of the novel is about Christmas. But Lena opens and closes the novel. And Hightower is the character who ties the three stories together by officiating at the birth of Lena's baby and by trying to intervene against the killing of Joe.
These three characters contrast with each other in illuminating ways. But a kaleidoscope of comparisons may not be enough to make a unified structure. Some readers have felt that the novel's unity comes from elements other than the structure, for example, from the imagery or from the themes. Others say that Faulkner unified the novel by making Lena's story encompass Christmas's. They point out that she opens and closes Light in August as a way of placing Joe Christmas's individual tragedy in the broad context of ordinary and reasonably happy people like Lena Grove and Byron Bunch. And still others argue that Faulkner deliberately left his novel loose and open as a way of presenting a truer picture of the stream of life than if he had encased his characters in a more classically "artistic" form.
NOTE: FROZEN MOTION Faulkner compares the wagons in which Lena has ridden to figures carved on an urn (or vase). He is probably referring to "Ode on a Grecian Urn," a famous poem written in 1819 by the English Romantic poet John Keats. Describing the ancient carvings, Keats notes a paradox: the artist has captured the figures in motion, but the very nature of art is to freeze that motion for us to contemplate. Keats points out that, unlike real people, the carved figures will never attain their goals; but, on the other hand, their beauty, also unlike ours, will be eternal. Faulkner is fond of metaphors of frozen motion, and two paragraphs later he talks of the approaching wagon "suspended" in the distance. But readers disagree about how to interpret these metaphors. You could argue that Faulkner is expressing a fatalistic view, suggesting that his characters' destinies are as certain and their goals as unattainable as those of the carved figures. But you could also argue that the metaphor reflects Faulkner's interest in the different ways his characters cope with both the chaotic motion of life and the obstacles that often create paralysis. Note that in his own art Faulkner also freezes chaotic and violent events for his readers to contemplate from many points of view.
NOTE: HORSES Hightower is obsessed with his cavalryman grandfather. As Byron approaches, Hightower has been thinking of "phantom hooves," and he compares Byron unfavorably to a horse. The latter, he thinks, is a symbol of warriors and kings. Faulkner uses references to horses at several points in Light in August. The meaning of this imagery develops more fully later. But you should question whether Faulkner supports Hightower here. Though Faulkner was himself an avid horseman, horses in Light in August are often associated with unnatural relationships, like Hightower's obsession with his grandfather.
NOTE: HIGHTOWER AS BUDDHA Faulkner says that Hightower resembles an "eastern idol." This reference is only one of several that compares Hightower to a Buddha. Buddhism is one of the major Asian religions. Just as Western religious art frequently represents Christ on a cross, so Eastern sculpture often depicts the Buddha sitting in peaceful contemplation. The historical Buddha was a prince who attained a state of enlightenment in which he learned to detach himself from worldly goods and passions. Those of his followers who also attain such a saintly state are often referred to as Buddhas too. Compare Faulkner's comparisons of Hightower and Buddha with his more frequent comparisons of Joe Christmas and Christ. Once more, you will have to decide whether Faulkner is pointing to a fundamental similarity or whether he is using a superficial similarity to underline a fundamental difference.
NOTE: STORYTELLING As in many other places in Light in August, you are hearing a story second-hand or third-hand. In this case, Byron is telling about things that the countryman and Brown told the sheriff. The reader doesn't know whom Byron heard the story from or even whom the person who told the story to Byron heard it from. And much of what Brown is reported as saying is only what he in turn heard from Christmas. Why does Faulkner use this method? One possible reason is that this storytelling takes some of your attention away from the often gruesome events and makes you think more about the various characters who are speaking. This method also contrasts public perceptions of events with a truer picture that Faulkner may not reveal until later.
NOTE: THE CHORUS OF SOUNDS Christmas thinks he hears what Faulkner refers to as "myriad sounds." A similar expression appeared in Chapter 4, when Byron was taking Lena to town and again when Hightower and Byron were talking. In the first instance it described the townspeople abuzz with the rumors of Burden's murder. In the second it described the insects chirping outside Hightower's house. Here the reference is less specific. Many kinds of sound seem to be emerging from Christmas's memory, and indeed the next seven chapters will take you into that memory. Why does Faulkner include this chorus of sounds humming in the background? Perhaps this image of "myriad sounds" connects his characters to something larger than themselves. However, the image, while powerful, is open to other interpretations.
NOTE: KNOWING AND REMEMBERING The words that begin this chapter ("Memory believes before knowing remembers") recall those that introduced Chapter 2 ("Byron Bunch knows this"). Such expressions seem to be cues indicating that Faulkner is starting to use the "heightened voice" of a character's deeper perceptions and feelings. Faulkner may be suggesting that he will go deeper into Christmas's inner mind than he did into Byron's in Chapter 2, beyond mere "knowing" into "memory." Christmas, Faulkner seems to be saying, does not necessarily even know that he has these memories, but they are part of him nonetheless.
NOTE: In the Old Testament, Jezebel was a woman who urged the Israelites to turn to the idol-worshipping religion of Baal. Elijah prophesied that she would be killed, and his prophecy came true. By extension the term has come to refer to any shameless, impudent, or sexually unrestrained woman.
NOTE: You have already noticed the possible religious significance of Christmas's name. In this chapter Faulkner uses a variety of religious terms to describe Christmas. He describes him as being like a monk, like a Catholic choir boy, and like a hermit. Faulkner seems to be underlining the calm pleasure the boy takes in suffering. Is he giving Christmas a certain grandeur with these comparisons? Or is he instead subtly criticizing some aspects of religion? Christmas seems to experience the exalted suffering of monks and hermits without their higher purpose.
NOTE: HOUSES Writing from Joe's point of view, Faulkner describes the McEachern house as "treacherous," "threatful," and "deceptive." Later in this chapter, Joe hesitates to make love indoors. Joe seems to have good reasons for fearing the McEacherns' house. But houses usually suggest shelter and security. Perhaps Joe feels that he can only achieve freedom by denying any need for shelter and security.
NOTE: Again Faulkner uses the image of the urn. Here Faulkner puts this image to a somewhat different purpose than in his earlier metaphor of frozen motion. Then he associated the urn with Lena. Here the urn represents the physical perfection Joe had imagined in women. But he finds that the urn is cracked and is leaking a foul liquid. Of course, the physical process that Joe is rejecting here is one that is necessary for fertility and reproduction. By wanting living women to have the "perfection" of urns, Joe seems to be at odds with the natural processes of life.
But Joe is not yet the Joe Christmas who murders Joanna Burden. Note how in his relationship with Bobbie, he seems to be overcoming his fear of women. Perhaps you can sympathize with Joe if you think of times you have had to struggle with fears and doubts in order to pursue a romantic relationship that was important to you.
NOTE: CALVINISM McEachern is a Scottish Presbyterian. Presbyterianism is one of several Protestant denominations whose teachings derive from the theology of John Calvin, one of the original giants of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. Calvinism holds that God has chosen a small predestined elect for salvation. Though no human actions can explain or change God's choice, one sign of membership in the elect is the strength of a person's religious faith. And Calvinists have traditionally expected strong religious faith to show itself in a life of hard work, frugality, and stern morality. McEachern's certainty as he pursues Joe seems to derive from his own conviction that McEachern is among the elect in a world of the damned. Note that the Southern variety of Scottish Presbyterianism was one of the strictest of the Calvinist groups.
NOTE: THE FAUST LEGEND Faulkner compares Joe to Dr. Faust. According to German legend, the magician Faust made a pact with or sold his soul to the devil. Both the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and the English Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) wrote famous dramas about Faust. Here Faulkner seems to be suggesting the rebellious freedom of a man who has defied society's moral code. But he could also be hinting that the freedom Joe feels will be brief, just as a deal with the devil has its price. In addition, Faulkner may have been thinking of the fact that in Goethe's version of the Faust story, Faust is always striving, never satisfied. Christmas's life henceforth will always be restless too.
NOTE: Faulkner says that the Burdens come from a background of New England Unitarianism. But the Unitarians are noted for championing individual freedom of belief and for their advocacy of a religion based on reason rather than on fixed biblical doctrine. As Faulkner describes the Burdens, they seem to be another variety of Calvinist, just as Joanna's grandfathers first name suggests. Some readers resolve the apparent discrepancy by noting that when Calvin Burden first left New Hampshire the Unitarian Church had not yet evolved far from its Calvinist roots.
NOTE: Joe refers to Joanna as a "phantom" of her night personality. The words "phantom" and "shadow" recur frequently in Light in August. Some readers think that this metaphor suggests that each character perceives others as shadows or phantoms. According to this point of view, the image emphasizes the inability of each individual to know another fully.
NOTE: In the early chapters of Light in August, you heard the town gossip about Hightower, Burden, and Christmas. Now after having given the reader a more intimate knowledge of these characters, Faulkner returns to their public image. Be aware of the discrepancy between the complex story you have already learned and the simple explanations the onlookers come up with.
NOTE: HUMOR The story of the bloodhounds is one of the longer bits of humor in Light in August. Besides entertaining you, what does Faulkner accomplish by this sudden turn to comedy? One possible effect is to remind you that the tragedy of Joe Christmas is not Faulkner's final statement about life. In this sense the bloodhound story foreshadows the novel's comic ending. Perhaps the ineptness of the posse's chase tells you something about the town too. And the posse's blundering may make them more sympathetic figures.
NOTE: MORE PARALLELS BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND JESUS In addition to Christmas's name and some of the imagery Faulkner uses in describing him, a third element in Light in August also connects Joe Christmas to Jesus Christ. Some of the events of his life parallel events in Jesus's. For example, this incident in the black church occurs on a Tuesday. Tuesday of the Christian Holy Week was the day Jesus cleansed the temple. Later in this chapter, on a Thursday night, the night of the Last Supper, Christmas is fed a mysterious meal. Some readers conclude from these parallels that Christmas is meant to resemble Jesus at least in being an example of suffering and sacrifice. Others feel that the parallels only point out the ways in which Christmas's sacrifice is less meaningful, even empty. And still others think that the religious parallels are too superficial to be important at all. Interestingly, in Faulkner's early drafts of Light in August, Christmas died at 33, as did Jesus. But in Faulkner's final typescript, the author deliberately deleted this parallel by making Christmas three years older.
NOTE: Faulkner has narrated Christmas's story in the past tense and Lena's in the present. In this section he narrates Christmas's story in the present tense. Could this change of tense be evidence for a change in Christmas's consciousness?
NOTE: REPUTATION VS. REALITY Faulkner uses a technique here that he also uses in many other portions of Light in August. He introduces a character by his reputation, then gradually shows us what the character is really like. In this particular instance, the initial opinion that Hines is "crazy on the subject of Negroes" is ironic, because he is indeed crazy on that subject but not in the way the townspeople meant. You have probably found that when you get to know people they sometimes turn out to be quite different from what their reputation had led you to suspect. In Light in August, Faulkner tells his story in a way that allows him to explore those discrepancies.
NOTE: When Light in August was first published, most readers assumed that Joe Christmas was indeed part black. After all, the circus owner confirmed Joe's father's racial identity, and even sympathetic characters like Byron Bunch and the Reverend Hightower don't doubt it. But now almost all readers agree that the novel never makes Joe's racial origins definite.
NOTE: INCONGRUOUS AND CONTRADICTORY IMAGES Faulkner describes Mrs. Hines as resembling both a "rock" and a "crouching beast." He sees in her face both "peace" and "terror." Later in this chapter he describes Lena's face as "neither innocent nor dissimulating" and Hightower's as "firm" and "gentle." This use of expressions that link two contradictory or incongruous terms is typical of Faulkner's style in Light in August. Some readers think that Faulkner uses this stylistic device to emphasize the unresolved tensions that he seems to find characteristic of human life.
NOTE: Henry IV, Parts I and II, are historical plays by Shakespeare. They portray Henry IV's attempts to suppress a rebellion by those loyal to the former king, whom Henry had deposed. The plays are largely about the ethical and practical consequences of political action. Apparently, Hightower's foray outside his study has given him a taste for this portrayal of action in the real, historical world. The Henry IV plays are also about the education of Prince Hal, the future Henry V. Hal mixes with common folk and learns how to be a fuller human being. So these plays are especially appropriate for Hightower at this moment.
NOTE: WINDS The wind that Byron feels is one of several metaphorical winds in Light in August. Christmas feels a wind on several occasions, most notably when Bobbie Allen turns against him. Hightower's first name suggests the gales he shelters himself against. Here the "cold" and "hard" wind seems quite unpleasant. Perhaps the wind is the harshness of life from which one can only shelter oneself at the cost of one's vitality. When Christmas feels the wind after Bobbie's betrayal, it's a sign that his life is changing. Is it a similar sign here for Byron? Does Byron cope with harsh disappointments better than Christmas?
NOTE: Faulkner once said that the writers he admired most were those who had tried to accomplish so much that they inevitably had to fail. Some readers think that his great admiration for grand but doomed efforts shows in his novels too. However humble, Bunch's assault on Brown may be one of these doomed yet courageous actions that Faulkner so appreciated.
NOTE: When you read of Grimm's unshakable enthusiasm for the war he missed, keep in mind that many of the American writers of Faulkner's generation had been deeply disillusioned by that war. Though Faulkner himself had tried to fight in it, he later wrote Soldiers' Pay, a novel that reflects the common disillusionment.
NOTE: NELSE PATTON When Faulkner was eleven years old, Nelse Patton, a black man in Oxford, was accused of decapitating a white woman. Some people think that this murder was the source for Christmas's decapitation of Joanna Burden. But unlike Christmas, Patton died at the hands of the community. A mob urged on by a local politician took him from the jail. The jailers did little to stop the crowd, which shot Patton to death, then mutilated him horribly.
As Christmas's blood rushes from his body, he seems to become a permanent part of the memories of all the onlookers. In addition to trying to explain Joe's behavior in these last minutes of his life, you also have the perplexing problem of interpreting this description of his death. Is this passage a continuation of the analogy to Christ? Does it suggest that Christmas's metaphorical crucifixion gains a meaning and a value from its impact on the onlookers and the community? But, if so, why doesn't Faulkner tell what the impact on the community is?
NOTE: For many years, readers assumed that Hightower dies here. But in an interview in the 1950s, Faulkner said that Hightower does not die. Most readers now agree that the novel gives you no way of knowing if Hightower dies, just as it gives you no way of knowing if Joe Christmas is part black. As you might imagine, the question of whether Hightower dies is not as important as the question of whether he achieves insight.
AVATAR Person embodying some entity or concept much larger than himself.
BEALE STREET Memphis street famous as the center of the city's bars and brothels.
BELIKE Perhaps, probably.
BIG HOUSE Main house, where the owners of a plantation live.
BOOTLEGGER Transporter and seller of illegal liquor during the years when the U.S. government prohibited such activities (1919-33).
BUCKBOARD Light, four-wheeled carriage. The name comes from the seat's being mounted on a long board that connects the front and rear wheels.
BY ORDINARY Ordinarily.
CAP-AND-BALL REVOLVER Most common handgun of the Civil War period. It was loaded from the front with both bullets and powder. A hammer detonated a percussion cap, which then ignited the powder.
CAPTAIN Term of respect.
CARPETBAGGER Northerner who went South after the Civil War to make money under the Northern-imposed Reconstruction regime.
CHANCESO Accident.
CHAP Child.
CIRCUIT RIDER Preacher who circulates among country churches and preaches at a different one each Sunday.
CLUMB Climbed.
COTTON HOUSE Small house in which cotton is stored between picking and ginning. It is usually about ten feet square.
CRITTER Any creature, including a person.
CULTIVATOR Mule--or tractor-drawn implement for loosening the soil around growing plants.
DRAW TIME To be paid for time worked.
FIELD PEAS Pea often planted with corn and usually cooked with molasses.
FIRE SIREN Large steam whistle installed at the power plant and used as a general community alarm.
FITTEN Suitable.
FUR PIECE Far piece, that is, a long way.
HALVERS Half share.
HEIFER Young cow.
HIRAM Hiram Hayseed was a contemptuous term for a farmer.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR German-born fur trader and capitalist (1763-1848) thought of as a symbol of big-city wealth.
MIZ Mrs.
MOTTSTOWN Fictionalization of Water Valley, Mississippi, a town about twenty miles south-southwest of Oxford. Faulkner even uses the correct Water Valley-Oxford timetables for the train between Mottstown and Jefferson.
MOUGHT Might. It is pronounced to rhyme with "out."
PALM LEAF FAN Fan made from dried palm leaves. Palm trees do not grow in Mississippi, and the fan was bought in stores.
PLANNING MILL Place where logs are sawed into lumber. The Jefferson mill was based on a real mill a mile south of Oxford.
MEMPHIS City in southwest Tennessee. It is 75 miles north-northwest of Oxford and is the main urban center for northwestern Mississippi.
RIGHT SMART Larger number or amount.
SWOLE BELLIED Pregnant.
WASH-STAND Table with a basin used for washing and shaving in a house without plumbing.
YANKEE Union soldier in the Civil War, or, by extension, any Northerner.
"Lena's fertility and her earthmothering womanhood are not in question, but her way of knowing, emphatically in the foreground, keeps her consciousness within the limitations of childhood. Faulkner, unlike many of his critics, refrains from passing any ultimate judgment on this child-woman, showing us instead the implications of her immunity from suffering. If Lena reconciles nature and society, it is because she sees in both only what reflects herself.
-Carole Anne Taylor, "The Epistemology of Tragic Paradox, in
William Faulkner's Light in August: A Critical Casebook, 1982
"Light in August is the strangest, the most difficult of Faulkner's novels, a succession of isolated, brilliantly etched characters and scenes that revolve around, finally blur into, an impenetrable center--the character Christmas. As remote from us and his author as he is from the society around him, Christmas withholds some ultimate knowledge of himself, some glimpse into the recesses of being which we feel necessary to understanding. Yet just as obvious as his distance is the fact that he epitomizes every character and movement in the book. Whatever is in Light in August is here archetypally in this figure whose very name begins his mystery: Joe Christmas.
"...Yet this mystery is the meaning of Light in August, for the impenetrability of Christmas becomes the only way Faulkner can articulate a truly inhuman, or larger-than-human, wholeness of being of which the others--Lena, Hightower, Byron, Joanna, Hines, Grimm--are the human shadows.
-Donald M. Kartiganer, "Light in August," in
William Faulkner's Light in August: A Critical Casebook, 1982
"Certainly, the real Lena, more than slightly stupid and more than slightly selfish, and the real Confederate Hightower, who found an inglorious death in a chickencoop, are both unworthy of the dreams and the devotion they inspire. The responsibility, however, lies not with them but with the Byron Bunches and Gail Hightowers who can be moved to save or to deny Joe Christmas because of their dreams. Reason and imagination can prove an integrative force, identifying the interests of the individual with those of the community and establishing a link between the private and public worlds. They can also be destructive insofar as they enable man to invent infinitely various excuses which permit him to live while ignoring life itself. Rationally conceived categories and myths may render morality simpler and clearer by providing formulas of universal applicability, but in the process they destroy those essential motives for morality which must be found by the individual in life itself. This is the truth that Hightower could only know; it is also the truth which Byron, in fumbling and often farcically inadequate fashion, seeks to live.
-Olga W. Vickery, The Novels of William Faulkner:
A Critical Interpretation, 1964
'Lena is so fully immersed in the flow of life, and so slightly developed in the dimensions of conscious thought and feeling, as to seem almost subhuman. Christmas, isolated by his refusal either to identify himself in relation to other people and the world or to be content with anonymity, lacking the ties of tenderness and mutual dependency that keep normal people from going beyond the bounds, becomes inhuman. Hightower, retreating from life in the present, exiles himself to an extrahuman region from which even Byron's exigencies cannot quite rescue him.
-Richard P. Adams, Faulkner: Myth and Motion, 1968
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY
"One can look at Faulkner's comedy in still another way. We may say that Faulkner tends to take the long view in which the human enterprise in all its basically vital manifestations is seen from far off and with great detachment. If the view is long enough and the perspective full enough, the basic attitude is almost inevitably comic. James Joyce comes to mind. His Ulysses, though it has much pathos and horror in it, is also finally a comic work. In Light in August Faulkner observes even the tragic events that involve Joanna Burden with detachment and in a full perspective. It is Lena and her instinct for nature, Lena and her rapport with the community, Lena as a link in the eternal progression from mother to daughter who provides the final norm for our judgment. In this connection Faulkner's abiding concern with man's endurance and his ability to suffer anything--compare the Nobel Prize speech--is worth remembering. Tragedy always concerns itself with the individual, his values, his tragic encounter with the reality about him, and the waste which is suffered in his defeat. Comedy involves, on the other hand, the author's basic alignment with society and with the community.
-Cleanth Brooks, William Faulkner:
the Yoknapatawpha Country, 1963
"The form of Light in August is both tragic and comic: the content both existential and mythic: the final effect both meaningful and affirmative. Joe Christmas faces the problem of twentieth-century man--trying to be human in a chaotic and hostile world. His story follows a basic pattern of experience that is found in myth, religion, philosophy, tragic drama, and life. His discovery of himself as a human being becomes an affirmation of the nature of man. And love and death, birth and rebirth are revealed as part of the larger dynamic process of life, "the eternal joy of existence."
-Robert M. Slabey, "Myth and Ritual in Light in August,"
in The Merrill Studies in Light in August, 1971
FAULKNER AS A FOLK ARTIST
"What is the quality of consciousness displayed in Light in August? Surely, it is not a consciousness which broods over the whole range of action, associating people with each other or with a culture, establishing their manners and morals in a whole containment. It is a consciousness in flight and pursuit, wonderfully aware of fact, the physical and animal fact, wonderfully in possession of extreme emotions and the ecstasy of violence, cognizant too of the tender humorousness of love, and in general wonderfully fantastic and magical. Par excellence, it is the American folk-literary consciousness.
-Richard Chase, "The Stone and the Crucifixion,"
reprinted in The Merrill Studies in Light in August, 1971
ON THE UNITY OF LIGHT IN AUGUST
"...we are left with a suspension too varied and complex to organize into any clear pattern. We can, of course, discover a great many relationships between the three stories and between parts of the individual stories, and we can, as a number of critics do, trace various themes which recur with some frequency throughout the book. None of these themes, however, as I hope this analysis makes evident, governs enough of the book or resolves enough of the problems in the book to provide any over-all sense of unity. They, too, come to form part of the insoluble suspension, for they cannot be clearly related to one another.
-Walter J. Slatoff, Quest for Failure;
A Study of William Faulkner, 1960
"The book is focused on a series of confrontations: Lena-Burch, Lena-Bunch, Lena-Christmas, and then another series: Bunch-Hightower, Christmas-Hightower, Grimm-Christmas. These meetings, mostly between strangers and some of them mere suggestions of possibility, form the spinal column of the book. If, as I have been saying, Faulkner means to dramatize both the terrors of isolation and the erosion of relationships, it is appropriate that several characters, each breaking out of his own obscurity, should collide, cause pain and then part. There are large possibilities for drama in such a pattern, if only because it virtually insures strong climaxes; and Faulkner has mined these possibilities to their limits. There are also troublesome problems of organization--for one, how to avoid a split of the narrative into several divergent lines. It would be excessive to claim that Faulkner has quite solved these problems.
-Irving Howe, William Faulkner: A Critical Study, 1975
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