Light in August

A detailed Summary of Light in August

A Critical analysis on the life of Joe Christmas in William Faulkner's

In William Faulkner's "Light in August," religion plays a large part of the story, but an even larger part in the traits of the main characters and their actions and appearances. One of, if not the main characters of the novel is Joe Christmas, also known as Joe McEachern. Part of the book tells of his childhood and young adult years. This paper will be based on the life of Joe Christmas; a critical analysis of how he came to be the rather disturbed being that he was. I will also look at several points of view of his character taking on a Christ-like character in the novel.

Joe Christmas is a cold and hostile drifter of uncertain racial identity. One of the most isolated characters in American literature, he has been viewed as an extreme example of modern alienation. He is almost constantly in conflict with society, with the few individuals he has come close to, and with himself. Christmas's dress-white shirt with black pants-suggests his internal division. And this divided character may even symbolize the racial conflict of the South as a whole.

But Faulkner's detailed account of Christm

Faulkner shows Christmas changing from a trusting young child, to an angry and withdrawn adolescent still capable of some love. And finally to an adult at war with everyone, even the completely willing and accepting sexual partner he finds in Joanna Burden.

A third group of readers take quite seriously Christmas's claim that he made himself what he close to be. For them, he is the novel's only hero. They find his refusal to belong to either of society's racial categories an act of rebellion against an order that no one in the novel questions. But it's difficult to square such an interpretation with Christmas's own racism and hatred of blacks. Does he refuse to accept the two racial categories, or does he just zigzag back and forth between them? Are all three interpretations necessarily mutually exclusive?

Christmas is a remarkably controversial character. For some readers Joe is , above all, a victim; of Hines, of the orphanage dietitian, of McEachern, and of the waitress-prostitue Bobbie Allen. According to these readers, Joe also falls victim to Joanna Burden, who responds to him not as a distinct individual, but as a member of a category; the Negro race. And finally and most importantly, Joe is a victim of racist mythology. In order to keep blacks in an inferior state, many white Southerners convinced themselves that blacks were a threat to white women. Consequently, once Jefferson hears that Christmas is part black, the towns people assume that he is guilty. He becomes a scapegoat whose "guilt" reaffi

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Approximate Word count = 1032
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels