Light in August

Ellie Farmer, Ryan Kissinger, Ariana Chambers, Austin Sykes, William Ball, Olivia DuBose Chapter One- A One Way Journey

Narrator: Narrator (3rd Person Omniscient Setting: The chapter starts on the road with Lena walking, trying to reach Jefferson. She is eventually picked up by Mr. Armstid and stays at his house. Lena is then taken to Varner’s store where she catches a ride to Jefferson. The chapter ends as Lena and the wagon driver arrive into Jefferson. Plot Points: ▸ Lena is picked up off of the road by Mr. Armstid and is allowed to stay the night at his house with him and his wife. ▸ Mrs. Armstid learns that Lena is not married yet. She gives Lena some money as she leaves the next day to continue traveling in search of Lucas Burch, her claimed “lover”. ▸ Mr. Armstid gives Lena a ride to a local store where she buys some food and catches a wagon ride to Jefferson, the town where Lucas Burch is rumored to be living. Varner, the store owner, tells Lena that he doesn’t know of anyone in Jefferson named Lucas Burch. Varner says the only name close to that that he knows of is Lucas Bunch. ▸ As Lena and the wagon driver approach Jefferson, they spot two columns of smoke, one being the mill and the other being a house on fire. Time Frame: Lena has been on the road for only around a month during this chapter and only a few days pass. Quotes

“Following his pointing whip, she sees two columns of smoke: the one the heavy density of burning coal above a tall stack, the other a tall yellow column standing apparently from among a clump of trees some distance beyond the town. ‘That’s a house burning,’ the driver says. ‘See?’ (p. 30) ● This quote is symbolic in that the smoke of the house burning is yellow. In literary terms, yellow symbolizes betrayal and a sort of uneasiness. Initially hard to decipher, the meaning behind this imagery makes much more sense later in the plot.

“I told you false. My name is not burch yet. It’s Lena Grove. (p.18)” ● In this quote the reader is actually exposed to two hidden symbols. The most obvious is the theme of the importance of names. Most of all of the names have some sort of message or meaning behind them. Here we are exposed to motif of trees as “grove” and “burch (birch)” are words related to trees. This symbolizes how Lena is more one with nature and struggles trying to fit into society. This quote also relates to the theme of one trying to find an identity. Lena knows that it is severely frowned upon to have a child before marriage and tries to cover that part up Quotes (cont.)

“Her shoes were a pair of his own which her brother had given to her. THey were but slightly worn, since in the summer neither of them wore shoes at all. (p.6)” ● Here the reader is introduced to the symbol of Lena’s shoes. Being a pregnant woman, Lena shouldn’t be putting this much stress on her body. Her shoes first represent the physical journey that she is taking to find Lucas. They also represent the more mental and spiritual journey that Lena is on, trying to find her identity and her place in society. Being a pregnant, single woman, Lena is considered an outsider, especially in the “bible-lovin’” south. Author’s Style and Purpose

Faulkner opens up chapter one with third person omniscient narration. With this type of narration and Faulkner’s unique modernist style, we are not only allowed to know what the characters are doing but also what they are thinking, consciously and unconsciously. As this novel takes place in the south during reconstruction, it could be important for the reader to know what exactly is going on inside of each character’s head. Faulkner also uses many colloquialisms and phrases that are unique to that area of the south.This way of writing allows the dialect of these character to flourish and allows the reader to get a complete picture of the setting and the society that these characters live in. This style of writing really helps the reader see the theme of the control of fate and freewill as the reader knows what is going on inside each character’s head and how they respond to that through their actions. Chapter Two

▸ Narrator: Byron Bunch

▸ Setting: The Mill

▸ Plot Points: a. Byron recalls first meeting Joe Christmas and Joe Brown. b. He discusses their jobs and boarding status with Miss Burden. c. The relationship between Hightower and Bunch is revealed. d. Lena comes to the Mill looking for the father of her child and Byron falls in love with her.

▸ Time Frame: Starts out with a Byron flashback and then comes back to the present when Lena arrives. Significant Quotes

“But it still lingers about her and about the place: something dark and outlandish and threatful, even though she is but a woman and but the descendant of them whom the ancestors of the town had reason (or thought that they had) to hate and dread. “ Page 47 ▸ Miss Burden’s family’s view gave Jefferson a reason “to hate and dread”. They supported Black rights and were punished for it. This quote discusses race and the past. “Her folks come down here in the Reconstruction, to stir up the niggers. Two of them got killed doing it. They say she is still mixed up with niggers. Visits them when they are sick, like they was white. Wont have a cook because it would have to be a nigger cook. Folks say she claims that niggers are the same as white folks.“ Page 53 ▸ This quote is dealing with racism. He is talking about Miss Burden and how she is accepting of Blacks. She is looked differently upon due to her views. Also the use of the N word is obviously racist. “Man knows so little about his fellows.” Page 47 ▸ This is a very profound quote that sums up the book. Secrets run society. Media feeds off the unknown. You think you know what a person is like but they can have a completely different side to themselves. So many people have secrets of hidden parts to their live in this book. Christmas is part black, Joe Brown is a father, and Hightower’s wife. These secrets add some intensity to the novel as well Author’s Style and Purpose

This chapter is used as a continuation of the introduction to the novel. We gain knowledge of the past of Joe Christmas, Joe Brown, and Byron Bunch. Faulkner comments many times of race and how a persons race and/or views on race affect their social status in a given environment. Faulkner begins the chapter stating what is known, “Byron Bunch knows this:” and ends with more questions than answers. What will happen when Lena confronts Joe Brown? Byron and Lena <3? Miss Burden likes African-Americans more than the other Jeffersonians, how will that come into play? This creates interest in the reader and a longing to find the answers. He also points out the secrets control certain environments and situations. Chapter Three

Narrator- Byron Bunch

Setting- Reverend Gail Hightower is looking out his window at the sign he made years ago, and waiting for the sun to set on that Sunday evening. Plot Points- 1. Rev. Hightower thinks about his past and why he built the wooden sign outside his house. 2. Hightower was asked to leave the Presbyterian church where he was a minister. 3. Hightower’s adulterous wife died in Memphis Tennessee while seeing her lover. 4. Hightower refused to leave Jefferson. 5. People now accused Hightower of having relations with a black women and then the Ku Klux Klan beat him. 6. Hightower sees Byron Bunch walking toward his door Sunday evening.

Time Frame: Starts out in the present, then goes to Rev. Gail Hightower’s past, and then back to the present. Significant Quotes

▸ “They told Byron how he seemed to talk that way in the pulpit too, wild too in the pulpit, using religion as though it were a dream. Not a nightmare, but something that went faster than words in the Book; a sort of cyclone that did not even need to touch the actual earth.” pg.61-62 Hightower was so interested in the historic aspects the go along with Jefferson and would preach about his grandfather being shot in the Civil War. ▸ “In the middle of the sermon she sprang from the bench and began to scream, to shriek something toward the pulpit, shaking her hands toward the pulpit where her husband had ceased talking, leaning forward with his hands raised and stopped.”pg.64 For some unnecessary reason Mrs. Hightower felt the need to scream during her husbands sermon. This showed how Rev. Hightower is always confused when his wife starts to cry, he doesn’t know what to do. ▸ “It was Sunday morning’s paper which they saw, telling how she has jumped or fallen from a hotel window in Memphis Saturday night, and was dead.” pg.67 This confirms the truth about Mrs. Hightower’s affair on Rev. Hightower. ▸ “Then even members of other churches knew that his own asked him to resign, and that he refused.” pg.69 He is embarrassing the church by refusing to resign and instead of having the talk be about him he is also making it about the church. ▸ “And when Hightower waked the next morning his study window was broken and on the floor lay a brick with a note tied to it, commanding him to get out of town by sunset and sign K.K.K.” pg.72 The K.K.K. even warned him that they were coming, but he couldn’t get himself to leave. They finally found him a beat him. ▸ “It’s the dead ones that lay quiet in one place and don’t try to hold him, that he can’t escape from.” pg.75 Hightower could not get himself to leave Jefferson, because his dead wife and his grandfather that was shot in Jefferson. Author’s Style and Purpose

Faulkner uses this chapter to introduce Reverend Gail Hightower, along with his past. We learn how the town views him and how he never comes out of the house. We also find out why he was asked to resign from the Presbyterian church what happened to his adulterous wife. Faulkner starts the chapter in the present, goes the his past, and then returns to the present, here is where we find that Byron Bunch is walking toward Hightower’s door. Faulkner puts this scene at the end to spark our curiosity about why Byron is going to see Hightower. Chapter Four

Narrator- Byron Bunch talking to Gail Hightower Setting- The two men are sitting across from each other at a desk next to the open window at Hightower’s house. Plot Points- 1. Byron sits with Gail, talking about Byron’s regret of telling Lena about Lucas. 2. The story shifts to the topic of the burning house- Byron identifies it as “that old Burden house”. 3. Gail wasn’t aware that the joes lived in the cabin behind Ms. Burden’s house, so Byron tells him how that situation came to be as well as their illegal whiskey business. 4. This brings Byron back to Lena; her connection to Joe Brown/Lucas Burch and how Byron lied to Lena about getting to see Brown. 5. Byron describes how he got Lena a night to stay on Mrs Beard’s property. 6. There is a quick shift to the Joes’ relationship and then back to how Byron couldn’t leave Lena alone. 7. Byron revealed to Gail that Christmas is part negro and proceeds to tell him the story of the fire/murder. A man on the wagon found the house burning, Brown was inside, drunk, trying to block the upstairs, the man from the wagon found an almost decapitated Ms Burden up there. 8. Byron explains that Burden’s nephew was offering $1000 to the person that could find her muderer and how Brown went to tattle on Christmas in order to claim the $1000, in the end revealing to the sheriff and the marshal that Christmas has some negro blood in him, basically confirming guilt. 9. Hightower is worried of what will come when Christmas is found and Byron says that he isn’t telling Lena that Brown is off looking for Christmas, and he’s not telling Brown that Lena is looking for him because he would either run or marry Lena. Time Frame- Byron is telling his story to Gail in the present, while his stories are from the past couple days.

Significant Quotes

▸ “I wonder if he hears it too Byron thinks Or maybe he has listened to it so much and so long that he dont even hear it anymore. Dont even need to not listen” p81, Byron’s “knowing viewpoint” as indicated by the italics and spacing. I felt that this fit into Faulkner’s creation of awareness and unawareness- Byron is aware of the noise but has Gail gotten used to it and become unaware? ▸ “I done come all the way from Alabama...I Reckon I aint going to worry about two miles more.” p81, Lena Grove. This quote showed how Lena is more “go-with-the-flow” than the other characters. She’s not stuck in the past and questioning her past actions; Lena has one goal to which she is working (to find Lucas Burch). ▸ “All day I have been thinking how easy it would be if I could just turn back to yesterday and not have any more to worry me than I had then.” p82, Byron. Byron is upset about his inability to turn back time. This related to our initial ideas of the past and present, Byron would rather his past actions dictate his future with Lena. ▸ “But so often the practiced and chronic liar deceives only himself; it is the man who all his life has been self convicted of veracity whose lies find quickest credence.” p85, Uninvolved narrator. This is a reflection on Byron’s lie to Lena. This book has the theme of the struggle for a sense of identity, which obviously applies to Joe Christmas. Here, though, that the other characters struggle with a sense of identity as well. ▸ “And he said how if she could just have done that when she was alive, she might not have been doing it now.” p92, The sheriff said the man that found Ms Burden said this. This cleverly worded line was a chilling way to reference the possibilities of the past. Though she couldn’t literally have turned her head all the way around to see an attack coming, this again related to how the “past and present conspire to defeat human will” could be a valid statement. ▸ “Accuse the white and let the nigger run.” p97, Joe Brown to the sheriff. This was a very direct way of highlighting racism in this time period in this part of the country. This book is a commentary on several civil issues including race. ▸ “Poor man. Poor mankind.” p100, Gail Hightower in reference to what will come if Joe Christmas is found by the police. Sticking with the idea of Christmas being a Christ figure, this is connecting his plight to that of mankind. Author’s Style and Purpose

This chapter showed the fluidity of time within Faulkner’s story. In our introduction to the book, we learned that Faulkner’s style consisted of disordered chronology and is a complicated, concrete story consisting of little details. Both of these were shown within this one chapter. Byron smoothly switches between describing his predicament with Lena and explaining the situation of Joe Brown and Joe Christmas. Like in other chapters, events are told through the characters’ dialogue, not narrated to the reader. Through the dialogue, the characters’ behaviors and social interactions are displayed. For example, Gail does not interrupt Byron’s long yarns, he is frequently described as erect and unmoving- he is a listener. Byron is a love-sick talker, rambling to explain the fire and how it all ties together with his problem with Lena. Chapter Five

Narrator: Joe Christmas

Setting: Joe Brown and Joe Christmas’s house

Plot Points: 1. Christmas beat up Joe Brown after being obnoxious in the cabin 2. Christmas is angered by the fact that Miss Burden lied about her age 3. Goes outside naked and scares woman 4. Goes into clearing in morning and enjoys life 5. Eats dinner while watching Brown be shaved 6. Wanders to both the black and white parts of town, fits in no where 7. Goes to Miss Burdens house Time Frame: Two nights before the fire and murder Significant Quotes

“You’re a nigger, see? You said so yourself. You told me. But I’m white. I’m a wh--” The and shut down. (Faulkner 104) This quote is in the midst of the fight between both Brown and Christmas and it encapsulates the situation of confusion that Christmas finds himself in. He was born into an identity crisis and he does not know what culture to associate himself with which leaves him associating himself with the black community, even though he isn’t black, he fits in with them the most because he can relate with the oppression.

“God perhaps and me not knowing that too He could see it like a printed sentence, fullborn and already dead God loves me too like the faded and weathered letters on a last year’s billboard God loves me too” (Faulkner 105) Christmas is attempting to find a redeeming quality in his life, he is validating his existence. The repetition of the line “God loves me too” expresses how Christmas was very vulnerable and needed to feel like someone did care about his presence in the world.

“Something is going to happen. Something is going to happen to me” (Faulkner 118) This line foreshadows the events that are going to occur to Christmas in the not so distant future, as this occurs two days before the fire. Author’s Style and Purpose

In this chapter, Faulkner is setting the scene of Joe’s life a little bit before the fire and murder took place. He uses Christmas’s inability to fit into any social group as a way to get across the lonely, transient life he lives and he is constantly unnoticed or unwanted. His style is very brief and to the point with an occasional long syntactical sentence. This causes a very unstable prose style which parallels with Christmas’s life. Chapter Six

▸ Narrator: Joe Christmas’s memories

▸ Setting: The orphanage

▸ Plot Points: 1. Joe sneaks into the dietician’s office to steal some toothpaste 2. The dietician and the doctor come in so Joe hides. 3. The doctor and dietician begin having sex. 4. Joe vomits from eating too much toothpaste. 5. The dietician bribes Joe with a silver dollar to keep him from telling on her. 6. Joe doesn’t accept because he doesn’t understand. 7. The dietician goes to the janitor and asks for his help because he hates Joe too. 8. The janitor kidnaps Joe after realizing that the dietician wasn’t going to take action. 9. Three days later, Joe is returned to the orphanage. 10. Mr. McEachern adopts Joe and brings him home.

▸ Time Frame: Joe Christmas was 5 years old and in present day he is in his early 30s so it has been about 25 years since this happened. Significant Quotes

▸ “Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders. 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 black tears (Faulkner 119).” This quote at the beginning of the chapter is very confusing with the stream of consciousness style and personifications. However, this quote most likely is referring to the internal struggle between emotion and logic as well as the idea that Faulkner explores throughout the book, the differences between the conscious and the unconscious.

▸ “The dietician was nothing to him yet… except as something of pleasing association and pleasing in herself to look at-- young, little fullbodied, smooth, pink-and-white, making his mind think of the diningroom, making his mouth think of something sticky and sweet to eat, and also pinkcolored and surreptitious (Faulkner 120).” This quote shows that before the incident with the dietician, Joe had no experience with women so he had nothing against them. He associated women with good things like sweets and the color pink. However, this quote may include some foreshadowing because he also describes women as surreptitious, which means sneaky. This could be the beginning of his misogynistic view of women. Significant Quotes continued

▸ “At once the paste which he had already swallowed lifted inside him, trying to get back out, into the air where it was cool. It was no longer sweet. In the rife, pinkwomansmelling obscurity behind the curtain he squatted, pinkfoamed, listening to his insides, waiting with an astonished fatalism for what was about to happen to him. Then it happened (Faulkner 122).” This is the moment for Joe Christmas when he first begins to associate femininity with discomfort and sickness. His excess sweets (the toothpaste) caused him to throw up. This connects to the several other times in the book when Joe vomits when he is with women.

▸ “You little rat! Spying on me! You little nigger bastard (Faulkner 122).” At this moment, Joe’s wrongdoings are connected with his race. He stole toothpaste from the dietician’s room and in response the dietician called him a derogatory term based on his race. This is the first in a long line of incidents that solidify this idea in Joe’s mind that white is good and black is bad.

▸ “Of course, it’s bad for for the child to have to go to the nigger home, after this, after growing up with white people. It’s not his fault what he is. But it’s not our fault, either-- (Faulkner 135).” This quote illuminates the fact that Joe is stuck between two worlds, black and white, an idea that Joe will struggle with his entire life. Joe isn’t to blame for his race, like the dietician said, but Joe doesn’t see it that way.

▸ “My name ain’t McEachern. My name is Christmas (Faulkner 145).” This quote shows the reader that Joe doesn’t plan to abide by McEachern’s rules and way of life. Though he isn’t happy with his identity, he is still confident enough to stick with it and stay true to himself. This is also foreshadowing of conflict between McEachern and Joe. Author’s Style and Purpose

In this chapter Faulkner enters Joe Christmas’ mind for the first time. It is told in the form of a distant memory so the stream of consciousness style is more pronounced. Chapter 6 is where the reader learns about Christmas’ past and why he is the way he is. His aversion and mistrust of women is explained in this chapter as well as his connotation of his wrongdoings with the black part of him. This chapter is also important because it sets up a storyline concerning Joe’s past and his relatives that comes later in the book. Chapter 7 Family Ties - Wounds Too Deep- Becoming a Man Chapter 7 Family Ties - Wounds Too Deep- Becoming a Man Narrator: Joe Christmas Setting: McEachern house, deserted sawmill shed Time Frame: Covers his first day at the McEachern house (age 5), one Sunday at 8 years old, the incident with the negro girl at 14, the cow argument at 17 Plot Points Section 1: Joe is whipped for not memorizing a catechism; gets sick and faints; Mr. McEachern prays over them both then demands he try again Section 2: After Joe faints, during the time he is sick, Mrs. McEachern brings him a tray of food; Joe refuses it and throws it to the floor; after she picks up dishes and leaves, he eats off the floor Section 3: Joe goes to the sawmill shed with some friends to have sex with a negro girl; instead of having sex with her, Joe beats her; the boys hold him off and run away; later Joe returns home and is whipped for skipping his chores and coming home late; Mr. McEachern seems almost proud that he was fighting and left marks Section 4: Joe has sold the cow Mr. McEachern gave him to buy a suit; McEachern finds out about the cow and suit and beats him for it; Mrs. McEachern tries to take the blame for Joe Section 5: Flashback to day he came to the McEachern house; Mrs. McEachern helps him down from the wagon, washes his feet, puts him to bed and waits for him to fall asleep; Mrs. McEachern has a hidden stash of money; Joe hates her for the softness and kindness she represents “And memory knows this; twenty years later memory is still to believe On this day I became a man” (p146) “When the strap fell he did not flinch, no quiver passed over his face. He was looking straight ahead, with a rapt, calm expression like a monk in a picture.” (p149) “The boy knelt; the two of them knelt in the close, twilit room: the small figure in cutdown underwear, the ruthless man who had never known either pity or doubt.” (p152) “...upon which the man’s hand appeared now as if it had been dipped in blood.” (p153) “He sat up then. While she watched he rose from the bed and took the tray and carried it into the corner and turned it upside down, dumping the dishes and food and all onto the floor.” (p154-5) “...an hour later, he rose from the bed and went and knelt in the corner as he had not knelt on the rug, and above the outraged food kneeling, with his hands ate, like a savage, like a dog.” (p155) “When he reached home he would receive the same whipping though he had committed no sin as he would receive if McEachern had seen him commit it.” (p155-6) “At once he was overcome by a terrible haste. There was something in him trying to get out, like when he had used to think of toothpaste. But he could not move at once, standing there, smelling the woman smelling the negro all at once; enclosed by the womanshenegro and the haste…” (p156) “Perhaps he was thinking then how he and the man could always count upon one another, depend upon one another; that it was always the woman alone who was unpredictable.” (p159) “The boy’s body might have been wood or stone; a post or tower upon which the sentient part of him mused like a hermit, contemplative and remote with ecstasy and selfcrucifixion.” (p159) “But McEachern did not see that. If he saw anything at all, it was the child, the orphan of five years who had sat with the still and alert and unrecking passiveness of an animal on the seat of the buggy that December evening twelve years ago.” (p161) “Above the white blur of his shirt McEachern’s hear resembled one of the marble cannonballs on Civil War monuments.” (p163) “He sighed; it was a sound almost luxurious, of satisfaction and victory.” (p164) “‘You are a clumsier liar than even he’ the man said.” (p165) “It was as if instead of having been subtly slain and corrupted by the ruthless and bigoted man into something beyond his intending and her knowing, she had been hammered stubbornly thinner and thinner like some passive and dully malleable metal, into an attenuation of dumb hopes and frustrated desires now faint and pale as dead ashes.” (p165) “He was waiting for the part to begin which he would not like, whatever it was, whatever it was that he had done. He didn’t know that this was all. This had never happened to him before either.” (p167) “It was the woman who, with a woman’s affinity and instinct for secrecy, for casting a faint taint of evil about the most trivial and innocent actions.” (p168) “It was not the hard work which he hated, nor the punishment and injustice… It was the woman: that soft kindness which he believed himself to be forever victim of and which he hated worse than he did the hard and ruthless justice of men. (p168-9) “‘She is trying to make me cry,’ he thought… ‘She was trying to make me cry. Then she thinks they would have me.’” (p169) Author’s Style & Purpose

In this chapter, Faulkner is introducing the powerful influence of the church, its hypocrisy and the people that it produces which evident by the over-religious Mr. McEachern, who forces Joe to learn the Catholic catechism through physical and verbal abuse. The conservative nature of Southern religion is highlighted here and serves as the basis of the detrimental effects that it has on his character. It is also important to notice that no matter how many times that Mr. McEachern attempts to force “the word of God” upon Joe, he refuses to accept it and maintains his individuality. This idea of Christmas’s individuality is also serves as a foreshadowing of the younger generations separation from the religious rigidity of the South. Although not completely foreign to the concept, Joe’s idea of sex is disillusioned by his childhood experiences with the dietitian. In the scene where he and the Negro girl are in the barn the thoughts of the toothpaste and the sickening feelings he experienced began to arise. It is also important in this scene to remember that Joe believes that he is biracial and therefore feels this connection with her, he is unsure of what it is and as a result releases his hostility, connecting with the idea of the fear of the unknown. Joe believes women to be unpredictable which does not coincide with his ideals of structure and order which is why he can always count on a man and possesses a misogynistic attitude. Chapter 8 Oh, We Got Trouble - Down the Rope Setting: McEachern house, nearby town, Narrator: Joe Christmas restaurant in town, Bobbie’s house above the restaurant Time frame: begins the fall of his 17th year, follows the beginning of his relationship with Bobbie Plot Points Section 1: p.171- Joe wears his new suit for the first time; forgets to wind his watch (possible theme of time); p.172- “I wish he would try to stop me.”- Joe has regrets for meeting with Bobby Section 2: p.173- Bobby is almost childlike, with eyes “beyond hardness” and large hands; p.174- Mr. McEachern takes Joe to the diner, then warns him never to return; p. 178- 6 mo. later they go to town, McEachern gives Joe a dime. Joe heads straight for the diner, can only afford pie, waitress lies to owner to cover for him; p.181- Joe avoids going into town for weeks; p.182- McEachern gives Joe a heifer for his hard work; p.183- Joe returns to town and tries to pay a nickel for coffee he couldn’t afford; he gets laughed away; he talks to Bobby outside Section 3: p.185 Joe kills a sheep and washes his hands in the blood; p.188- Joe walks to meet Bobby, she’s on her period but Joe doesn’t get it when she tells him, Joe hits her and runs; p.190- A week later they meet and have sex for the first time Section 4: p.191- Joe begins to steal from Mrs. McEachern’s money jar to pay Bobby; p.193 Joe buys a tattered box of candy for Bobby; p.194- Joe meets Max and Mame while meeting with Bobby, they offer him his first taste of alcohol; p. 196- Joe tells Bobby that he is part negro; p.198- Joe realizes that Bobby is a prostitute and hits her “The house squatted in the moonlight, dark, profound, a little treacherous. It was as though in the moonlight the house had acquired personality: threatful, deceptive.” (p171) “But he had never owned a watch before and so he had forgot to wind it.” (p171) “‘I wish it was him. I wish he would follow me and see me get into the car. I wish he would try to follow us. I wish he would try to stop me.’” (p172) “‘I’ll have you remember that place. There are places in this world where a man may go but a boy, a youth of your age, may not. That is one of them.’”(p175) “That already there is something for love to feed upon: that sleeping I know now why I struck refraining that negro girl three years ago and that she must know it too and be proud too, with waiting and pride.” (p177) “He carried the dime clutched hot and small in his palm as a child might. He entered the screen door, clumsily, stumbling a little.” (p178) “In proportion to the height from which her voice came, the hands could not be her hands at all… The hands did not move. The voice did not move.” (p180) “Didn’t he order coffee too?” she said. “No,” the waitress said, in that level voice that was still in motion, going away. “I misunderstood.” (p181) “However, reward was created for man the same as chastisement. Do you see that heifer yonder? From today that calf is your own. See that I do not later regret it.” (p182) “Again, stopped, she did not even look at him, having already looked at him, allseeing, like when she had set the coffee and the pie on the counter. She said, ‘Oh. And you come back to give it to me. Before them. And they kidded you. Well, say.” (p184) “He was not three miles from home when in the late afternoon he shot a sheep. He found the flock in a hidden valley and stalked and killed one with the gun. Then he knelt, his hands in the yet warm blood of the dying beast, trembling, drymouthed, backglaring.” (p185) “She said, ‘Listen. I’m sick tonight.’ He did not understand. He said nothing. Perhaps he did not need to understand. Perhaps he had already expected some fateful mischance, thinking, ‘It was too good to be true, anyway.’” (p188) “She did not believe that he had intended to strike her; she believed otherwise, in fact. But the result was the same.” (p188) “He reached the woods and entered, among the hard trunks, the branchshadowed quiet, hardfeeling, hardsmelling, invisible. In the notseeing and the hardknowing as though in a cave he seemed to see a diminishing row of suavely shaped urns in moonlight, blanched. And not one was perfect. Each one was cracked and from each crack there issued something liquid, deathcolored, and foul. He touched a tree, leaning his propped arms against it, seeing the ranked and moonlit urns. He vomited.” (p189) Author’sIn this chapter, Faulkner showsStyle a point in the book& thatPurpose influences Joe Christmas's relationship with any type of woman. The meeting of Bobbie Allen really tests Joe and his connection with his sexuality. Faulkner's use of run-on sentences to describe points in the text where Joe's stream-of-consciousness shines through and shows the confusing mind of Joe as his conflictions of growing up in such a strict Christian family while experiencing the urges of a teenage boy. There are many points when Joe's perspective is changing and flashing back and forth to periods at home and at places with Bobbie at the restaurant. Faulkner uses a lot of imagery in this chapter, especially when describing the sexual tensions felt between Bobbie and Joe. An interesting thing is that unlike the chapter before with several complete jumps in time back and forth, this chapter stays rather close together. Therefore, the style of this chapter remains in a simple structure, but places complex imagery and diction to contrast to the simple structure of the chapter. I think a lot of this has to do with the authenticity of describing life in the South: by making it seem simple. Faulkner also does an interesting detail in his writing style that I noticed when faced with his violent outbreaks. When Joe beats Bobbie, it's not publicized in the book like it's extremely important. This does an interesting way of showing how Joe's life is just one big running of time and each event is significant, but his violent acts aren't nearly as important to Joe as the reason the acts are performed and I think Faulkner does a good way of ignoring the emphasizing of violence and pushing the bigger events in Joe's life. Chapter 9 Betrayal - Light a Match, Burn Your World to Ash Narrator: Mr. McEachern, Setting: McEachern house, dance at a Joe Christmas schoolhouse in the country, Bobbie’s house Time Frame: one night Plot Points Section 1: McEachern watches Joe go to the barn for the suit, then get in a car. He gets his horse and rides until he hears music and sees lights at a schoolhouse. He walks in and pushes the waitress away from Joe, then Joe swings a chair at his head Section 2: the waitress screams at Joe, then they both run out. Joe takes the horse and rides back to McEachern’s house, where he takes the money Mrs. McEachern has hidden Section 3: Joe leaves and goes to where the waitress lives with Max and Mame. He walks in and sees a lot of luggage. Max and a stranger try to ask him whether he killed Mr. McEachern, but Joe doesn’t seem to understand. He tries to tell the waitress he brought the money so they could get married, but she yells that he got her into trouble and isn’t white. Joe springs towards Max and the stranger, but they take him down and hit him a few times. Mame prevents the stranger from hitting Joe again, and everyone prepares to leave as Joe lies on the floor. “...and she watched him empty the tin can onto the bed and sweep the small mass of coins and bills into his pocket. Only then did he look at her as she sat, backfallen a little now, propped on one arm and holding the shawl with the other hand. ‘I didn’t ask you for it,’ he said. ‘Remember that. I didn’t ask, because I was afraid you would give it to me. I just took it. Don’t forget that.’” (p. 209) “It - the horse and the rider - had a strange, dreamy effect, like a moving picture in slow motion as it galloped steadily and flagging up the street and toward the old corner where he used to wait, less urgent perhaps but not less eager, and more young.” (p. 210) “And he heard their actual voices without knowing what they said, without even listening: Ask him How would he know Perhaps he heard the words. But likely not. Likely they were as yet no more significant than the rasping of insects beyond the closedrawn window, or the packed bags which he had looked at and had not yet seen.” (p. 214-215) “‘What did I come here for? I came to get Bobbie. Do you think that I - when I went all the way home to get the money to get married -” (p. 216) “We’ll need a little more blood to tell for sure Sure. He don’t need to worry. This one is on the house too The hand did not fall. Then the blonde woman was there too. She was holding the stranger’s lifted arm by the wrist. I said that will do “...he knew almost as much of Joe’s doings as Joe himself could have told him, with the exception of names and places. Very likely he would not have believed those even from Joe’s mouth, since men of his kind usually have just as firmly fixed convictions about the mechanics, the theatring of evil as about those of good.” (p202) “As McEachern watched him from the window, he felt something of that pure and impersonal outrage which a judge must feel were he to see a man on trial for his life lean and spit on the bailiff’s sleeve.” (p202) “He turned into the road at that slow and ponderous gallop, the two of them, man and beast, leaning a little stiffly forward as though in some juggernautish simulation of terrific speed though the actual speed itself was absent, as if in that cold and implacable and undeviating conviction of both omnipotence and clairvoyance of which they both partook known destination and speed were not necessary.” (p203) “Very likely he seemed to himself to be standing just and rocklike and with neither haste nor anger while on all sides the sluttishenss of weak human man seethed in a long sigh of terror about the actual representative of the wrathful and retributive Throne.” (p204) “...and perhaps when the face ducked the blow and came up again it was not the face of that child. But he could not have been surprised at that, since it was not that child’s face which he was concerned with: it was the face of Satan…” (p205) “‘Stand back! I said I would kill him some day! I told him so!’” (p206) “The youth upon its back rode lightly, balanced lightly, leaning well forward, exulting perhaps at that moment as Faustus had, of having put behind now at once and for all the Shalt Not, of being free at last of honor and law...He cried aloud, ‘I have done it! I have done it! I told them I would!’” (p207) Author’s Style & Purpose The events that take place in this chapter are yet another reminder to Joe Christmas that his like will never be what he wants it to be. Despite the past which haunts him and despite the fact that Mr. McEachern constantly beats and berates him, he has found a sort of comfort in Bobby. She’s one of the only people with whom Joe has ever connected in his life, and because of that she means almost everything to him. Joe is finally becoming his own man, as shown by the fact that he told Bobbie that his last name was Christmas. This semblance of a life that Joe has started to construct comes quickly crashing down when McEachern discovers them dancing. Joe can’t handle the fact that he will lose everything that matters to him yet again, and he loses control, resulting in Mr. McEachern’s death. Even after he’s seen everything he had fall apart, Joe is not able to give up the small bit of hope. He’s still trapped in the past, and the fact that he can’t move on will hurt him more. By stealing Mrs. McEachern’s money he hurts her, but he can’t understand it like this because he has such a twisted concept of relationships due to his upbringing. The final hurt comes to him when Bobbie, the person on whom he was counting the most, rejects him once again. If it doesn’t absolve Joe Christmas of his crimes in Jefferson, this chapter at least introduces a new level of complexity to him. Bobbie’s rejection of him based on race gives Joe yet another reason to hate his part negro blood, and yet another reason to hate the world for dooming him from the start. Light in August 10-13 Michael, Sarah, Haley, Leeden, Rebecca Chapter 10

Narrator: Joe Christmas Setting: On the road, then in Jefferson in the present on the novel Plot points: -Christmas has been travelling for a long time -He learns from a boy who Miss Burden is -Christmas breaks into Miss Burden’s house and eats her molasses peas (pictured) -Miss Burden finds Christmas in her kitchen Time frame: Years, from when he is betrayed by Bobbie to when he is found in Miss Burden’s house. Chapter 10 continued ~“Knowing not grieving remembers a thousand savage and lonely streets.” (220) ~“The street ran into Oklahoma and Missouri and as far south as Mexico and then back north to Chicago and Detroit and then back south again to Mississippi. It was fifteen years long.” (224) This shows Joe Christmas' journey and connects back to how he felt like an outcast by not really fitting in with the people he enountered. ~“He ate something from an invisible dish, with invisible fingers: invisible food.” (230) ~Molasses Peas (Motif) 230- The molasses peas represent the remnants of a good memory that Christmas has. It brings him back to society metaphorically through the taste. ~Window (Symbol) 229- Primarily Joe Christmas escapes and enters through windows. Windows symbolize his freedom. ~The road (Symbol) 224- Christmas seems to find a curiosity and adventure in solitude and travelling because he doesn’t belong in any community. This ties into the theme. ~Lack of a place where one belongs (theme)- Christmas struggles with identity throughout the book as a mixed man. He belongs in neither the white community nor the black community. This is one reason he keeps travelling on the road. Chapter 10 continued

Style: This chapter goes in chronological order and is a narrative of Christmas’s life at this time. The style at the beginning is very sporadic to mirror Joe’s concussion. Then it goes quickly through the large amount of time spent on the road with an intense tone. At the end when Joe breaks into the house, the language slows down and becomes more philosophical and flowery. Analysis: This chapter showcases how Christmas is an outcast due to reasons outside his own control, and how through frustration over those reasons, he lashes out at others. This is a very strong social critique on the treatment of people of mixed race during this time period, as well as all people of color. Chapter 11

Narrator: Christmas Setting: Jefferson, specifically Miss Burden’s property Plot: -Christmas started working at the planing mill -He rapes Miss Burden. (Their first sexual encounter) -Joe hurls food at the wall -Miss Burden opens up to Joe with her family history, and how she gets back at her family by being with black men -Miss burden explains how her father didn’t kill Sartoris because he was half French and respected love of land. Time Frame: More than a year while he is staying with Miss Burden during Chatper 11 continued

● (pg. 235) “My God. How little I know about women, when I thought I knew so much.” This relates back to the theme of misogyny because JC is criticizing women. “It was like I was the woman and she was the man.” ● (pg. 234) “Sometimes he thought of it in that way, remembering the hard, untearful and unselfpitying and almost manlike yielding of that surrender.” Here, JC is commenting on Miss Burden’s surrender to sex. He continues on with disdainful comments on how “manlike” she is and how he does not like it. This coincides with the theme of misogyny. ● (pg. 241) “She is like all the rest of them. Whether they are seventeen or fortyseven, when they finally come to surrender completely, it’s going to be in words.” This also goes along with the theme of misogyny because it is grouping all women into one category and saying that they will surrender, so JC thinks they are lessers. ● (pg 243) ““I’ll learn you to hate two things”, he would say, “or I’ll frail the tar out of you. And those things are hell and slaveholders.” This is Calvin Burden to his children. This coincides with the theme of racism in that the Burden family is the foil to the southern town, they are abolitionists and equal rights activists. Chapter 11 continued

● Style: This chapter could be split into two parts, with the first focused on Joe Christmas. Faulkner takes the reader into his mind to see his misguided musings about womanhood and how he longs for acceptance and company, but seems to resist it when it is offered by Joanna Burden. In the second part of the chapter, Joanna tells Joe Christmas her family history. Joe learns that members of her family had died for their favor of equal rights for blacks, and that was why they had come to the South in the first place. Only after learning this does Joe feel comfortable revealing that he is part black. ● Analysis: Until this point, the reader knows very little about Joanna Burden and where she came from. Faulkner uses her story to expand and develop her character. By developing Joanna and setting her up as a potential companion for Joe Christmas, Faulker shows just how afraid of commitment and normalcy Joe is. All potentially good things in Joe's life (family, religion, friends, love) were ruined for him in childhood through his abandonment and abusive foster father. Chapter 12 Narrator: Joe Christmas

Setting: Jefferson, Mississippi. On Ms. Burden’s property.

Plot Points: JC and Miss Burden become lovers again, which is more regular and includes games. As fall comes, the passion cools. JC starts selling liquor and goes to Memphis once a week for prostitutes. Miss Burden wants a child and four months later, she announces her pregnancy; JC plans his escape. Miss Burden wants JC to take over her job of advising black college students. At this time, Joe Brown now stays with JC. JB finds out about JC’s affair with Miss Burden, but JC beats him up since JB started making fun of him for his affair. Miss Burden calls for JC. JC arrives with a razor; he finds her praying and she wants him to pray with her. JC refuses. Miss Burden fires a gun that was mean to kill JC and then herself (as it had two bullets), but it does not fire properly.JC kills her with a razor, almost decapitating her, and fled the house only to find a ride with a couple who were shocked to see JC still had the gun in his hands.

Time Frame: A few months (Summer and Fall) Chapter 12 continued ● (Pg. 266) "A full measure. Even to a bastard negro child. I would like to see father’s and Calvin’s faces. This would be a good time for you to run, if that’s what you want to do.” Joanna Burden criticizes Joe Christmas and her child for being partially black, thus connecting to the theme of racism throughout the book. ● (Pg. 258) "This is not my life. I dont belong here." Christmas connects his current actions of being involved with Joanna Burden as him not being true to the theme of finding ones identity. ● (Pg. 278) "That's all. You're just worn out. You're not good anmore. That's all." Joe Christmas tells Miss Burden that she is useless due to her age as a women, connecting to the theme regarding misogyny. ● (Pg. 278) "Maybe it would be better if we were both dead." This is Miss Burden foreshadowing her murder-suicide attempt between her and Joe Christmas at the end of chapter twelve. ● (Pg. 282) "For the last time. I dont ask it. Remember that. Kneel with me." Miss Burden attempts to have Christmas pray with her, but he refuses. This ties back to the theme of religion and how it was sometimes forced upon people unwillingly. Chapter 12 continued

Style: Joe's feeling regarding Miss Burden came in a few stages. The second stage, unlike the first, changed gradually, mirroring the seasonal change. At this point in the book, Faulker's style displays how Joe Christmas felt he was trapped with Miss Burden throughout the transition between summer and fall. Just like leaves change colors, Joe realizes how he and Miss Burden act almost like thye are in a commited relationship. Faulker uses this realization by having chapter twelve transition from relaxed somewhat tenseas Christmas finally has this epiphany. Joe's realization allows for this chapter to be separated into a few parts as he gradually discovers new feelings towards Miss Burden and thir relationship; the parts were separated pretty well through Faulker's use of the transitions.

Analysis: This chapter in the book is very important as it provides the details of both how and why Joe Christmas decided he was going to leave Miss Burden, but also shows what happened with the burning house, why Joe was in the car with a gun, and how Miss Burden died. Previously in the book, we knew that Miss Burden's house caught on fire and that she was murdered by Christmas, but this gave us insight into how exactly Christmas was involved; he was basically using self defense when he used the razor blade to cut Miss Burden as she was attempting the murder-suicide. Chapter 13

Narrator: Gail Hightower

Setting: Miss Burden’s home, Hightower’s home

Plot Points: People gather near Miss Burden’s home; the firetruck arrives, but there is no water source. People assume someone from the all-black community is the killer. A man is beaten until he confesses that the cabin’s inhabitants are JB and JC. There is a $1000 reward (set by Miss Burden’s nephew). JB blames JC, and bloodhounds are end to find JC, but he is never found. Byron and Hightower discuss Lena. Bryon wants her to leave Mrs. Beard’s boarding house, but Hightower thinks it is the only good place. Lena wants to go to JB’s cabin, but Bryon plans to tell JB about Lena in hopes he’ll run away.

Time Frame: A day or two Chapter 13 continued Racism: “But the negro did not look back; there came only into his face when the strap fell down across his back a wince, sudden, sharp, fleet, jerking up the corner of his mouth and exposing his momentary teeth like smiling.” (page 292)

Racism against Burden loving blacks: “Among them the casual Yankees and the poor whites and even the southerners who believed aloud that it was an anonymous negro crime committed not by a negro but by Negro and who knew, believed, and hoped that she had been ravished too…” (page 288) “She had been born and lived and died a foreigner, and outlander, a kind of heritage of astonishment and outrage...they would never forgive her and let her be dead in peace and quiet.” (page 289)

Misogyny: “While she was alive they would not have allowed their wives to call on her.” (page 292) “But I did not expect this. That you too would turn against a woman wronged and betrayed--.” “God didn’t intend it so when He made marriage. Made it? Women made marriage.” “But what woman, good or bad, has ever suffered from any brute as men have suffered from good women?” (page 314)

Chapter 13 continued... Identity Struggle: “Man performs, engenders, so much more than he can or should have to bear.” (page 299) “I wont! I wont! I have bought immunity. I have paid. I have paid.” (page 309) Juxtaposition: “It was as if the very initial outrage of the murder carried in its wake and made of all subsequent actions something monstrous and paradoxical and wrong, in themselves both reasons and nature.” (page 296)

Time: “He passes from sight walking erect and at a good gait; such a fait as an old man already gone to flesh and short wing, an old man who has already spent too much time sitting down, could not have kept up with.” (page 317)

Smoke rising from the Burden house: “So they looked at the fire, with that same dull and static amaze which they had brought down from the old fetid caves where knowing began, as though, like death, they had never seen fire before.” (page 288) “He was not thinking of himself as having been frustrated by a human agent. It was the fire. It seemed to him that the fire had been selfborn for that end and purpose. It seemed to him that that by and because of which he had had ancestors long enough to come himself to be, had allied itself with crime.” (page 290) Chapter 13 continued Style: Faulkner’s style throughout the chapter changes, it begins with a third person narrator who is overlooking the crime scene and giving the readers an account of the dealings happening on the Burden plantation. But then the scene changes, separates away from the crime scene to connect to Byron Bunch and Hightower. With those two, the story becomes less about Joanna Burden, Brown and Christmas, and more about Lena’s pregnancy. Bunch recounts his story about how he facilitated Lena’s move to Brown’s ‘cabin.’ The reason Faulkner switches the two stories in and out of each other is because he is producing commentary on the essence of time. Time is fluid and time is muddled, it’s the concept of time that allows to Faulkner to be presenting an idea in the present and two pages later be talking about an event that transpired at a different moment in time.

Analysis: While this chapter provides the readers with many background facts about the story, it also works to highlight many symbols and motifs in the novel as a whole. From this chapter we learn that the town harbours hatred for Miss Burden based on her gender and that misogyny is very prevalent in this time period and novel. The deep seated racism reemerges and so does the commentary on time. One thing about this particular chapter that is confusing is Faulkner believes humans do not possess the ability to choose their lives as their own, as though they are fated on certain paths, yet in this chapter there are numerous references to humans actually having a choice. The choice of whether or not to make certain decisions that will ultimately decide their position in society...ie what Hightower was saying to Byron, warning him to not move Lena because of what society might say. If people do not have the power to make decisions because they are all in preordained positions, why would Hightower be warning Bunch of making the wrong decision and going against the societal norm. Light in August

Chapters 14-16

Mario Battigelli, Vernon Espinoza, Allison Hampton, Vickie Li, Matthew Kim 14: Narrator, setting, plot, time frame

Setting: Cabin in the deep woods of Jefferson, church, and on the road, Mottstown ● Established indirectly, through dialogue Narrator: Sheriff, Joe Christmas (point of view is third person omniscient) ● begins with the conversation of the deputy and sheriff Time frame: Tuesday - Friday after 1:00 PM or 3:00 PM Plot: ● Joe Christmas barges into a black church, insane and yelling at the pulpit causing a disruption and departed immediately. ● Christmas travels by foot; he does not know where he is going ● encounters a few events on the road ● Joe Christmas is finally able to find a sense of tranquility within himself, and forget about the agonizing hunger he faces by accepting and coming into terms with his black heritage (black blood). 14: Quotes -> Themes/Symbols

It’s the devil! It’s Satan himself! -pg 322, one of the church women - comment on how society reacts to people considered out of the ordinary - relates back to how the community viewed biracials at that time period If he don’t get that thousand dollars, I reckon he will just die. -pg 322, sheriff -Comment on vanity, selfishness, and betrayal That was all I wanted, he thinks, in a quiet and slow amazement. That was all, for thirty years. That didn’t seem to be a whole lot to ask in thirty years. -pg 331, Joe Christmas -Joe’s mind is in a peaceful state as of now, through these years Christmas just wanted to be like everyone else, he did not ask for much but all he got was misfortunes after misfortunes ...I am tired of running of having to carry my life like it was a basket of eggs.. 14: Quotes/Themes/Symbols (cont.)

● cigarette & smoke- weariness, mystery, confusion, & comfort ● shoes/brogans- shoes are something personal and vulnerable because it represents the “path” and the experiences you encounter along the way, so when Christmas switches shoes with the woman’s husband it is because he is in desperate situation ● time- represents death for Christmas because for him; time did not make things better nor “heal” the scars he has from his childhood. Christmas also becomes somewhat delirious, asking everyone he comes across what time it is (time has gotten the control over him). “The name of the day of the week seem more important than the food.” ● food- used by many of the characters in the novel to bond with Christmas. By not eating and viewing food as unimportant, Christmas illustrates that he has given up on humanity since food symbolized the little warmth and compassion he had. He would rather starve to death. ● 14: Author’s Style and Purpose

Faulkner makes use of 2 main themes ● Journey - “gone to sleep running” ● Joe leaves “prints of hands and knees” ● Gritty diction: “the black abyss which had been waiting, trying, for thirty years to drown him” ● Barren landscape creates parallels to The Road, somber tone ● ● Irony/Contrast - “Christmas…...had struck him with the bench leg” ○ Byron thinks he has learned love but knows only hope ○ Joe Christmas worsens situation with more violence 15: Narrator, Setting, Plot, Time

Narrator: ● Mr. Hines (Uncle Doc), Mrs. Hines, Hightower, The people of Mottstown (third person omniscient point of view) Setting: ● Mottstown Time frame: ● Friday 12:00 PM - Saturday 6:00 PM Plot: ● Joe Christmas Arrives at Mottstown and cleans up ● Introduction to the Hines couple (Introduction to “Uncle Doc’s” white supremacy beliefs/attitude) ● Joe Christmas is captured and taken into custody ● The Hines’ show an odd interest in Christmas, and waits for a train to follow Christmas back to Jefferson. 15: Author’s Style and Purpose

Repetition of violence; ignorance perpetuates ignorance ● Heavy reliance on dialogue throughout ○ Shows society’s limited thinking ■ Christmas “ought to have been skulking and hiding in the woods” ■ “He thought he had a right to kill that nigger. He never said why” ■ Faulkner highlights the local racism

○ People unwilling to escape their ignorant ways ■ Parallel to ELAIC: Joe = Grandpa ● difficulty understanding himself and listening to others 15: Quotes/Themes/Symbols

I aint worried you before. In thirty years I aint worried you. But now I am going to. I am going to know and you got to tell me. What did you do with Milly’s baby? -pg 348, Mrs. Hines -Mrs. Hines pretended to act like nothing ever happened, but now she wants the truth -themes: secret, miscommunication, and truth He dont look any more like a nigger than I do. But it must have been the nigger blood in him. pg 349, womenfolks/townspeople -Comment on ignorance and racism in society -theme: assumption and misinterpretation He never acted like either a nigger or a white man. pg 350, townspeople Bitchery and abomination! Abomination and bitchery! pg 361, Mr. Hines 16: Narrator, Setting, Plot, Time

Narrator: ● Byron Bunch, Hightower, Mr. & Mrs. Hines (the point of view is third person omniscient) Setting: ● Hightower’s house Time: ● Sunday - Monday (time was not specified) Plot: ● Entire chapter takes place in Hightower’s home ● Hightower is notified by Byron that Joe Christmas has been captured ● Byron introduces the Hines to Hightower, and discovers that the Hines are Christmas’ grandparents ● First full description of who Milly was, what she did, and how she died. ● Origin of Mr. Hines’ beliefs toward white supremacy explained along with the description of Milly. ● Origin of Joe Christmas ● Mrs. Hines asks for Joe Christmas to be freed for one day. Due to the request, Byron asks Hightower to give Christmas an alibi by saying he was with him during the fire. ● Reverend Hightower becomes livid and kicks everyone out. 16: Quotes/Themes/Symbols

● “I am not a man of God. And not through my own desire. ... It was by the will, the more than behest, of them like you and like her and like him in the jail yonder and like them who put him there to do their will upon, as they did upon me, with insult and violence upon those who like them were created by the same God and were driven by them to do that which they now turn and rend them for having done it. ” P365. Hightower Comment on God being the root of evil. i.e God created humans; therefore he created sin. ● I have put the mark on him and now I am going to put the knowledge. p.371 “Doc Hines said “God” said these words to him. Alluding to Genesis and God’s mark on Cain. Creating a parallel between Cain’s murder of Theme: God is an his brother and the children hollering “Nigger! Nigger!” at the boy. omniscient being. He ● But I told him it was because the devil was in him. And that some day the devil was is used to justify all going to come on him and him not know it until too late and the devil was going to say actions whether they “Eupheus Hines, I have to collect my toll” be corrupt or just. P. 372 Comment on how religion was used to instil fear and create uniformity among people. Symbolizes the use of religion as a means of control. 16: Author’s Style and Purpose

Deaths are adding up Faulkner uses Byron and Hightower to question human nature and power ● Hightower and Byron are analogous to the gravediggers of Hamlet ○ “Byron alone seems to possess life.” ○ “Ah, Byron, Byron. What a dramatist you would have made.”

○ Byron considers the Joes’ guilt ○ Hightower humors Byron’s talk of Lena

● Byron and Hightower only discuss the events; they have no power to change their result ● Thus Faulkner emphasizes the weakness of humanity

“Alas, poor Christmas” Light in August Chapters

17 and 18

By Bethany Beznos, Chandler Messick, Katelyn Mottesheard, Allie Haderer, and Madison Abbott Chapter 17 Narrator: Third Person Omniscient Setting: Beginning with Lena in labor inside of the cabin, the chapter’s primary setting is that of Byron’s search to find a doctor. The journey ranges from Hightower’s house, back to the cabin, and to the working mill. Plot: 1. Lena goes into labor. 2. Byron asks Hightower to assist Lena while Byron finds a doctor. 3. Byron is agitated because he did not prepare for the birth. 4. Byron returns to the cabin to discover that the baby has already been born in the presence of Mr. and Mrs.Hines . 5. Mrs. Hines appears delusional as she holds the belief that Lena is her daughter, Milly, and the newborn his her grandson, Joe Christmas. Thus, freaking Lena out. 6. Byron concludes that he should notify Joe Brown of the birth and leaves in search of the new father. 7. Hightower heads home only to find himself completely awake and wandering back into the cabin with the isolated Lena. Lena was expecting Byron, so she was quite shocked when it was Hightower that returned. 8. Lena explains to Hightower that Mr. Hines had gone out and soon after Mrs. Hines left to find her husband. 9. Hightower travels to the mill and hears that Byron has quit his job of seven years, and that the newly unemployed man is at the courthouse where Joe Christmas’ trial is being held. Time Lapse: One morning Chapter 17 quotes

● “‘Byron Bunch borning a baby. If I could have seen myself now two weeks ago, I would not have believed my own eyes. I would have told them that they lied.’”--pg. 392 while most of the characters remain unchanged throughout the novel(Brown stays annoying and useless, Christmas can’t let go of his past), Byron serves as a foil to that theme because he changed his life dramatically. ● “Neither does he go to his bedroom and try to sleep...‘If I were a woman, now. That’s what a woman would do:go back to bed to rest.’”-- pg. 405 Throughout Light in August, many of the men, such as Christmas, make assumptions about women to make themselves feel guilty. If anything happened, they blamed their women (Christmas and Burden/women in general, Mr. Heins and women in general). ● “‘No man is, can be, justified in taking human life; least of all, a warranted officer, a sworn servant of his fellow men. When it is sanctioned publicly in the person of an elected officer who knows that he has not himself suffered by the hands of his victim, call that victim by what name you will, how can we expect an individual to refrain when he believes that he has suffered from the hands of his victim?”’-- pg 414 Hightower speaks in this excerpt about the motif on how humans get in a relentless cycle of being the victim and turning around and victimizing others. Christmas was victimized by the dietitian and goes on to kill Burden. Chapter 17 Style and Purpose

Faulkner uses a very straightforward narrative style throughout the whole book but, especially in this chapter. Faulkner changes his writing style based on the character in point. One of the purposes of this chapter may be to further explain the strength of the women in the novel. Lena has her child which develops a new image of Lena that makes her seem much stronger. Chapter 18 Narrator: Third Person Omniscient --- time lapse: a few hours Setting: Once again, this chapter’s setting revolves around the wandering Byron. However, due to a perspective change halfway through, the setting also follows Joe Brown. The chapter begins with Joe Christmas’ trial downtown and switches over to Mrs. Beard’s boarding house. Eventually, the scene is moved to the cabin, and concludes near railroad tracks. Plot: 1. The grand jury has gathered to discuss the fate of Joe Christmas 2. Byron goes to Mrs. Beard’s boarding house to pick up his belongings in preparation to begin a new life 3. Byron explains Lena and Joe Brown’s situation to the sheriff and convinces the law enforcer to take Joe Brown into the Burden cabin to meet his newborn child. 4. Spying on the scene at the cabin, Byron decides to ride his mule out of Jefferson. As he is riding away he catches a glimpse of Joe Brown running from the cabin. 5. Brave, confident, strong -- Byron chases after the runaway Brown. 6. Brown becomes irritated at first sight of Lena. He lies to her face in telling her that he sent for her a while back. 7. When the chance appears, Brown jumps through the cabin window and flees 8. Brown asks a boy in a black cabin to fetch his $1000 from the sheriff to give to him 9. Byron and Brown eventually come face to face and although Byron knows he will lose, he provokes Brown to fight with him 10. Without a shock, Brown wins the fight near railroad tracks and the moment a train passes Brown jumps on 11. Byron hitches a ride with a man in a wagon who proceeds to inform Brown that Christmas escaped from police custody and was murdered

Chapter 18 quotes

● “It aint a wonder womenfolks get impatient with you. You cant even know your own limits for devilment. Which aint more than I can measure on a pin, at that. I reckon if it wasn’t for getting some woman mixed up in it to help you, you’d ever one of you be drug hollering into heaven before you was ten years old.” (page 419) Throughout the entire novel comments concerning male superiority over women are thrown out there. However, this quote truly exemplifies societies standards through a woman’s perspective. In this case stating that men ignorantly underestimate how important the female role is in their life. ● “‘You’d be a stranger anywhere you was at’”--pg. 426 Going with the theme that most of the main characters are outsiders in Jefferson, this quote shows that Brown’ s problem isn’t his outsider status--the problem is his disregard for anyone but himself. ● “She just lay there, propped on the pillows, watching him with her sober eyes in which there was nothing at all...”--pg. 428 Throughout LIA, Lena has been a earthy mother figure. Chapter 18 Style and Purpose

Faulkner has a very unique style throughout Light In August that focuses a lot on perspective, identification, and time. The time and sequence of the event in Chapter 18 were told in two different perspectives.The first perspective is that of Byron and then it changed to that of Joe Brown. Joe Brown’s perspective of the story begins when he is escorted from jail and taken to the cabin. This is important because it shows the importance of perspective and identification in Faulkner’s style. Chapters 19-21

Katherine Bell Jana Klages-Miller Jide Jegede Travis Barnes Latazha Martin Narrator/Setting/Plot Points/Time Frame Chapter 19 ❖ Narrated by: Gavin Stevens/Percy Grimm ❖ Plot points ➢ Gavin Stevens, the district attorney, escorts the Hineses onto a train to Mottsville and assures them that their grandson’s body will be shipped to them the next day. ➢ Joe Christmas escapes prison and goes to Gail Hightower’s house. ➢ Percy Grimm and three armed men chase him to Hightower’s house, and when they arrive, Hightower claims that Joe Christmas was with him on the night of the murder. ➢ Ignoring the ex-preacher, Grimm finds Christmas in the kitchen. He shoots him five times and then with a butcher knife, castrates him. ❖ Time Frame: This chapter begins with the description of the Hines’ departure, and ends with the recall of the capture and execution of Joe Christmas by Percy Grimm. Significant Quotes Chapter 19 ❖ “But there was too much running with him, stride for stride with him. Not pursuers: but himself: years, acts, deeds omitted and committed, keeping pace with him, stride for stride, breath for breath, thud for thud of the heart, using a single heart.” (Faulkner 448) This quote goes with the theme that you can’t get rid of the mistakes or decisions you make in life. You must forever carry them throughout the rest of your life. The quote is also saying that these deeds will wear down the person carrying them and force them to live in the past instead of the future. ❖ “Because the black blood drove him out of there, as it was the black blood which snatched up the pistol and the white blood which would not let him fire it.” (Faulkner 449) This quote shows the skewed opinions people of this time period. Not only is this incredibly racist (it is important to note who the speaker is: Gavin Stevens, an incredibly typical and esteemed man for society during this time) but it is also ironic. It allows the readers to see the difference between what the public believes, and what actually happens. Significant Quotes (continued) Chapter 19

❖ “The wasted years in which he had shown no ability in school, in which he had been known as lazy, recalcitrant, without ambition, were behind him, forgotten.” (Faulkner 451) This quote is just as important today and the concept shown seems to have been during the setting of the book. Commonly, students who are inept at “scholarly” abilities such as math or science are seen as inept altogether. However, this is far from the truth. A person’s value is not measurable by grades. (Though Percy Grimm’s case is not a prime example) ❖ “He was indefatigable, restrained yet forceful; there was something about him irresistible and prophetlike.” (Faulkner 453) It’s incredibly ironic that someone who is considered to be “prophetlike” (a proclaimer of the will of God) winds up being the same person who assists in the stealing of a life in a very brutal fashion. Perhaps Faulkner was attempting to show the blurred lines that are created by the use of religion to justify questionable acts. All About the Author Chapter 19

❖ Faulkner describes the way Grimm moves instinctively when chasing after Christmas, by comparing it to a game of chess. Grimm chases Christmas as if he is being told where and how to pursue him. It is as if he is being moved like a chess piece by an invisible player. Grimm does not have control over his own destiny, which is a theme for most of the characters throughout the book. ❖ The relationships between the different characters in this chapter are very poignant. Gail Hightower, after being struck by Christmas, openly lies to Percy Grimm. And even though Grimm believed that it was not a civilians job to determine the fate of any individual, he takes it upon himself to kill Christmas without any questioning and without taking into account the new evidence being presented by Hightower. Narrator/Setting/Plot Points/Time Frame Chapter 20

❖ Narrated by: Gail Hightower ❖ Plot points ➢ Begins with Hightower reminiscing about his wife and musing about the history of his father and grandfather. ➢ Describes the foil between his father, an abolitionist, who served in a war which he did not fire a shot in the war and his grandfather, a slave-owner, who died in a cavalry charge against the Union in Jefferson. ➢ Hightower touches on his past relationship with his wife, and he describes the desperate nature of the marriage and describes the volatile disconnect between the two which led to their eventual breaking up. ➢ Lastly, Hightower seems to have a discussion between himself and God, as he struggles once more with his beliefs and sees the faces of all the people who have influenced his life, especially that of Joe Christmas and Percy Grimm. ❖ Time Frame: This chapter starts off with the flashbacks of Hightower as he looks back on his marriage and ends with him once again hearing the haunting sounds of the “dying thunder of hooves” which have haunted him his entire life. Significant Quotes Chapter 20 ❖ “Progress now is still progress, yet it is now indistinguishable from the recent past like the already traversed inches of sand which cling to the turning wheel, raining back with a dry hiss that before this should have warned him: ‘...... revealed to my wife my hunger, my ego……. instrument of despair and shame...’” (Faulkner 490) Occurring multiple times throughout the novel is the idea that the past catches up with a human, and in turn keeps one from accomplishing the goals set before them. progress is supposed to be moving forward, but it continues to stay as progress. He also says that the past clings like “sand which cling to a turning wheel”, which insists that the past follows you, wherever you go. It is inescapable, and a main question Faulkner wishes for us to contemplate is if past actions keep one from moving forward. ❖ “Thinking goes quietly, tranquilly, flowing on, falling into shapes quiet, not assertive, not reproachful, not particularly regretful. He sees himself a shadowy figure among shadows, paradoxical, with a kind of false optimism and egoism…” (Faulkner 487) This quote is significant because of the stream of consciousness Faulkner utilizes in the sentences of Hightower which is reflected by the syntax of the sentence. This flowing and unhindered thought pattern is reflected by the asyndeton, lack of conjunction, in the sentence structure which is also reinforced by the the repetition of key words such as “shadow” and “shadowy”. Thus, this quote is an excellent representation of altering writing style Faulkner uses for each character to provide insight into each character's state of mind and in this case the reader sees the illogical flow ideas that are a result of Hightower’s struggles. Significant Quotes (continued) Chapter 20

❖ “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. And I know that for fifty years I have not even been clay: I have been a single instant of darkness...since I could neither let my grandson live or die.” (Faulkner 491) This quote acquires its significance from the eloquent wordplay Faulkner constructed to portray the malleable life that Hightower has lived. He begins saying that he is the “instrument”, the creator and rhythm of his wife’s death and despair. Not only is he hers, but his thoughts become instruments that play out outside of himself. Furthermore, he describes himself as clay; easily molded to fit any shape the sculpture desires. However, Hightower has conformed to each hand society has placed on him as well. Also Hightower, as well as clay, is hard to the touch but rather easy to break. There isn’t a sturdy foundation in clay, unless it is piled upon each other in multiple layers. One cannot simply hold up a house with no foundation. Hightower follows by describing his overwhelming past painting his future; the “single instant of darkness.” The fact that he states that he could neither save let his grandson live nor die emphasizes the helplessness he feels. Significant Quotes (continued) Chapter 20

❖ “As he sits in the window, leaning forward above his motionless hands, sweat begins to pour from him, springing out like blood, and pouring. Out of the instant the sand clutched wheel of thinking turns on with the slow implacability of a medieval torture instrument…” (Faulkner 490) This quote is significant because hidden inside the lines is a subliminal Biblical allusion to Jesus Christ on the Mount Olives the night before his crucifixion. In the Bible it describes the anguish of Christ as he prays to god and is described as having “sweat like blood” which reveals the immeasurable stress he feels about his coming death. Therefore, by utilizing the allusion Faulkner creates a potent image of the strain Hightower feels about his own perceived death but also reveals that Hightower has been a sacrifice for the many characters he has come to harbour in his ramshackle home. All About the Author Chapter 20

❖ In this chapter Faulkner uses a flowing style of asyndeton and repetition to create a stream of conscious effect that reflects Hightower’s thought process at this point the novel. Many Biblical allusions are used to reflect the tragedy of Hightower’s family and personal history which haunts him and weighs him down throughout the novel. ❖ Faulkner also utilizes this chapter as an opportunity to show the stark differences of Hightower’s family and creates an image that he was raised alongside “ghosts” and “phantoms”. This theme of isolation is reflected throughout his past and shows how Hightower has almost surrendered himself in the end to his cursed past. Narrator/Setting/Plot Points/Time Frame Chapter 21

❖ Narrated by: furniture repairer and dealer ❖ Plot points ➢ Furniture dealer tells his wife about his trip to Tennessee. ➢ He explains how he picked up Byron and Lena, who did not have any idea where they wanted to go. ➢ At first, the man assumes that they are married and that the baby is Byron’s. ➢ When they stop for the night, the man learns that the baby is not Byron’s and that they are searching for another man. ➢ Later that night, Byron tries to climb in beside Lena in the truck and she sends him away. ➢ Byron disappears for the rest of the night until he appears again in the morning when they pick him up on the side of the road. ➢ Byron and Lena continue on their journey that isn't really about finding anyone anymore. ❖ Time Frame: Description of the the furniture repairers encounter with Byron and Lean from the time he picks them up to when they continue the next morning. Significant Quotes Chapter 21

❖ “I could have told him that he was just deciding now to do what he should have done in the first place.” (Faulkner 501) This quote is significant because it exhibits a motif that is common throughout the novel: benightedness of oneself’s limitations. In the same way that Mr. McEachern could not control his obsession with his beliefs, Mr. Hines could not control his alarming outbursts, and Joe Christmas could not control his rage, Byron Bunch cannot control his obsession with Lena Grove. Though many people (including Gail Hightower) warned him to abandon her, he did not. ❖ “But do you know what I think? I think she was just travelling. I don’t think she had any idea of finding whoever it was she was following.” (Faulkner 506) It almost seems as if Lena is using Byron for protection and comfort, so that she may see the world--which is similar to the way Hightower came to the conclusion that he used his wife when he moved to Jefferson in chapter 20. Significant Quotes (continued) Chapter 21

❖ “‘Yes, sir. You cant beat a woman. Because do you know what I think? I think she was just travelling. I don’t think she had any idea of finding whoever it was she was following. I don’t think she had ever aimed to, only she hadn’t told him yet.” (Faulkner 506) This quote is significant because it gives an unbiased view of Lena’s plans as a wanderer and a character who will continue to drag Byron around indefinitely. This dogged pursuit of Byron for her affection mirrors the earlier efforts of Christmas to win over the affection of Bobbie thus creating a theme of men’s blind pursuit for the love of women. The unnamed furniture repairmen represents any observer, an average joe, who can clearly see that Byron’s blind affection is ultimately just another folly of a male figure in the novel. ❖ “‘I done come too far now,’ he says ‘I be dog if i’m going to quit now.’ And her looking at him like she had known all the time what he was going to do before he even knew himself that he was going to, and that whenever he done, he wasn’t going to mean it” (Faulkner 506) This quote shows that Byron has finally agreed to continue his journey with Lena, and they’re not particular in wherever they’re heading, this correlates with the theme of journey that Faulkner began with Lena leaving Alabama.