Light in August

Joe and Joanna’s relationship continues. Joe works in the day, and Joanna prepares food for him, though they never eat dinner together. At night, he ventures into her bedroom. Joanna insists they talk about their days while lying in bed. They settle into a routine, but Joe remembers the open road and his usual way of life: “This is not my life. I dont belong here” (258). Joanna becomes more eccentric. Wild. Corrupted. She forces Joe to come through different windows and doors at night to see her, and other times he finds her half-clothed or naked outside in the field. Again, he considers leaving, but he also feels compelled to stay. Their strange dance goes on for two years.

Joe starts bootlegging whiskey for extra money and keeps it a secret from Joanna. Meanwhile, Joanna’s wild nightly antics cease. She wants to have a baby. In her forties, she senses her body can’t conceive for much longer. Joe resists. He chose a certain life, and formally settling down with Joanna isn’t part of it. Soon after, Joanna insists she is pregnant and hopes her future child will resemble members of her dead family. Joe refuses to believe her. At work, Joe meets Joe Brown, and they start bootlegging together. Brown comes to live in the cabin with Joe and follows him up to the house one night, discovering Joe’s secret affair with Joanna. Joe strikes Brown, and Brown pouts back to the cabin. 

Joanna urges Joe to go study law at a Black school. He can attend for free if he tells them about his mixed heritage. Joe declines and, angry, demeans and hits Joanna. He knows she isn’t pregnant. She’s too old. Defeated, Joanna hits a new low: “Maybe it would be better if we both were dead” (277). She becomes fixated with dying, and Joe understands he must help her. A few nights later, Joe goes to Joanna in the night with his razorblade. Joanna waits in her room. She prays, trying to get Joe to kneel with her, but he refuses. Hidden beneath her clothes, she reveals a large old pistol and pulls the trigger. The chapter jumps to Joe hitching a ride from a young couple on the side of the road. They drop him off at the edge of Jefferson, and Joe realizes he’s been holding the pistol the whole time. He examines the gun. The trigger was pulled, but it didn’t go off. The gun was loaded for both of them.  

Picking up where the novel opened, the Jefferson community flocks to Joanna’s burning house, the exact cause unknown. The sheriff finds Joanna with her throat cut in the wreckage, and some in the community speculate that the crime was committed by a Black person and that she was raped “at least once before her throat was cut and at least once afterward” (288). The town seeks immediate justice. A $1,000 reward is offered. The sheriff rudely questions a Black man from the neighborhood. The man tells the sheriff about Joe, Brown, and the bootlegging. Brown arrives at the police station soon after, disheveled and frantic. He accuses Joe of the murder and craves the reward money. Still a suspect, Brown is held while the search for Joe ramps up. Bloodhounds arrive. The boy who picked up Joe the night before goes to the sheriff and recounts the incident. They search where Joe was dropped off and find the unfired pistol in the woods nearby.

Byron visits Hightower, and they gossip. Joe is still at large. Brown spends his time either locked up or helping the police look for Joe. Meanwhile, Byron helps Lena find a place to stay. Byron lies to Lena, claiming Brown is away on business, and he isn’t sure if she believes him or not. Lena wants to stay at Brown’s cabin so she can see him when he comes back, which worries Byron. Will Lena marry Brown when they are reunited? Watching Byron, Hightower perceives he’s in love with Lena.

Hightower shops in town and hears the police are closing in on Joe’s whereabouts. He returns home and finds Byron waiting for him. This time, he senses a change in Byron: “As though he has learned pride, or defiance” (311). Byron confesses he cleaned up Joe and Brown’s cabin for Lena to stay in and is arranging for her to deliver her baby there. Hightower suspects Byron will try to convince Lena to marry him instead of Brown. He urges Byron to stop what he’s doing and leave Jefferson. Byron won’t and knows Hightower won’t judge him for it, and he walks out the door. Hightower considers praying, something he’s long fallen out of, but reads a book instead.

The sheriff and a deputy note Lena is living in Brown’s cabin and that Byron is staying in a tent nearby. They elect not to tell Brown that Lena is waiting for him, as they are more focused on finding Joe. A Black man from the next town rides into Jefferson. There was an incident at his church the night before. A crazed man ran into the church and caused a commotion. The sheriff and his team assemble, and the bloodhounds pick up a fresh scent. The lead takes them to a Black neighborhood of impoverished cabins, but they can’t find Joe.

Joe hides nearby and waits for the commotion to die down. He reflects on the last few days of being on the run—hardly sleeping, hardly eating. The sheriff and his team move elsewhere, and Joe continues his journey. He passes through rural communities and loses track of the days. He shaves in a river and does a poor job. He asks two Black children what day it is, but they remain silent, then run away. Sullenly, Joe remarks on his situation: “Here I am I am tired I am tired of running of having to carry my life like it was a basket of eggs” (337). He continues walking and manages to hitch a ride on a wagon going to a nearby town, Mottstown. Joe considers sleeping but finds he isn’t tired or hungry anymore. The road takes him onward, toward a new destination. Joe feels a sense not of renewal, but of repetition: “I have never broken out of the ring of what I have already done and cannot ever undo’” (339).

Eupheus “Uncle Doc” Hines and his wife have lived in Mottstown for 30 years and previously lived in Memphis. Mr. Hines spends most of his time preaching at Black churches, albeit with a flair for White superiority: “preach to them humility before all skins lighter than theirs, preaching the superiority of the white race, himself his own exhibit” (343). Most of Mottstown finds Mr. and Mrs. Hines strange, odd, even crazy. Mr. Hines goes downtown to run errands and sees a commotion break out. A man named Joe Christmas has been caught. Hearing Joe’s name and seeing Joe’s face, Mr. Hines erupts into a fervor, shocking his neighbors. He screams for Joe to be killed. The neighbors escort Mr. Hines home, and his wife asks what happened. A neighbor explains the situation and repeatedly calls Joe the n-word. On his way out, the neighbor remarks that Mrs. Hines somehow knows Joe. He could sense it. Alone with her husband, Mrs. Hines asks what happened to their grandchild 30 years ago, but Mr. Hines doesn’t immediately answer.

The town gossips about Joe and his criminal activities while they wait for him to be taken back to Jefferson: “He don’t look any more like a n***** than I do. But it must have been the n***** blood in him” (349). Mrs. Hines, normally isolated from the Mottstown community, comes into town to see Joe before he’s transferred. A crowd assembles as Joe is escorted out of the Mottstown jail, and Mrs. Hines makes it a point to stop the police and stare at Joe. After, Mr. and Mrs. Hines buy train tickets to Jefferson. Both appear determined, but for different reasons. As the train approaches, Mr. Hines hollers about sin and abominations while Mrs. Hines shushes him.