52 pages • 1 hour read
William FaulknerLight in August
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Names with Embedded Meaning
Many of the characters in Light in August bare names that hint at their personality. Joe Christmas gets his name from being found on Christmas day at the orphanage. His name enhances the comparison between Joe and Christ, both of whom are persecuted by society. Based on his name, Joe can be read as a Christ-like figure. His name also adds tragedy to his character. Mr. Hines and Mr. McEachern both see Joe’s name as blasphemous, exacerbating their contempt for Joe, who in turn never finds a supportive father figure. Additionally, Joe Christmas and Joe Brown’s sharing the same first name creates a deeper connection between the two. They share many of the same characteristics and practice similar lifestyles. Giving them the same name helps the reader see how similar they are. The different treatment they receive from Jefferson because one is White and the other is biracial highlights how drastically racism impacts the way different people are treated.
Joanna Burden’s name is also appropriate given her position in Jefferson. Her Yankee heritage reminders her Southern neighbors of their lost war. Her family’s fight for equal rights disrupts the South’s normal way of life. Joanna is a burden to Jefferson and a burden to Joe. Gail Hightower’s name relates to his social standing as well. Alone in his house, he passes the time contemplating human nature. He is seemingly locked away in a tower. Hightower also gives Byron moral advice and did so to others when he was as a minister. He holds authority over others is higher up than them. Lena Grove’s last name alludes to nature and growth. Her pregnancy likens her to fertility, and her desire to keep traveling shows she wants to see more of the world before settling down. Percy Grimm lives up to his namesake, too. Racist and cruel, he guns down Joe and castrates him—a grim death. Across the ensemble cast, Faulkner imbues his character names with meaning. They imply social standing and foreshadow actions and fates.
Trapped Characters
Trapped characters recur frequently in the story. Lena ends the story how she began it: looking for Joe Brown. Joe Brown spends his adult life running, but he’s never able to escape. Joanna and Hightower spend their lives confined to their houses. Supporting characters are trapped, too. Mrs. Hines has been stuck with the hateful Mr. Hines for 50 years, and Mrs. McEachern is likewise trapped in an abusive marriage. By choosing to trap his characters, Faulkner enhances the impact of his themes. Small-mindedness traps them; the patriarchy traps them; racism and hate traps them; love traps them. The characters’ entrapments builds a dramatic and melancholic tone for the novel. The fact that so many characters are trapped by something makes for a consistent tone throughout the various storylines and timelines. In the end, the characters can’t break out of whatever confines them. The story is a cautionary one rather than a tale of liberation. Light in August’s conclusion makes it tragic and gothic. The repeated use of trapped characters helps achieve this effect.
Animals and Nature
Through his prose, Faulkner likens his characters to animals and the natural world. Mr. and Mrs. Hines’ physical proportions become enhanced through simile: “of a height and of a width which is twice that of ordinary man or woman, like two bears” (368-369). Likening Mr. and Mrs. Hines to bears makes them more distinct in the reader’s mind and is appropriate for their characters’ personalities. Mr. Hines is aggressive and imposing. Mrs. Hines wants to protect Joe, like a mother bear. When Byron takes Mr. and Mrs. Hines to Hightower’s, Faulkner employs his similes again to increase the tension of the scene: “The three of them are like three rocks above a beach, above ebbtide, save the old man” (382). Describing Byron and Mrs. Hines as rocklike is an early sign that they want to ask Hightower something—to lie for Joe—and will stubbornly pursue it. Placing the rocks above an ocean at ebbtide is an appropriate association for the characters; They are all contemplating what to do before the drama unfolds around Joe—before the waves come crashing down again.
The comparisons to animals and nature indicate characters’ weakness at other moments. When Byron fights Brown, he is outmatched, and Faulkner uses animals to enhance this visual. Byron struggles with Brown “with the blind and desperate valor of a starved and cornered rat he fought” (439). The image of a desperate rat reinforces the idea that Byron is putting all his energy into the fight, but a rat is small and easily killed by other animals, and Brown beats Byron without much effort. Again, Faulkner uses animals and nature to heighten the visuals of scenes and to help the reader understand how powerful or weak a character is. These chosen similes are likewise appropriate given the novel’s outlook on human nature. The people of Light in August hate more easily than they love. Their society is animalistic and primal, not intellectual and understanding.
Smells
Faulkner taps into many senses to enhance the richness of the story. He describes smells often in his prose. Men are designated with a distinct smell. When Mr. Hines takes Joe to another orphanage in the middle of the night, Joe can’t see the person carrying him, but by the smell he knows the person is a man. Later, Mr. McEachern takes Joe into town for the first time, and Joe immediately is hit with a unique “air” attributed to men: “The whole air of the place was masculine, transient: a population whose husbands were at home only at intervals and on holiday” (173). Here, the smell of men is a negative one. They are unreliable and noncommittal. Goodness carries its own smell, too. Byron respects Hightower’s opinion, resulting in many evening chats. During one of these chats, Byron is struck by Hightower’s body odor. It’s a harsh smell, but Byron sees it as a positive: “It is the odor of goodness. Of course it would smell bad to us that are bad and sinful” (299). By utilizing smell in his prose, Faulkner gives the characters more weight. Bad characters and good characters can be sensed at a distance. They give off auras based on their positive or negative attributes.
Smell also makes the racism in the story more apparent and striking. Joe often associates Black people with a certain smell. At 14, he walks into the shed with a chance to lose his virginity: “But he could not move at once, standing there, smelling the woman smelling the negro all at once” (156). On the run as an adult, Joe laces up a pair of shoes he gets from a Black family: “He paused there only long enough to lace up the brogans: the black shoes, the black shoes smelling of negro” (330). Joe’s interiority shows how deeply rooted racism imbeds itself in a person’s psyche and adds more complexity to his inner conflict of being a biracial person in the South.
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By William Faulkner
