Light in August
Summary
Light in August, published in 1932, is one of William Faulkner's most acclaimed and accessible novels. Set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the story explores themes of race, religion, and identity through the intertwining lives of three memorable characters. This Southern Gothic masterpiece is renowned for its complex narrative structure and profound examination of the American South's troubled history.
Plot
Light in August follows the interconnected stories of several characters in Jefferson, Mississippi. The novel opens with Lena Grove, a pregnant young woman searching for Lucas Burch, the father of her unborn child. As Lena arrives in Jefferson, the story shifts to focus on Joe Christmas, a man of ambiguous racial heritage who believes he has some African American ancestry.
Joe Christmas has been living in Jefferson for three years, working at a mill and secretly bootlegging alcohol with his partner, Joe Brown (who is actually Lucas Burch). Christmas has been involved with Joanna Burden, an older woman from an abolitionist family. When Joanna is found murdered, he becomes the prime suspect and flees town. Meanwhile, Byron Bunch, a mill worker who has fallen in love with Lena, tries to help her find Lucas while also attempting to aid his friend, the disgraced former minister Gail Hightower.
As a manhunt for Christmas ensues, he eventually returns to Jefferson and seeks refuge with Hightower. However, he is pursued there by Percy Grimm, a zealous member of the National Guard, and meets a tragic end. The novel concludes with Lena continuing her journey, now accompanied by Byron, still in search of her child’s father, who has once again deserted her.
Themes
• Racial identity and prejudice
• Alienation and isolation
• Religious fanaticism and hypocrisy
• Violence and its consequences
• The burden of the past on the present
• Gender roles and sexuality
• The search for belonging and community
Setting
Set in the 1930s during Prohibition and Jim Crow segregation, Light in August takes place in Jefferson, Mississippi, a fictional town in William Faulkner's imagined Yoknapatawpha County. The novel unfolds against the backdrop of a deeply divided South, where racial tensions and conservative religious values profoundly shape society.
The story spans both rural and small-town settings, with characters moving between isolated cabins, bustling mills, and the streets of Jefferson. Key locations include Joanna Burden's property on the outskirts of town, where much of the central drama unfolds, and the local mill, where several characters find employment.
Faulkner vividly portrays the socioeconomic landscape of the Depression-era South, depicting a world of hard labor, poverty, and limited opportunities. The novel's setting is crucial in exploring themes of alienation, race, and the burden of history, as characters navigate a society still grappling with the legacy of the Civil War and slavery.
Characters
• Lena Grove: A young pregnant woman from Alabama searching for the father of her unborn child. She is naive and determined.
• Joe Christmas: A man who believes he has mixed racial ancestry and grapples with his identity. He is deeply troubled and prone to violence.
• Byron Bunch: A kind mill worker who falls in love with Lena and tries to help her. He is shy and honorable.
• Gail Hightower: A disgraced former minister who lives as a recluse, haunted by visions of his Confederate grandfather.
• Joanna Burden: A middle-aged woman from an abolitionist family who has a relationship with Joe Christmas. She is murdered early in the novel.
• Lucas Burch/Joe Brown: The father of Lena's child, who abandoned her. A bootlegger and Christmas's partner.
• Eupheus “Doc” Hines: Joe Christmas's racist grandfather who gave him up for adoption. He tries to incite violence against Christmas.
• Mrs. Hines: Christmas's grandmother, who tries to protect him from Doc Hines.
• Percy Grimm: A fanatical member of the National Guard who kills and castrates Joe Christmas.
• Mr. and Mrs. McEachern: Christmas's abusive adoptive parents who try to instill strict religion in him.
Quick facts
• Light in August, published in 1932, was William Faulkner's seventh novel.
• The novel’s working title was “Dark House” before Faulkner changed it to Light in August, based on a casual remark from his wife about the quality of light in August.
• The book is set in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.
• The novel has 21 chapters, which some scholars believe corresponds to the 21 chapters in the Gospel of John.
• Light in August explores themes of race, religion, and alienation in the American South.
• The novel uses a non-linear narrative structure with frequent flashbacks and shifts in perspective.
• Joe Christmas, one of the main characters, is believed to be partially based on a real man Faulkner knew who was unsure of his racial identity.
• The character Gail Hightower was inspired by a disgraced minister Faulkner knew in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi.
• TIME magazine included Light in August on its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
• Light in August has been translated into more than 30 languages.
About the author
William Faulkner
William Faulkner is widely recognized as one of the most influential American novelists of the 20th century. Born in 1897, he spent most of his life in the small town of Oxford, Mississippi, and drew heavily on the history and culture of the American South in his writing. He is best known for his novels set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi—a place nearly identical to Lafayette County, in which Oxford is located—including The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936).
Faulkner’s distinctive prose style is marked by long and winding sentences, experimental techniques such as stream of consciousness and multiple narrators, and meticulous attention to diction and cadence. His complex, often Gothic stories explore themes of family bonds and dysfunction, and the dynamics of gender and race. Along with his novels, Faulkner was a prolific writer of short stories, many of which are considered classics. He also worked periodically as a screenwriter in Hollywood, contributing to films like Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946).
Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 “for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel." He also won two Pulitzer Prizes and two National Book Awards. Ralph Ellison called him “the greatest artist the South has produced.” His legacy to literature remains far reaching, influencing writers from Cormac McCarthy to Gabriel García Márquez to Jesmyn Ward. Faulkner died of a heart attack in 1962, at the age of 64.