After a marathon reading session of Light in August (I was behind so I read from chapter 3 through 9) I really came to like Joe Christmas. In the first three chapters he is portrayed as a shady, angry, jerk of a man, and while nothing has changed, I now understand why he acts like he does. I must admit, he has committed some very atrocious acts, primarily his violence against women, yet I still sympathize with him. In class today (2/17) we began to discuss possible reasons for his actions. We talked about how what Joe learned from his father, and in turn religion, and what he learned from the real world were polar opposites which created a conflict resulting in his misunderstanding and behavior towards women. I think this idea is very interesting. While it is obviously more complicated, Joe, essentially is fighting between his primal urges to have sex and societies'/religion's highly negative view on his so called 'lechery.' We have seen a similar conflict in Lena's case where she is treated differently and looked down upon because of her unwed pregnancy. So far I haven't been able to take in all that I've read yet to be able to come to a definite conclusion (that probably won't every happen), but the chapters we have read have raised some interesting questions that others may have insight on. My big question is this: Do you believe that, through Joe and Lena's experiences (others?), Faulkner is trying to say something about the nature of religious/societal morals?
P.S. I'm lumping society and religion together because in the book's context (1930s deep south) religion is society's moral system.
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