zaaaAP Lit Blog 4

End in Confusion

After finishing Light and August, I felt like I had a good understanding of the book. In class, however, when our group was assigned to discuss the ending I really struggled. Since everything Faulkner writes is so complex and full of different meanings, I know the ending had to be pretty important. Unfortunately, all our group could come up with is that the story ends in a full circle, with Lena back on the road traveling. We discussed how this is heroic of Lena, because being a woman traveling with a baby in the South breaks all social standards. Lena adds to her own strength by choosing not to marry Byron and settle down because that would be the easier thing to do. Our biggest problem was trying to determine the significance of the speaker. Being a completely new character, it is strange that Faulkner chooses him to be the last person to talk. What does everyone think about why Faulkner chose that point of view? Do you think Lena is heroic?

Sequence: An Explanation

As promised, I am posting the write up on my group's creative wildcard project for Light in August.  There will be a Google Video Link soon for those who haven't seen it or wish to watch it again, unfortunately the file is rather massive and is taking a while to upload (it's been uploading for close to an hour now and I'm only a 1/3 through).

Inspired by Faulkner’s motif of time, Group B presents “Sequence,” a stream of consciousness thriller. Much like “Light In August,” “Sequence” shifts between different points in time and points of view with little regard to the viewers’ ability to follow along. The story is structured in three parts, with two interludes.

Here is a brief overview of the Faulkner inspired aspects: Part I, taking it’s cues from Chapter 1, starts simply enough with a scene of a walking woman, and shifts to the perspectives of those around her. Watch out for references to time and a silver pocket watch.

Part II jumps forward in time to see the apparent consequences of the events of Part I.

Part III, partly inspired by the Joe Christmas narrative, revisits certain moments from the first two parts to delve deeper into the nature of what is really going on.

The interludes, by constrast, delve into the past, giving background to the events presented in Parts I, II, and III, similar to the Hightower chapter towards the end of the novel.

So enjoy, pending the video's eventual upload.  In other news: I hate the internet.

Race

Mr. Heidkamp: Here is my blog from two weeks ago. I didn't realize that it didn't go through until now.  Luckily, this has happened before and I've gotten into the habit of saving my posts in a word document just in case they don't go through.  So, here it is...

When we first began reading Light in August, I didn't realize exactly how much of a discussion of race it is.  Lena's story seems to be harmless enough, but Joe Christmas, Joanna Burden and the challenges they face become the central focus of the novel.

Joe Christmas spends his entire life struggling with his identity, which because of the times, is largely based on his race.  His experiences were very different depending on the race that he identified with at the time. He eventually settled on being a "nigger", which in my opinion reflects a need for unhappiness (not that being black automatically makes you unhappy, but I mean at the time life was more difficult for blacks in the South... so people who wanted more opportunities might have tried to pass for white, given the choice.) This choice changes the way he sees the world, and keeps him from interacting with most people.  He is almost obsessed with the fact that he is not white, and though I don't quite understand it I find it a fascinating aspect of the novel.

P.S. I found an interesting fact the other day.. Apparently "light" was a slang term for pregnant in the South at the time the book was written.  So I guess there could be a double meaning in the title!!

Why I Don't Like Lena

Another thought for you all.  I know that I frequently make posts bashing characters in the books we read (lame, I know), so here's another one.

Lena bothers me.  I don't know if she's just too stupid to understand that Lucas left her or she doesn't care.  Obviously, if you have to hike across a bunch of states to find some guy who knocked you up who didn't tell you he was leaving and hasn't tried to contact you, HE DOESN'T WANT YOU.

If he changed his name so that you can't find him, HE DOESN'T WANT YOU.

If he runs away from you again and doesn't want to raise your child, HE DOESN'T WANT YOU.

Is she TRYING to be dumb? Or does she really not realize that Lucas Burch doesn't want her?

A Puzzle Without Pieces

I know that many other people have already posted about this issue, but I have no idea what to make of this book.

First of all, I don't think that we have analyzed it enough in class and I think that we could have used at least a little more direction.  None of us seem to be secure about the meaning/s of this book and I wish we could have gotten a bit more clarification from Mr. Heidkamp on some of the issues.

I also feel as though there is no where to go with this book, like there isn't enough concrete information to write an essay.  I feel that I am just grasping at ideas that may not connect because the book is simply not clear or detailed enough.  None of the characters are explained well enough so it is hard to know what they are like.  Also, there are so many different issues that are brought up, but none of them are discussed in depth.

I truly feel that this book is like a huge puzzle with different parts that has about half the pieces missing so you can't even figure out what you're supposed to be making...

The Christmas and Jesus Connection

I have another name to analyze in addition to Alexandra's.

Joe Christmas- Not only it his name sac religious in the sense that he was born through wedlock or sin, it is interesting that he did not have a father.
When Jesus was born on the day now known was Christmas, Mary was a virgin, therefore leaving Jesus without a technical father. This caused many to questions arise and disbelief about his biological origins within the town. Jesus was discriminated against and labeled a "manza". This word during that time was worse than bastard today. On the night of his birth, Mary was turned away from many homes because she was a fatherless mother. She ended up giving birth to in in steeple. Later in the life of Jesus, he was persectuted and labled as a manza and a lier.
Faulkner may have been commenting on Christianity and the belief that Joseph was not Jesus' father. His father was known to many and believed to be God by many others. In a far stretch of a comparison (that I don't really believe, but some may) Joe has an unknown father that causes people to questions his origin and his race. This caused many people to label him racially.
I know its kind of far out there, but I learned about Jesus' struggle with people believing him and labeling him because of his lack of a father. I just thought it was interesting.

Joe Christmas

I wrote my rough draft yesterday and today during peer editing, I realized that I only talked about Christmas search for identity. I never mention anything about the resolution to the problem. I start to ponder and the more I ponder the more confused I am. I understand that Christmas dies in the end of the book, but I find that his death not resolve his identity issue. or does it? SOME PLEASE HELP ME!!!

Oh Essay...

There are just so many things to wrap your head around in Light in August. It took me a while to zero in on any one thing, and I am still unsure about it. How do you make a great thematic statement without encompassing every perceived significant motif and issue in the book? I don't know how to do that, so I just thought that I would post up my thesis statement, to get some feed back on it.

Through narratives of several different characters, Light in August conveys the message that to gain an understanding of one’s identity and place of belonging in the world, it is necessary to reflect on the events of the past that have shaped who you are, but also have the ability to accept and move on from those events, and face what lies ahead.

I thought I would touch mostly on the concept of time,or the past, and how that relates to the discovery of one's identity, including the Christmas's issues with gender and race. If there is anything you think I should add or omit, or any suggestions for more passages I would greatly appreciate the imput.

Christmas, Swastikas, and Me

Okay, I am going to be quite frank when I say that this book was nuts.

It hurts my head trying to organize and evaluate and take in all of the different dimensions that this book illustrates. I mean the way Faulkner writes could be studied forever, let alone what he's actually writing about.

And I think that that's an important quesition, What is Faulkner writing about? What does he want me to feel? Because right now I feel like a big mush of questions and emotions about every aspect that life has to offer due to this crazy book.

I keep thinking about my identity. What it feels like to be white, to be a woman. and in my case to be jewish...

Actually I kind of assimilated myself with Joe Christmas this past weekend...unfortunately. I realized how all through my childhood I was embarrassed to tell people that I was Jewish because I thought it was ugly. I thought that once I told people that they would squint and say "oooh, yea...I can see it now..." like they could now see all the unflattering jewish features. I thought that to be pure and pretty you were supposed to celebrate Christmas and sit on Santa's lap, decorate sweet pine trees with shiny candy ornaments, and have light hair and eyes. It was strange realizing that...

I had pushed out all of those immature and uncomfortable feelings about my heritage for so long. I'm proud and happy to be Jewish now and feel beautiful in my own skin. I feel that 'greyness' that Joe felt. Like I just float along with everyone else, that I am at peace with myself and my environment.

Until Saturday.

when someone drew swastikas on my house.

marking my home. marking my family. and marking me.

They still haven't washed off the sidewalk.

In Defense of Freud

I've been sensing a vibe against Freudian interpretations of Light in August. Now, granted that I know very little about Freud, I nevertheless think that this type of literary criticism is important to understanding the meaning of Light in August.

Take the toothpaste scene. Forget for a second that Singal talks about the toothpaste as a form of oral pleasure, or that he has an Oedipal complex. Focus instead on the style of the passage. This scene is, to me, a walk through Joe Christmas' consciousness as we are unaware (from the narration) of his subconscious. We, the readers, only see how Joe is reacting to the toothpaste. But to say that he's just a kid eating toothpaste leaves a lot out. For example, his nervousness, his excitement, the fact that he's sweating. Are we really to believe that the toothpaste is all that's causing these emotions? Or that it does not have any significance to him later in life?

Instead, we should examine how such events shape the rest of his life. Now let me return to the parts of Singal's criticism that some of us felt was ridiculous. It's not so much that Joe has a unique Oedipal complex, but rather that he is at the Oedipal AGE--Freud writes that the desire to put things in mouths mirrors the pacifier and other relics of infancy, many of which attach ourselves to the mothers. To me, it's not that the dietitian is fulfilling any particular role, but rather that this is missing from Joe as he grows up, and instead has a void in his life. Instead, it is filled by him being told he is a "little nigger bastard" and the beatings of Mr. McEachern. This partially explains the contradictory attitude Joe has toward the beating. On the one hand, he fears them because they are painful. Yet the descriptions talk about them being "knowable." I find it hard to believe that that is the entire story. On the other hand, this is essentially the only way Joe can know love, or in Freudian terms, to fill his Oedipal void. So though he might want love and compassion, these have instead been replaced, for him, by violence.

It's More than Just a Name

Remember back in the good old days when it was the little things that made everything else so worth while and more exciting? Where a cardboard box was far more entertaining than any expensive toy inside?
I'm having one of those moments with Light in August.
The meaning of the work is what we should be getting at and don't get me wrong it is incredible...in a befuddling, dense kind of way.
The small not nearly as significant part to this novel, are the names of the characters.
From day one, I always thought the name Hightower was bizaare, who would name their son that?!
Yet each name in itself holds a piece of what the meaning of the work may be and definitely says things about the characters themselves. If you're confused with the entire meaning of the work, break it down. Have 'fun' with the box before you get to the greater-purposeful toy.
(A guide for senioritis victims: box = names, toy = meaning of work)

Stab at the Meaning: It is human nature to get caught in cycles good or bad. According to Faulkner, society traps humans in a negative cycle that perpatuates itself due to their incapability to break away from their past and to not have a concrete identity or notation of who they are. The ones who survive are the unwavering characters such as Byron and Lena who have a vision of what they want and stick to that vision despite obstacles that may hinder them.

Overanalysis of a few names:

Hightower - once thought he was "above" people because he's a minister, however, it also implies isolation. By claiming to be a man of God, certain expectations of how he should behave are immediately connected to him. So when those expectations aren't met, the whole wife commits adultery scandal, society refuses him because he's ruined those very expectations he originally set himself upson. Thus, essentially screwing himself over. Realizing this, he isolates himself as much as possible.
Attach to meaning of work? He's unsure of his identity. Evidence of this: Confusion if he's a man of God

Hines - Hine ironically means servant/peasant. His role in the book? To further perpetuate the cycle of ongoing racial discrimination and its effects;violence. Servants do not break away from what is already there, or given to them.

Lena - sounds a bit like "lean on" and I feel like throughout the novel she's consistent and able to take the pressure that "leans on her" from the people she meets without crumpling and giving in. Almost every character tells her she's going to fail in finding Burch, yet despite the odds, she's grounded in herself to know thats what she wants, a legitimate father for her child. No matter how ridiculous that may seem, she is one of the only characters to not become involved in the cycle of violence and identity confusion.

A stretch?

A light in August: Da Meaning?

In class today we attempted to take a stab at the meaning of LIA, but i was left unsatisfied. However we did put some of the pieces of the puzzle on the table. In trying to determining the meaning of the novel I think that its important to consider the following:

>>>Structurally, The novel begins with Lena on the road "Sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, ' I have come from Alabama: a fur piece...'"(3 {the first sentence of the entire novel}). The novel concludes with Lena on the road again, and it connects back to the idea of being far away as if on a journey: "'My, my. A body does get around. Here we ain't been coming from Alabama but two months, and now it's already Tennessee"(507).

>>> Then there all that playing around with time. Faulkner will mention something, and then come back to it and elaborate.

>>> The constant change in Point of View.

>>> Race and Identity. I good example of this is the passage of Christmas walking through the white and black neighborhoods.

The more things I come up with to consider, the more my head begins to heart as I try and make sense of it all. Is there even one encompassing meaning of LIA, or are there many meanings? I think that if Faulkner were reading my post he'd be chuckling to himself in satisfaction. I think that he wants there to be some uncertainty in interpretation due to the complexity. But there's also the fact that I may be over-analyzing the book and therefore missing out on the obvious meaning.

Normal

Light in August is simply a complex book mixing around different themes around a rather complex plot and characters with ton of different personality traits. Yes, obviously, this book is a fiction and I understand the motives and themes that follow each individual character's life but hardly any of it seems relatible to me right now. Maybe I'm just very fortunate that I have never experienced an abusive foster parent or being scard for life by an early sexual experience. However I do not find many of the character's in this book relatible at all. It's almost as if the author couldn't stand to have a normal character in his book, although I agree that unnormal people are much more interesting.

Still I would just like to have someone to identify with! The book is definately pushing the evelope in many subjects and I understand that the messages may be way more profound then any normal people can show.
I saddens me because I know that Light in August is agreat piece of literature I just feel strangly detached from it.( Although this could just be a factor of being a "normal" white/italian girl from Oak Park.)
I'll live, just wondering if anybody else felt the same way!

Patriotic Shame

As we continue to explore Light in August, I wonder just what point Faulkner was trying to get across to his readers. He obviously deals with some pretty heavy topics; gender, race, religion and age conflicts are present throughout the entire novel. But just how are we supposed to interpret the violent, sexist, murdering half-black half-white male? Are we intended to sympathize with Lena, the naïve and slightly off-center knocked up teen? Whose side is Faulkner on??

I dare to argue that Faulkner did not intend us to be on any one characters “side”; basically, I think all characters developed in the novel have good and bad attributes to them, and no set group of people adopt a protagonist or antagonist role in the novel. By telling the story in his objectively subjective way, Faulkner displays America in its true form: as a bunch of people and stories seen and interpreted in many different ways.

I think that over every other huge issue Faulkner highlights, or possibly within them, he comments most on the American people as a whole. For example, on page 225, Ms. Burden drops this on us, in response to why her father never killed the guy who killed his son: “And he was French, half of him. Enough French to respect anybody’s love for the land where he and his people were born and to understand that a man would have to act as the land where he was born had trained him to act. I think that was it.”

The irony in that statement is that in America, we not only have no respect for other’s actions or beliefs, we are actually trained to act in our own self-interest and to alienate all others who do not think like us. What kind of country would train their subjects to hate one another?

Any other thoughts on how Faulkner comments on America as a country?

Intentions Behind Religion

Throughout the novel, I've noticed subtle uses of religion. However, I've found the insistences almost offensive and slightly ridiculous. Religion has been nothing but a negative topic throughout Christmas's life starting with McEachern. When Christmas wasn't able to memorize parts of the cathecism McEachern would beat him hourly. Later on when Crhistmas and Burden are passionate lovers, Christmas can't stand hte idea of her praying for him and finds it offensive that she wants to. After Burden's murder and Christmas's escape, Byron and Hightower have an intense conversation about where Lena should live. Multiple references connecting to religion and woman are made:

"Like it was God that looks after women, to protect them from men..." (302).

"It's like God sees that they find out what they need to know out of men's lying, without needing to ask" (304).

So far, religion has been seen as a negative and weak. Personally, I think it's a bit ridiculous that women are the only ones that benefit from it according to Byron and Hightower's discussion. For men, religion has given reason for violence, as seen with Christmas. In Chapter 14, the violence continues with Christmas raiding the church.
What is Faulkner trying to get at? What is the purpose of religion? Is it more than just irony that something such as religion is supposed to be helpful in people's lives and not the opposite?

A Break from the Big Issues?

Lately, we in "2nd period Bernie" have been absorbed with the Big Issues.

Race. Gender. Sex. Power. Society.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for drawing connections between literature and the rest of the world. I think these conversations make written works more applicable to daily life. I believe that the study of literature in context lends immediacy to the texts we read.

I sometimes feel, however, that we have the same conversation day after day, week after week. It seems that we are fed a thesis (an interesting one, admittedly) relating one of the five Big Issues to our current text. It's usually something along the lines of "Gender and Power in King Lear" or "Race, Sex, and the American South in Light in August."

Is anyone else slightly tired of this formula?

While I enjoy these conversations, I feel that they sometimes divert attention from the text itself. Faulkner's language is so difficult, his imagery so rich, that I feel we could use some more discussion on the words themselves, not just on interpretive theories.

Maybe an anecdote will help me to explain my frustration.

----------------------------------------------------------------

For a time, some musicologists (musicology is the study of music in a historical and cultural context) loved lending narratives to certain works. Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony, for instance, became the story of unrequited homosexual love. Elgar's Violin Concerto became a tortured love letter to the composer's beloved "windflower." Barber's Adagio became a sex scene or a funeral, depending on who you ask.

The point is, however, that these pieces resound with many, many listeners, and chances are, strike a different chord in each one. To one man, Tchaikovsky's 6th might be a gay love story, but to another, it might be a drinking song. In other words, we should be more careful not to pigenhole an entire artistic work in one, big issue.

Yes, Light in August is an examination of race, gender, sex, etc. But on another level, it's a story, and I hope we can spend more time discussing that side of it. Any thoughts?

Societies role in hatred

I'm not sure if this will be relevant or even helpful, but let's see how it pans out as I type...

I was reading Melvin's post and planned on commenting on it but decided to turn it into a post. And I hope it's okay, Melvin, that i'm taking a direct quote from your post, but I promise i won't take credit for it.

" I think society has played a significant role in the development of Christmas' identity confusion. Southern society has defined being black as dirt, filth, inferiority, and basically someone who has no place in society. It disgusts me to see Christmas' act this way, but given the time period I can't be mad. He was probably brainwashed like many other whites during the time to believe that BLACK=BAD! " -Melvin

So tonight at was at the school board meeting and they were honoring students and one of the students that they had honored was Gaby Cole for her MLKjr speech that we all heard at the assembly.  Melvin's comment reminded me of what she had to say in her speech, sort of.

Society has always been the one to label color specifications and anything else as good or bad, whether it be 100 years ago or 5 minutes ago. People are still now brainwashed to think of negative connotations when associating with different races. Societies are the most critical judges out there and the only way to be happy is to fit in with a societies standards, which is why Christmas has never found a happy moment in his life. He is always left struggling to figure out what side he fits in best with, if he even wants to fit in. He is always left in the black or white sections, which is why it's interesting in the part of book that we are at now to see the color gray play out. I feel like we will definitly be seeing some interesting strengths being revealed by Christmas if he is able to stop worrying about which group to make happy and to start figuring out how to make himself feel as comfortable as he can in his own skin and skin color. 

Indivualism vs. Society

Faulkner does alot to accentuate the relationship between the indiviual and society.  So far Christmas, Burden, and Hightower have all been shunned by society as a whole and it has a really big effect on them.  What is Faulkner trying to say about society and how it possess such power to completely alienate some-one?

Joe and Doc Hines

As we all know, Joe Christmas is rather "messed up," to put it simply. He is violent, cold, abusive to women and men alike and does not connect with anyone. The closest relationships we have witnessed him having are the ones with Bobbie, who turned out to be a prostitute that he possibly killed his father with a chair in front of, and Miss Burden, who he had a strange relationship with and allegedly murdered. What I want to know is, why is Christmas so troubled? There are a lot of easy answers in the text, like the fact that he is an orphan, and that the first woman he slept with was a prostitute. But to me, they don't all connect. Even when he was a child with the McEachern's, he was already troubled. He wouldn't abide by religion like Mr. McEachern wanted and he had an aversion to Mrs. McEachern, even though she was nice to him and tried to help him. He also hit a black girl he could have slept with, and ran away when the boys his age told him about periods. I know we've discussed a lot about Christmas' views on women, but he has problems with EVERYONE, not just women. He is incredibly violent, and I still don't understand why. I don't think I'm missing anything crucial, the facts are all there, but I still don't see how he was even messed up as a child of the age of 5. Now from reading a bit further, (don't read on if you haven't read past ch. 16), I am starting to see more of his background, even from before he was born. Christmas is eerily similar to Doc Hines. Doc Hines killed Milly's lover in cold blood without a second thought, he watched Milly die as she gave birth to Christmas, and he hits his wife. I know this post is going all over the place, and I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, but what I think I'm getting at is the similarity between Christmas and his grandfather. What connects these two people, aside from their blood?

Christianity

Through much of Light in August, the Christian religion is viewed as self righteous and vindictive. Starting with the orthodox Calvinism of Simon McEachern and then leading to the sermons         of Doc Hines and the unusual religious ideals preached by Calvin Burden, Christianity is often used solely as an excuse to be racist in this novel. Light in August also features much Christian symbolism. The Christian symbolism could be a means of comparing Christianity (and criticizing it) while analyzing the life and times of an angry and violent man, Christmas. Most readers probably believe that the Christian symbolism emphasizes         Joe's suffering and sacrifice without really conveying a specifically         religious message, but I heard more than once this year that Joe Christmas could be viewed as Jesus Christ. I finally see how people would compare him to Christ, however. Christianity is viewed as being so vindictive in this story, but then Christmas may prove to be the savior, and make the final sacrifice in some sort, just like Christ.  I don't think Christmas is a martyr, but I am not sure at the moment. Discuss.

Black People in Light in August

It is interesting how Faulkner portrays African Americans in Light in August. They do not seem to come across as particularly stupid or weak, nor do they come across as rebellious or violent. While they play very minor roles, they are seen throughout the book. The picture Faulkner paints of African Americans in the deep south during this time does not seem horribly negative or innacurate. Here are some examples of what seems to be the voice of faulkner desribing blacks. I've noticed that instead of describing their tone, Faulkner describes what their tone isn't.

"'It's two white men,' the negro said. His voice was cold, not sullen, not anything." (pg 293)

"'What you want, whitefolks? You looking for somebody?' The voice was not threatful. Neither was it servile." (pg 117)

All By His Self

I think one important theme in the novel is the idea of being the "other" in society, or being out-casted by society.Christmas obviously has faced being the "other" throughout his life, having to deal with his racial identity. He can't seem to find a place of belonging, which I believe he wants deep down. In the passage where he is on the run, there is a sense of loneliness and isolation from everything that is introduced to us in a new way.
He is a fugitive, all alone, and has lost track of time. He realizes that

"when he thinks about time, it seems to him now that for thirty years he has lived inside an orderly parade of named and numbered days like fence pickets, and that one night he went to sleep and when he waked up he was outside of them."

At first, he attempts to keep up with the days, but after spending each alone and without references, he lets it go. During this period, he seems to be floating in some alternate plane, where "time, the spaces of light and dark, had long since lost orderliness." He is left to deal with his own thoughts, and his own needs.

Possible Spoilers Ahead

I'd like to discuss what we've all been suspecting, but never had confirmed until now- that Joe Christmas is related to the Hinses- the daughter of their daughter Milly.

On Page 370 we see Byron bringing a woman to Hightower. Though she never says it, Byron explains that "[Christmas} is their daughter's child. He... took it right after it was born and carried it away. She didn't know what he did with it. She never knew if it was still alive or not until----"

After this we see a coherent statement from Doc Hines. Though he still sounds crazy and is speaking in 3rd person, what he says makes sense. "Yes. Old Doc Hines took him. God give Old Doc Hines his chance and so old Doc Hines give God His chance too."

I'm wondering why Faulkner chose to have this happen in the story. He must be making some kind of statement but I can't seem to figure out what it might be. Any ideas?

Gender Confusion

During the fishbowl today we were discussing a passage about Christmas' relationship with Miss Burden and it seemed to me that they seemed to be switching gender roles a bit. For example, the man is commonly the dominant figure in a relationship, Miss Burden and Christmas' relationship, Miss Burden seemed to have all the power. She was the one that provided the food for Christmas, she was the one that initiated all the sexual encounters, and she was the one who seemed to have the more dominant sex drive. further more she would tell Christmas when to come to her house and would often make him play into her games of hide and seek before they slept together. based i=on this it seems that Miss Burden is adapting a more masculine role while Christmas is forced into a more feminine role.

Christmas and Burden

I've been mulling over Joe and Ms. Burden's relationship for a while now, thanks to all the class discussions. From what I've heard, most people seem to think that Joe and Ms. Burden have nothing in common. While this is true on the surface, I'd say that, down deep, they have a lot more similarities than they get credit for. Unfortunately, I'd also say that these similarities end up dividing them rather than bringing them closer.

They are both outsiders in a society that spurns them. Joe's uncomfortably mixed race is just as shunned as the transplanted Yankee whose crazy family politics ended up with her brother and grandfather getting killed. They're both divided, and their search for wholeness brings them, tragically, together.

Though Joe's inner conflict is about his mixed heritage, Ms. Burden's is about gender. At first, their relationship is clearly divided by nightfall between the platonic and the sexual. It's as if she's two people: one the woman, a lover, and the other a man who has learned from his environment and upbringing to fight to the last breath.

Ultimately, the "man" part of Ms. Burden takes over (beginning with the third phase of their relationship) and her desire for stability and control lead to Joe's violent retaliation. Honestly, Miss Burden doesn't understand her relationship with Joe, why she is drawn to him, or why she feels dependence on their intimacy. Their bond is as unsettling and confusing as it is difficult to resist. As a result, she struggles to find ways to make it more tangible (by claiming to be pregnant and trying to send Joe to school and have him in charge of her affairs).

These attempts that Miss Burden makes to make their relationship more normal, in all honesty, provokes Joe's anger and sets off a chain reaction ending in Miss Burden’s death and the burning of her house. Joe feels threatened by her, as she is feminine (which he resents, as he did with Mrs. McEachern) and masculine, with an instinct to control. Miss Burden is a complex and confusing to Joe, and, in the end, he feels he must eliminate her rather than attempt to understand her.

I'd write more, but I'm really really tired, so this is what you get.

Women in Light in August

As I have been reading Light in August, I have started to take note on the role of women and the males attitudes toward women in the novel. Joe Christmas is aggressive towards women. He beats Bobbie for reasons like that she has her period, and when he finds out she's a prostitute. He steals and is mean to Mrs. McEchearn when she tries her best to take care of him. Joe Christmas' relationship with Miss Burden was hostile as well, he only sees her on his terms and they only saw each other at night. "Lucas Burch" or Joe Brown runs away from women. He leaves Lena at home with the expectation that he is going to come back for her, which he doesn't do. Why do Faulkner's characters have such strange relationships with women?

Rape

I wanted to question the topic of rape in class today, but there was not time, and something Bernie said the other day made me stop short.  When we were discussing the scene (scene in terms of this being part of a "play" and as a portion of the novel) where Joe Christmas first has sex with Ms. Burden, the class resoundingly called this rape.  Bernie said "Yep, no question".  Now, it's quite possible that it was rape, but the description of Ms. Burden not fighting and actually assisting Joe in taking her made me question this being a rape.  When I think of rape, I think of a woman fighting off the man, or maybe not saying anything out of fear, but defintely not assisting the man.  Plus, they keep on having sex after the first time, and Ms. Burden defintely enjoys it.  So, was it really rape?  Also, we sort of answered this in class today, but why does she say "Negro, Negro, Negro" when she's having sex with Joe?  She has always been sympathetic to blacks, and seems to have no problem with them at all.  Why is it such a big deal that she is having sex with a black person that she yells "Negro, Negro, Negro" in a..lustful?..tone.

Joe Christmas the Fatalist

So, throughout my reading of Light in August, I have been struck by the references to fatalism in terms of Christmas's character. I looked up a definition of fatalist in order to understand these ideas better. This is what I came up with:

Fatalist: anyone who submits to the belief that they are powerless to change their destiny

One of the references to fatalism I found interesting is on page 260. "But something held him, as the fatalist can always be held: by curiosity, pessimism, by sheer inertia." This sentence is describing why Christmas stayed in his relationship with Ms. Burden, despite his many reasons to leave.

Another passage that I found interesting was on page 281.

As though all the past was a flat pattern. And going on: tomorrow night, all the tomorrows, to be a part of the flat pattern, going on. He thought of that with quiet astonishment: going on, myriad, familiar, since all that had ever been was the same as all that was to be, since tomorrow to-be and had-been would be the same.

So I thought that this passage was pretty consistent with the fatalist view. It struck me as a really interesting was of looking at the passing of time and events. Lastly, I found a passage on page 339 that also reminded me of this fatalist point of view. Christmas is considering his future when he is about to go to Mottstown. He reflects on his past:

And yet he is still inside the circle. 'And yet I have been further in these seven days than in all the thirty years,' he thinks. 'But I have never got outside that circle. I have never broken out of the ring of what I have already done and cannot ever undo, he thinks quietly.

Anyway, sorry, those were some long quotes. I just thought it would be interesting to compile all of the instances that I have found of Christmas's fatalist tendencies. I think its a really interesting and important aspect of his personality that it is easy to overlook, and I just wanted to highlight it. If anyone has come across anything else that they think would fit this, I'd be really interested.

The Role of One Mr. Lucas Burch, also known as Joe Brown

After the litany of Christmas centric chapters and race driven discussions, I have begun to feel as there is something that has been abandoned in the narrative of Light In August, at least for the time being.  What I am referring to is the Lena/Burch story.

It all started with something Sam F. said a few days ago, about how when he first started reading he was intrigued by this simple story of a pregnant woman walking large distances to find a man who has run out on her.  He said he was wondering when we would get back to her story, and now I too wonder the same thing.  I wonder if in the writing of the novel, Faulkner fell in love with the character of Christmas, and found it increasingly difficult to pull himself away, as some argue Shakespeare did with Shylock or Iago.  So now I wonder: what is the point of Lucas Burch, aside from some common thread and plot device to segue into the Christmas story (the regretful pun is wholly unintentional)?

I can only hope the coming chapters will give me a bit more Lena/Burch/Byron and a little less Christmas, or at least bring the stories back together, because the Christmas thing has become so straightforward structurally that it causes the nonlinear style Faulkner used to lose it's luster.

Maybe I'm just tired.

Props to Byron

I just want to pretty much give a shout-out (yeah, I'm lame) to Byron Bunch. He's a cool guy. And to me, he seems to be one of the most normal characters in the book.

So, Lena shows up in Jefferson, pregnant and searching for her deadbeat man, Lucas Burch. Byron is drawn to her immediately, and falls in love with her despite the fact that she is apparently naive and unexpectedly hopeful.  Unknowingly, he reveals the identity of Lucas Burch - Joe Brown - and feels totally responsible for what happens to her from thereon out.

Despite Hightower's warnings and scoldings, Byron continues involving himself with Lena's future. His only fault is failing to reveal the truth about Joe Brown. I felt that Byron was one of the more honorable characters of the novel. He sacrificed his own feelings in order to help Lena. Not to say that he denied those feelings, but only that he struggled with them to the point that it was admirable.

I just wanted everyone to know how much I love Byron!