Light in August, a novel written by the well-known author, William Faulkner, can definitely be interpreted in many ways. However, one fairly obvious prospective is through a religious standpoint. It is difficult, nearly impossible, to construe Light in August without noting the Christian parallels. Faulkner gives us proof that a Christian symbolic interpretation is valid. Certain facts of these parallels are inescapable and there are many guideposts to this idea. For instance, there is Joe Christmas, one of the main characters in the novel.
His initials are J. C. , which can be an acronym for the name Jesus Christ. There is the fact of his uncertain paternity and his appearance at the orphanage on Christmas day, as well. Joe is approximately thirty-three years of age at his lynching; This event is prepared for throughout Light in August by Faulkner’s constant use of the word crucifixion.
Also, there are many more convincing Christian symbolisms that seem to have lead readers to believe that William Faulkner arranged his events and directed his themes to parallel the twenty-one chapters of the St. John Gospel. These religious symbols, however, stray from the text of Light in August and seek to unify the novel through biblical allusions alone. They attempt to answer the questions of how Light in August functions as a work of literature by avoiding the novel itself. Because of this, they each fall short of being an exact interpretation of the novel. Still, the Christian parallels cannot be ignored and must function for some firm purpose in this novel.
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If Light in August has enough surfaces corresponding to warrant the claim of a direct parallel in both theme and action to the Gospel of John, then where is the crucifix, the most important symbol of Christianity? This significant tool should be in a book with such religious relevance. The important symbol was not left out, however; they were only distorted to a degree. Faulkner may have been giving a clue to the way in which he distorted the crucifix. For example, wood imagery is relevant in this case. There are several wood mills: Doane’s Mill, and then the planing mill in Jefferson. Lena asks Byron Bunch, “Is there another planing mill?” Byron replies, “No, ma ” am.
There are some sawmills, a right smart of them, though.” Faulkner may have been alerting his audience to the way in which he used crucifix imagery from the Gospel. He identifies Joe Christmas with wood, the sawmill, and the parallel is respective throughout the novel. Christ, of course, is also identified with the wooden manger and cross. Faulkner didn’t need to stray far from the truth to give the appearance of distorting the imagery presented in the Gospel.
Repeatedly, images and comparisons foreshadow Christmas’ crucifixion by alluding to Christ’s “post.” Christmas sleeps by a spring, his back to a tree, and he rises, “stretching his cramped and stiffened back, waking his tingling muscles.” Later, Christmas walks through the streets of Jefferson “looking more lonely than a lone telephone pole in the middle of a desert.” Then, once again, he is found: “when he heard eleven strike tonight he was sitting with his back against a tree inside the broken gate.” These post images identify Christmas with the post that Christ carried to Calvary. Even when one of the narrations takes us into Christmas’ past, there is a suggestion of posts with the “yearly adjacent chimneys streaked like black tears.” Another encounter of imagery is through Christmas’ relationship with McEachern. When McEachern checks to see if Joe has learned his catechism, McEachern “found that the boy was clinging to the catechism book as if it were a rope or post. When McEachern took the book forcibly from his hands, the boy fell at full length to the floor and did not move again.” post imagery is scattered throughout the remainder of Christmas’s ection with clear comparisons. An example would be when Joe’s “body might have been wood or stone; a post or a tower… .” or when Joanna Burden leaves notes for Christmas in a “hollow fence post below the rotting stable.” It is fairly easy to see that the post imagery surrounding Christmas distorts Christ’s cross in some way and foreshadows Christmas’s death, but it seems as if Faulkner’s distortion of the cross did not stop there.
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Tis the season to be jolly and forget all about our worries because that time of the year has come when we celebrate a season full of love and giving. Yes, it’s Christmas, one of the most anticipated events of the year for people young and old. We know that Christmas is just around the corner when the wind that blows becomes chilly, when Christmas songs start playing on the radio, when you hear ...
Other characters also defined it by their wooden imagery: Lena Grove with trees, Gail Hightower with his wooden sign, and Byron Bunch with the planing mill. These characters’ relationships to wood also suggest their relationship to the New Testament, to the cross. Lena’s last name, Grove, identifies her both with trees and life. The wood from the trees in the grove connects her to the crucifixion imagery.
Gail Hightower, unlike Lena, cannot be as clearly related to either the Old or New Testament. The description of Hightower’s sign draws attention to it and is a symbol for his position between the Old and New Testament. Although Hightower himself forgets the sign until he sits by his study window, the narration points out that the sign is still “a sign, a message.” Hightower’s sign is made of wood, signifying his crucifixion, his spiritual death. He built the sign after he lost his church. Even in the description of the sign it speaks of it glittering with an effect as of Christmas. Also, when we see that Hightower doesn’t ever spell “CHRISTMAS” on his own sign, his relation to the New Testament holiday is further questionable.
The wood of the sawmill where Byron is introduced defines Byron’s place between the New and Old Testament. The planing mill and its workers belong to the world, which will crucify Christmas, and Old Testament world. Having a planing mill in a story where a crucifixion is emphasized through post imagery is perhaps enough to foreshadow a crucifixion. Clearly the mill reflects the world, which will crucify Joe Christmas. It is fitting that the mill workers cannot see the importance of Joe Christmas’ name, as those who crucified Christ also failed to see his significance. Byron notices this significance and therefore he is set apart from the Old Testament world of the mill and the workers.
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Everyone has memory of the holidays that sticks out in their mind. Some are have sad memories of the loss of a loved one. Some have happy memories like the time they got a puppy for Christmas. I suppose that mine would never really qualify under either of those categories and that is what makes it unique. It was a cold that December 24th and it was late in the afternoon. My mom, dad, older brother ...
Lastly, Lena, who has not been a part of Christmas’ “wooden world”, now rides with a furniture repairman. Typically, Lena’s narration does not call attention to poles or posts of any kind. It is only after Christmas is dead that Lena notices the cross-like images. This would seem to suggest not only that she is perhaps a Virgin Mary figure carrying a Christ figure inside her, but also that she herself is the resurrect “life” after Christ’s (Christmas’) crucifixion.
It seems highly possible in a novel that distorts the Crucifix that the process of Christ’s death and resurrection could also be distorted. Ironically, however, Lena exists at the same time with Christmas, but never meets him because within the context of the New Testament, resurrection comes only after death. In turn, Lena and Christmas never meet because it would be illogical for the Virgin Mary figure to meet her baby while she is carrying her baby. All of these characters’ narrations, which can appear incoherent, are, connected through the distorted image of the wooden cross. The posts and other symbols link Christmas and the Testaments together. Light in August functions as a fluid novel though structured distortion of the Gospels..
