Show me Love
In William Faulkner’s Light in August, Faulkner shows the reader the many relationships of Joe Christmas. The reader is presented the unsuccessful relationships that Christmas has with his parents and grandparents, the people at the orphanage, McEachern and his wife, the waitress, and Miss Burden. Joe Christmas does not receive true love from any of them, and in turn has never learned how to love. Faulkner is showing the reader that if you have never been loved, it is impossible to love anyone else, including yourself.
While most people receive at least some love from their parents, Christmas does not receive any. Christmas may not know the origin of his birth, but he knows that his parents abandoned him. This would obviously lead to difficulty in loving yourself, as if your parents did not love you, why should you love yourself? By making Christmas an orphan who has no knowledge of his origin, Faulkner is beginning to show the reader how Christmas has never received any love. It is important to notice that not knowing his origin, Christmas does not make one up. He does not pretend that his father is a war hero or some such story; in fact, he does not think about his parents at all. If Christmas had his parents as role models, he would have to have goals for himself. Since he has no love for himself, he cannot set goals, since this would force him to believe that he has some self value. By not showing Christmas to have any goals for himself, Faulkner once again showing us the nature of love. Since he was never loved, he is incapable of loving anyone else.
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In Christmas’s life, there are only two people who have ever attempted to give him any kind of love. The first of these people was Alice, of whom the reader is told that “He had liked her, enough to let her mother him a little; perhaps because of it. And so to him she was as mature, almost as large in size, as the adult women who ordered his eating and washing and sleeping, with the difference that she was not and never would be his enemy.”(Faulkner 150) Just like his mother, Alice too abandons him, leaving the orphanage one night. While Christmas is only five years old at this time, he is old enough to understand that he has once again been abandoned. The second person who tries to show Christmas love was Mrs. McEachern. While Mrs. McEachern attempts to love Joe by bringing him food after he has been beaten, he refuses to take it, even though he is very hungry. The reason that Joe will not accept the food is that by this time in his like he has been hardened to the world, and does not want any sympathy from Mrs. McEachern. The reader is told that, “Before it was up Mrs McEachern came to the back door of the house. But she did not speak. She just stood there, looking at the stable, in the hat, with the umbrella and the fan. Then she went back into the house.” (Faulkner 165) Through this scene Faulkner is showing the reader why Joe Christmas can neither love nor respect Mrs. McEachern. It is due to the fact that she is weak, and refuses to do anything while he is being abused. This also agrees with Joe’s contempt and hatred for women. He cannot love or respect women, because he feels that they are weak.
Christmas’s lack of self-love is evident from the beginning of his time at the orphanage. In the month after he caught the dietician he wanted to be punished, as “he had been putting himself in her way” (Faulkner 155).
Since Joe is only five years old, it is unlikely that he was aware of what he was doing; however, he did it nonetheless. Faulkner is showing the reader how the lack of love, and hatred for Joe Christmas, has led to his having no love for himself or sense of self preservation. Almost any other child would have avoided the dietician, but Christmas has no love for himself, and wants to be caught and punished so that he can see that someone cares about him. Through this Faulkner is saying that it is impossible to have any self love when you are constantly being hated.
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After leaving the orphanage, the next people with whom Joe Christmas has a relationship are the McEacherns. McEachern reveals his reasons for adopting the child when he says “the two abominations are sloth and idle thinking, the two virtues are work and fear of God” (Faulkner 159).
This speech shows that McEachern wants someone to come and work on his farm, and that he wants to raise a God-fearing man. Unfortunately, McEachern does not want someone to love. While living with McEachern, Christmas is regularly beaten. Christmas never attempts to stop the beating, even though he rarely deserves it. Through these Faulkner shows the reader that Christmas places no value on his own life. He is content to take his beatings, as he does not feel that he has any value. Faulkner demonstrate that without any sense of self-love, a person will not have any sense of self-preservation, as they do not believe their life to have a value or purpose.
When Christmas becomes involved with the waitress, there is no love on either side. The waitress thinks that she loves him since he is the only man who has ever given her any sort of gift, all the other men she knows simply pay her for sex. Ironically, Joe is only with her for the sex, the only difference between him and any of the other men she is with is that he pays in chocolate and flowers, while the other men pay in money. It is obvious that Joe is only with for sex when the reader finds out that while lying naked in bed, they talked, but “Not about where she had come from and what she had done, but about her body as if no one had ever done before, with her or with anyone else. (Faulkner 215) Faulkner shows the reader that once someone goes for such a long time without love, they can only consider love as a physical act, but have no concept of emotional or mental love. When the waitress tells Joe that she will not marry him, the reader once again sees an example of how the lack of love that he receives is causing him to have a feeling of self-loathing. The reader finds out that “he sprang full and of his own accord into the stranger’s fist.” (Faulkner 240) Joe then allows the strangers to assault him, with no attempt to defend himself. Through this scene we see how little love Joe has for himself, as he is beaten much more severely than ever before. Faulkner is showing the reader the extent of Joe’s lack of self-love, as he allows himself to be beaten almost to death, since he feels that he has no value.
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Miss Burden is the final person with whom Joe was linked, and once again Joe is with her for reasons other than love. He begins sleeping with her before he knows how old she is, and “it was not that first night, nor for many succeeding ones, that she told him
that much even.” (Faulkner 255) Miss Burden never invites him into the house, and he is only within the house when it is dark. Miss Burden is not interested in having a relationship, but rather, she would like to have someone so that that person can return her love, and someone who could help her with her work at the black churches. While with Miss Burden, Joe performs the ultimate act of self-loathing. Joe kills Miss Burden, and then allows himself to be caught, so that he will finally know the value of his life. In the final days of his life, Joe may begin to respect himself, and to understand his place in society; however, he never loves himself. Joe is aware that he will be killed; however, he does not look upon this as a bad thing, as he loves himself so little that he does not believe his life to have any value. Faulkner shows the reader the extreme of what can happen to someone who does not love themselves at all. They will ultimately find a way to destroy themselves.
Throughout the novel Light in August, Joe Christmas is involved with many failed relationships. There are failed parental relationships with his parents, Alice, and the McEacherns, as well as failed sexual relationships with the waitress and Miss Burden. The common thread throughout these relationships is that Joe never receives any love, and therefore cannot love anyone, including himself. Through this tragedy, Faulkner shows what happens to a man that receives no love. He will sabotage his relationships, feel that he has no worth, and finally destroy himself.
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Bibliography
Faulkner, William. Light in August. New York. Vintage Books, 1987
Show me Love
For: Mr. Abell
By: Paul Duffy
Date: April 22 1998
