Light in August, the seventh novel written by the Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner, is a unique work of literature that emphasizes the essential elements of the south. It tells the story of two young protagonists, Lena Grove and Joe Christmas, who together inhabit a place where poverty, racial tensions, and social tensions run both deep and strong.
The novel follows the two characters as they struggle to survive in a harsh and cruel environment, while also telling their stories of how they both came to be in their current predicament. Lena is a young lower-class white woman looking for the father of her soon-to-be-born child, while Joe is desperate to escape his troubled past and to find some kind of meaningful home.
The backdrop of the novel is the fictional town of Jefferson, which is a representation of Faulkner’s own hometown Oxford. It is a place that is marked by many of the same tensions and injustices that Faulkner himself experienced growing up in the South. Here, racism and poverty run rampant, with white people looking down on black people, and the town’s main church, a beacon of religion, creating barriers and hierarchy in the community that keep black people from receiving equal treatment and respect.
This backdrop is further explored by Faulkner in terms of the various microcosmic power dynamics that take hold in the town. From a father-son relationship between Joe Christmas and the Reverend Hightower, to the relationship between two white men vying for the affection of Lena, Faulkner presents a reality in which the same conflicting forces that manifest themselves in the larger society play out on a more personal level.
One of the main themes of the book is the struggle between light and darkness. Throughout the novel, the reader is presented with characters who are struggling to make sense of their place in an unjust world. Many of them, like Lena, find solace and inner strength through faith, while others, like Joe, find themselves turning towards darkness and despair as a means of escape.
This theme is echoed even in the title of the book, as light in August is a time of darkness and transformation, just as the characters themselves are struggling with their own transformations. Light in August provides a unique and in-depth exploration of the racial and socioeconomic realities of the American South, while at the same time presenting an ongoing discussion of morality, humanism, and faith.
At its core, Light in August is a story of two people’s struggles and hope. Through the stories of Lena and Joe, Faulkner offers us a glimpse into the harsh but all-too-familiar realities of southern life, while also suggesting that hope can be found even in the most desperate of places.
