As almost in all of William Faulkner’s novels in “Light in August” the past determines the present like nothing else in the whole story. Although the book is considered as primarily Christmas’ story it is noticeable that the story of Christmas life from adolescence to his present age of thirty-three just takes a few pages in the whole novel.
Therefore it is likely that another point in the novel is far more important than simply the story of Christmas’ life: the past that determines the present and burdens its owners. The novel also explores issues of gender and race specifically, but these particular thematic currents intersect to become part of Faulkner’s larger inquiry concerning the nature of identity and how it is influenced by ones’ own history. The past is one of the most important facts in the whole story for half of the book is written in flashbacks, while the story itself seems to take just a small part from the whole large part.
To understand Faulkner’s characters actions in the present it is necessary to understand and know their history in the past, which determines their present greatly. Although the novel explores the issues of gender and race specifically, these particular thematic actions are part of Faulkner’s larger, more all-encompassing inquiry concerning the nature of identity and how it is influenced by a families history, the society and individual lives of the protagonists. But not only the actions of the main protagonist Joe Christmas, are caused by the events in his past. Altogether there are three of Faulkner’s protagonists in “Light in August” which are prominent examples for how the past of a person can determine their actions in the present or their whole life in general.
This three are for one Joe Christmas, whose troubled past determines his actions and his self-consciousness, Joanna Burden, who is namely affected by her ancestors religious beliefs and Gail Hightower, who is also affected by his ancestors history, but instead of Joanna not by religion, but the civil war. The townsfolk of Jefferson has resolved a acceptance of Reverend Hightower, Joanna Burden, and Joe Christmas, but each of these characters deliberately resists or abandons the distorting influence of a rigid social and moral order. They live their lives in solidarity because of the past, their ancestors left them as heritage and burden. [...]
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Joanna Burden
III. Reverend Gail Hightower
IV. Joe Christmas
V. Conclusion
Objectives and Themes
This work examines how the past dictates the present in William Faulkner’s "Light in August," focusing on how memory and ancestral history influence the identities and actions of the novel's main protagonists. The research explores the complex, often destructive, psychological burdens that characters carry from their pasts.
- The influence of ancestral history on individual identity.
- The intersection of race, gender, and social order within the Southern context.
- The conflict between personal will and inherited social or moral legacies.
- The psychological mechanism of memory and its reality compared to objective knowledge.
- The thematic contrast between protagonists burdened by the past and those capable of renewal.
Excerpt from the Book
Joanna Burden
Joanna Burden is a very good example for a life directed by the history of her family, although she has received almost no critical attention as a significant symbol in the novel. Maybe this is due to her personality and background which is so unlike those of Joe Christmas. Yet Joanna’s past deserves attention, which could already recognized in the fact that Faulkner gave her the allegorical surname of Burden, that already implies a generation of struggle with society and the inheritance of a very complex legacy of family pride.
When telling the history of her family dates are really important for Joanna and a significant way of organizing the experiences. This importance of dates alone already shows that the history of her family determines what she herself is. The history of her family itself goes back, in her telling, more than a hundred years and seems quite complex. Despite the often appearing names of Calvin and Nathaniel certain decisions also seems to have a twisted kind of tradition in the family.
Joanna’s grandfather Calvin Burden moved with his family from New England down in the south to Jefferson before Joanna was even born, what made the Burden-family strangers for the townspeople since Joanna is able to think. Calvin Burden himself was an anti-slavery agitator, who fought for the rights of black people. This fact made him and his family almost enemy-like in the after-Civil-war Jefferson. Both her grandfather Calvin and father Nathaniel spend their youth with many years of wandering, before they married dark skinned women, one a Huguenot descendant, the other Mexican-Spanish. For Calvin and Nathaniel there was never a sense of a place called home as there is for Joanna, who has never been away from Jefferson for more than six months at a time and who was desperately homesick after this short amount of time.
Summary of Chapters
I. Introduction: This chapter introduces the central theme of the novel, arguing that for Faulkner’s characters, the past is a pervasive force that determines the present more than objective reality.
II. Joanna Burden: This section explores how Joanna is shaped by a multi-generational legacy of Calvinist beliefs and abolitionist struggle, which she experiences as an inescapable personal burden.
III. Reverend Gail Hightower: This chapter analyzes Hightower’s self-imposed isolation and his psychological retreat into the glorified, imagined past of his grandfather, which leads to his detachment from reality.
IV. Joe Christmas: This chapter examines Christmas's search for identity as a man without a verifiable history, caught between racial labels and defined by the projections and violence of others.
V. Conclusion: The concluding section synthesizes how these protagonists are all constrained by their legacies, while briefly contrasting them with characters who find the capacity to move forward.
Keywords
William Faulkner, Light in August, Identity, Memory, Ancestral History, Past, Present, Calvinism, Racial Identity, Southern Literature, Burden, Isolation, Joe Christmas, Joanna Burden, Reverend Gail Hightower
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this academic work?
This work explores how the past functions as an active, determining force in the lives of the primary characters in William Faulkner’s "Light in August."
What are the key thematic areas addressed in the text?
The text focuses on ancestral legacies, the nature of self-identity, the impact of religious and social dogma, and the psychological weight of memory.
What is the primary objective of the author's analysis?
The objective is to demonstrate how characters like Joanna Burden, Reverend Hightower, and Joe Christmas are trapped by their histories and how these pasts manifest as psychological burdens in their present lives.
Which methodology does the author apply?
The author employs literary character analysis, examining the internal motivations and historical backgrounds of the protagonists to interpret their behavioral patterns within the narrative.
What topics are covered in the main body of the paper?
The main body provides in-depth studies of three central figures, detailing how each is specifically affected by their family lineage, social perception, and the inability to escape past events.
Which keywords best characterize the research?
Key terms include William Faulkner, identity, memory, ancestral history, Calvinism, racial identity, and the burden of the past.
How does the author characterize Joanna Burden’s specific struggle?
Joanna is portrayed as someone struggling with a complex family legacy of religious fanaticism and a sense of duty toward emancipation, which leaves her feeling isolated and inherently sinful.
In what way does the author describe Reverend Hightower's connection to the past?
Hightower is described as having withdrawn from his own life to live entirely within the imagined, glorified history of his grandfather, resulting in his complete alienation from the community.
How is the identity crisis of Joe Christmas distinct from the others?
Unlike Joanna and Hightower, who are burdened by known family histories, Joe Christmas is burdened by a complete lack of knowledge about his own origins, making him a victim of the histories others impose upon him.
What role does the character Lena Grove play in the author's conclusion?
Lena is introduced as a contrast to the protagonists, serving as a rare figure capable of leaving her past behind and moving forward, thereby highlighting the paralysis of the others.
- Quote paper
- Lisa Speidel (Author), 2013, The Burden of the Past in "Light in August" by William Faulkner, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/377442
