Race, Mixed Heritage, and Unreconcilable Racial Dualities in Light in August

Atkinson, Ted. “The Impenetrable Lightness of Being: Miscegenation Imagery and the
Anxiety of Whiteness in Go Down, Moses.” Short Story Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 209, Gale, 2015. Gale Literature Criticism, Originally published in Faulkner and Formalism, edited by Annette Trefzer and Ann J. Abadie, UP of Mississippi, 2012, pp. 129-143. Although this work examines the novel Go Down, Moses, many of the ideas discussed, apply within the same historical and racial context of Light in August. Atkinson discusses how just like in Light in August, Go Down Moses investigates the relation of the individual and community, and whether the individual is perceived as being accepted or rejected by their community. He also discusses the behavior of the central character of Lucas Beauchamp, and his experience with societal judgement due to his race. Much of the content discussed in this essay can also be used within the circumstances of Joe Christmas, in Light in August, which is why I believe this essay is still relevant to my topic.
Friday, Krister.”Miscegenated Time:The Spectral Body, Race, and Temporality in Light in
August” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 170, Gale, 2006. Gale Literature Criticism. Originally published in Faulkner Journal, vol. 16, no. 3, Fall 2000, pp. 41-63. In this essay Krister Friday discusses the essential role miscegenation plays in the lives of many of the characters, specifically in the life of Joe Christmas. Fridays examines the consequences of miscegenation, and how many of the characters must accept the complexities resulting from these racial unions, since these unions are in complete opposition of racist ideologies, and Southern values.
Jackson, Chuck. “American Emergencies: Whiteness, the National Guard, and Light in August.”
The Faulkner Journal, vol. 22, no. 1-2, 2006, p. 193+. Gale Literature Resource Center. In this essay, Jackson Chuck discusses racial divisions, racial interpretations, and the communal view on racial ambiguity. He also discusses “whiteness” and “blackness” in the context of the South, and specifically in Light in August.
Wilhelm, Randall. “Framing Joe Christmas: vision and detection in Light in August.”
The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 3-4, 2011, p. 393+. Gale Literature Resource Center. In this essay William Randall discusses imagery, and visual light in Light in August, and how this plays a role in illuminating or obscuring certain parts of the narrative. He also explores how race, and light play a role in the projection of Joe Christmas, as a murderer. I believe this essay will be useful since this will help my discussion of the many complications associated with racism, within the Southern historical context of the novel.
Barhow, Abdul-Razzak al-. “Focusing on the Margins: ‘Light in August’ and Social Change.”
The Southern Literary Journal, vol. 42, no. 2, 2010, p. 52+. Gale Academic OneFile. In this work Barhow, discusses racial and social ideologies, and how racist ideologies create marginalized members of society.

3. As the chapter develops it is evident that Quentin has told Shreve the Sutpen story before. Shreve knows many of the events of the story, but the questions and comments he makes help us as readers, continue to make sense of the story. Shreve unlike Quentin and Rosa, isn’t connected or associated in anyway to the story, therefore he also offers us objectivity in his narration. Shreve is not American, so his point of view and narration isn’t steeped or influenced by Southern values. Even if Shreve is somewhat familiar with the history and events which have influenced American culture, his limited knowledge comes from history books, not from being involved in that history. Shreve is a good listener, and he seems sincerely interested in knowing more about the story and Southern culture. His lack of prejudices also allow him to respond and reason objectively. Shreve initially reacts to the story in a distant and detached manner, (even if later on in the chapter he seems far more interested in the account) since he doesn’t possess any regional loyalties influencing his reasoning. By choosing a person outside of the United States, Faulkner adds a truly objective narrator, and with this move, Faulkner is able to subjectively engage us in the story and narration. As readers, we also in addition to Shreve and Quentin follow the narrative back to Sutpen’s Hundred. We also see both Shreve and Quentin get wrapped up in some kind of acting or role playing, as they internalize the events of the story and project their versions of Henry and Bon. They share a sort of closeness and intimacy both to each other and the narrative, which makes their retelling vivid and interesting.

Ch. 5 ; How does Rosa end her narrative? What is Quentin’s reaction to the ending, and what are some of the differences in orientation that emerge through this reaction?

Rosa ends her narrative telling Quentin about the murder of Charles Bon by Henry. Rosa is the only narrator who has lived during the events of the story, yet her recollection of these events is greatly colored by forty years of hatred towards Sutpen. She refers to Sutpen as a demon, her version of the story has an accusatory tone, and she blames Sutpen for all the problems and difficulties the Coldfield’s have endured. Rosa takes her resentment further, and blames the the fall of the South on men like Sutpen and their malicious influence on Southern society. At the end of her narration, it also clear why Rosa accepted Sutpen’s proposal initially, and then soon after declined his proposal. As a young woman, she was optimistic and romantic. However, when Sutpen demanded a son before the engagement, this frank, vulgar, and bold request, offends Rosa’s sense of decorum and romance. Miss Rosa believes that Sutpen is really evil because he has failed to become the romantic chevalier she was searching for. And when she contemplated the complete downfall of the Coldfield family, she felt compelled to blame their destruction on someone. Since no one had disappointed her as much as Sutpen did, it was easy to blame him. Rosa’s hatred and outrage results from her feeling violated by Sutpen’s proposal, and her romantic dreams of marriage being shattered, and this is how she ends her narration. Quentin begins to takeover as the main narrator, and his desire is to organize all versions of the story into one complete story. So it may have seemed that Quentin was just a passive listener, but in reality Quentin was listening all along in order to put the story together cohesively. It will be Quentin’s narration that will give us a broader, and subjective perspective on the account. Quentin has heard of this story not just from Rosa, but from his grandfather, and so with the facts he has received from his grandfather, Quentin can now see things with a degree of objectivity. The shifts in perspective, and in narrators allow us to add meaning to the story, and at the center of Quentin’s narrations is man’s relationship to the past. Quentin’s narration seems more concerned with how much of an individuals past and customs influence their future. What really determines a person’s future? Their adherence to their values, in this case southern values? Quentin seems to believe so. So Quentin is more than just another narrator in this novel, in some ways, he is as involved as Miss Rosa Coldfield in this myth. Quentin realizes that his environment and world are the same in which Sutpen lived and operated in, and that this myth and its implications are part of his culture and history as well, one that cannot be simply ignored. The Sutpen story is a part of Quentin’s life, a story that becomes his as well through his grandfather’s association with Sutpen. This story has now become an integral part of his heritage as well, and Quentin receives his basic impressions of the myth through his father’s and grandfather’s retelling of the Sutpen story. He becomes so involved in the story, that after hearing Rosa’s version and his grandfather’s version, he interprets the story in his own way. So while Rosa’s narration is greatly tainted and influenced by her hatred, Quentin’s interpretation, and retelling of the story is different. Quentins interpretation and narration allow him the much needed space to reflect and meditate on how this story has any bearing on him, and his future.

In his article Passing for Black: Anti-Miscegenation Hysteria and Undercover Operation in William Faulkner’s Light in August Kwangsoon Kim discusses many of the important themes in this novel like race, discrimination, and racial identity. These themes shape the novel, to include another major element and consequence of prejudice—racial passing. In his essay, Kim discusses the character of Joe Christmas, a character whose mixed heritage causes him to be immersed in this almost palpable strangeness and mystery; “ Christmas does have a claim to some kind of blackness, whether biological , physical, cultural, or what. Thus, Faulkner scholars have inevitably had their attention drawn to the constructed nature of racial identity in Light in August. There is no doubt that Christmas’s elusive racial identity interrogates and deconstructs the racial essentialism on which Southern society stood…the novel is full of evidence that Christmas feels that blackness is something that he should repress and negate”. (Kim 189) This novel endures because of its exploration of racial identity, mixed identity, and racism, making it a relevant work even today, almost 90 years after its publication. Many moments through out the novel we see Joe Christmas’s attempt to deny and suppress his “blackness”. Christmas, cannot reconcile his dual or split identity, and we follow his many moments of frustration, confusion, and fear. Joe Christmas seeks peace from his internal struggle, as he often says“All I wanted was peace” (AILD 112 ). As Kim reminds us, “Christmas does have a claim to some kind of blackness” yet, he is not able to accept this “blackness”, evidence of this is when Joe feels instantly relieved to be on the right (white) side of town. “Then he became cool. The negro smell, the negro voices, were behind, and below him now.” (AILD 115) At the heart of this novel, we have the contextual “racial essentialism on which Southern society stood”, yet, these themes of racial identity, mixed identity, and the feelings that accompany racial division/discrimination, go beyond the South. Theses societal maladies haven’t just affected the South, they surpass the history of the South, – they have in fact persevered to our modern society. This is why this novel continues to inform our discourse of race, mixed identity, and the complexities associated with dual identities. Throughout Faulkner’s narrative, Joe desperately searches for his place in society, yet his entire life he is only viewed as a stranger, and an enigma. Joe wants peace, yet sadly he doesn’t find it, partially because he doesn’t ever accept who he is. As long as he is in denial of his mixed heritage, he’ll never have the peace he wants so badly. As Kim discusses in his essay “Christmas has taken a role of a self-anointed upholder of racial lines” (Kim 190) yet at what cost? The internal racial conflict that Christmas suffers consumes him, and this novel is a powerful reminder of the pernicious affects of hiding from who we really are.

Kim, Kwangsoon. Passing for Black: Anti-Miscegenation Hysteria and Undercover Operation in William Faulkner’s Light in August CLA Journal Vol. 61, No. 3 (March 2018), pp. 188-206 (19 pages)

In his article Time in Literature J. Hillis Miller discusses, how works of literature present the human experience of a specific lived time, and how these narratives use words to express the subjective experience of lived time. These narratives of course are numerous and varied as they reflect the diverse lived experiences in literature. Miller discusses several literary works including As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. In this novel, Miller observes that the dialogue of almost all the characters is composed of “brief segments of internal monologue ascribed to one or another”. (Miller 93) “Human temporality, this mode of narration suggests, consists of blocks of language that register what is ‘out there’ from different temporal and spatial point. These articulations always exist in the present, even when consciousness/language is devoted to the act of remembering, even, as is sometimes the case of this novel, when they are enacted in the past rather than present tense and out of chronological order. Flashbacks and retracing of particular events from different perspectives produce a jagged, cubist rendering that suggests that any human event consists of the linguistic perspectives on it.” ( Miller 93) One example of this movement in time and in relation to space in the text can be seen when Jewel describes Cash’s actions and his ostensibly calloused attitude toward their mother’s imminent death. Jewel’s discontent can be clearly perceived when he says; “It’s because he stays out there, right under the window, hammering and sawing on that goddam box. Where she’s got to see him. ….See what a good one I am making for you. I told him to go somewhere else. I said Good God do you want to see her in it. It’s like when he was a little boy and she says if she had some fertilizer she would try to raise some flowers and he taken the bread pan and brought it back from the barn full of dung” ( AILD 14) As Miller mentions in his essay, Jewel’s language describes the present, his irritation with Cash’s insistence on making a coffin for his not so dead mother. Jewel’s language indicates his mother’s physical position in relation to him, and his brother. She cannot quite literally escape the saw dust, and this serves to highlight how cruel Cash’s present demeanor is, that he is determined to make this coffin so close to her body. Jewel also uses his present language to move back in time, and this flashback helps further reveal Cash’s personality. Cash proves to be quite literally minded; which can be seen when he returns with a bread pan full of dung after his mother requests fertilizer. This incident helps us understand Cash’s excessive practicality; his mother is dying, he has wood and a saw, so he is literally making her a coffin. The flashbacks or shifts in times and perspectives, help us create and re-create both the present and the past, which in turn informs our understanding of these narratives and their characters.

Addie rejects many of the dominating societal conventions of her time, making her character complex. Addie has very little regard for the opinions, or expectations, others have of her. We see evidence of this, in Addie’s critique of Cora’s clearly judgmental attitude towards her. Cora says that Addie “had never been religious”. (AILD 166) Unlike Cora, Addie doesn’t care for the outward, ostensible, and apparent piety or Godliness, which seems to motivate some in her society. Addie cannot subscribe to a life of religious hypocrisy, a life of religious practices and traditions, in an effort to please others. Nor does Addie claim to accept the life of a martyr, constantly chastising herself for being an imperfect human, the way Cora does. Addie is aware of what it means to be human, she says; “My daily life is expiation of my sin”. (AILD 167) Addie isn’t in denial of human tendency, but she also believes in her own morality; her own set of ethics. Addie doesn’t care about conforming to the prescribed, and expected rules of societal conventions, specifically the ones that promote the pious southern religious woman. Addie also rejects the idealization of motherhood, and the seemingly wonderful joys associated with it. Addie doesn’t find joy in motherhood, and she’s not willing to give people the impression that it has offered her any personal fulfillment. She says; “Then I found that I had Darl. At first I would not believe it. Then I believed that I would kill Anse. It was as though he had tricked me, hidden within a word like within a paper screen and struck me in the back through it.” (AILD 172) Addie deeply resents becoming a mother to Darl, because she believes that she was deceived by Anse. This doesn’t sound like someone who is satisfied in her role as a mother, no matter how much Cora or others insist on her children being gifts from God. It’s clear Addie isn’t concerned with appearing to be happy in her role as mother, or in adhering to traditional religious conventions. Addie sees through the facade of the established societal conventions, the ostensible happiness or fulfillment of motherhood, and the “blessings” a life of piety can offer. It is evident that Addie has decided to see things for what they are, not some illusion others have created, and no one, not Cora, or even Whitfield with his reverential sermons can convince her otherwise.

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In the essay “The Oldest Unit in the World”: The Family in American life and Literature by Jim Wayne Miller and Barry M. Buxton, these authors discuss the many ways in which the definitions and descriptions of families has evolved, especially in the last two centuries. They mention that “Writers and thinkers, ancient and modern, view the family as our oldest and most important human institution. The Chinese philosopher Mencius, three centuries before Christ, sees the family as “the root of the state”.The romantic German poet Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) agrees: Marriage is to politics what the lever is to engineering. The state is not founded upon single individuals, but upon…groups.” The family has long been considered the fundamental unit of human society….”. (Buxton and Miller, 2)
As Miller and Buxton elucidate in their essay, families have long been considered essential to societies. When discussing The Sound and the Fury, I will be using the term family in the sense of a small group of close blood relatives, or what is considered the nuclear family. At the very core of The Sound And the Fury we have the Compson family, a not so perfect family. The trials and tribulations affecting the Compson clan can be seen in Jason for example when he tries to corporally discipline his niece; “ All right ,” I says. We’ll just put this off a while. But dont think you can run it over me. I am not an old woman, nor an old half dead n———, either. You damn little s—-,I says” (TSAF, 185)
Jason’s approach to Miss Quentin is tyrannical and unloving. He is verbally abusive, and his demeaning speech isn’t solely direct towards Miss Quentin, but all the women present in the home. He is physically abusive, racist, and dishonest as well. Faulkner creates a family that is disintegrating not just because of the dissolution of it’s finances, loss of religious faith, or reputation. The Compson family degenerates due because of Jason’s desire for wealth, his cynicism, and the internal conflicts between him and Miss Quentin. Jason isn’t the only member of his household that is affecting his family unit unfavorably.
Mrs. Compson’s hypochondria preoccupies her, it consumes her, and inhibits her ability to care for anyone else. We can see her limitations in caring for Caddy when she tells Jason, “ I’m afraid you’ll lose your temper with her” “All right,” I says. “I won’t say anything, then.” “ But something must be done she says. “To have people think I permit her to stay out of school and run about the streets, or that I cant prevent her doing it…Jason, Jason,” she says. “How could you. How could you leave me with this burdens.” (TSAF, 182)
In the case of Mrs. Compson, what disconcerts me the most is that she seems to be mostly concerned about what people will think of her because of Caddy’s actions, yet she doesn’t seem as preoccupied with making efforts to actually help Caddy. She desires peace, unity, —improved familial circumstances, yet she’s been emotionally distant from her family, and in reality hasn’t made any efforts to contribute to a happy family.
Faulkner creates a family that is ruptured after years of abuse, theft, and the crippling effects of a permissive matriarch. The Compson members might be related, yet, sadly this does not stop them from hurting each other. After reading this novel I started to think about how much we identify with the characters we read, the ones we’ve come to know, when were done reading. How much does literature affect us, our mentality, our emotions? Can literature move us, and motivate us to perhaps change our point of view? Do we see the less desirable qualities present in characters, as in the case of Jason, and voluntarily choose to not mimic or internalize these traits? Can we reflect, on Caddy’s kindness towards Benji? Can we feel Benji’s love towards Caddy? Do the Compson’s with all of the mayhem present in their lives, make us feel a bit better about our own familial circumstances? After reading this narrative, can we be empathetic towards others when they face their own set of familial difficulties? Faulkner provides us with an unadulterated window into the domestic life of the Compson’s, and although it’s unpleasant at times, it does provide us with the opportunity to contemplate our own familial circumstances.

Lohr, Karen, and Jane Shook, editors. “‘The Oldest Unit in the World’: The Family in American Life and Literature.” The Examined Life: Family, Community, Work in American Literature, by Jim Wayne Miller and Barry M. Buxton, Appalachian State University, 1989

Benji’s memories can be compared to a furnished room that has been hit with a violent storm. The item’s have all been flung and tossed about yet remarkably they are still intact. Benji’s intellectual disability robs him of the ability to account for time, in the way that we account for time (days, months, and years). Benji’s memories aren’t organized by dates, if they were, he would grasp how much time has passed from one important event to another. Benji doesn’t know how much time has passed between his father’s death and Caddy getting married. Despite having an intellectual disability which hinders his ability to create any timeline of his experiences, Benji’s disability does not impede him from experiencing many human emotions. Benji doesn’t have the ability to distinguish between past or present; all the years that have passed have literally escaped him. Benji lacks the ability to tell time, something that would make any of us feel lost, and disoriented. Yet, for all that Benji lacks, Faulkner does vest Benji with something far more important and meaningful than time, and that’s the human experience. Benji may have an intellectual disability which affects his ability to grasp the concept of time, but Benji constantly undergoes the human experience, as he faces one personal challenge after another. Bénji’s memories are not organized, or compartmentalized in any way, and his memories are recalled once he sees or smells something familiar. We may feel tempted to categorize Benji as naive, and someone who lacks depth due to his disability. However, Benji is capable of experiencing complex human emotions.
One example of the scope of Benji’s emotions is his experience with the Patterson family. Benji is given the task of delivering a letter, and when he cannot complete this task, it is pretty evident that Benji feels stressed. “Mrs. Patterson came across the garden, running. When I saw her eyes I began to cry. You idiot, Mrs. Patterson said, I told him to never send you alone again. Give it to me. Quick. Mr. Patterson came fast, with the hoe. Mrs. Patterson leaned across the fence, reaching her hand. She was trying to climb the fence. Give it to me. Mr. Patterson climbed the fence. He took the letter. I saw her eyes and I ran down the hill.” (TSAF, 14) Benji can’t fully understand the immoral behavior going on between Mrs. Patterson and Uncle Maury. He isn’t aware of the ongoing affair between them. Upon approaching the Patterson home, Benji doesn’t understand why Mrs. Patterson is calling him an idiot, but he does understand tone. Mrs. Patterson comes runs across the garden to meet Benji. He does not understand why she is running, yet her running towards him is alarming. Soon after, Mr. Patterson ceases his activities, and climbs the fence towards Benji. He grabs the letter. As Benji makes eye contact with a very worried Mrs. Patterson, Benji is aware that he doesn’t deliver the letter. Benji’s reaction is to run. Benji experiences, anxiety, fear, and panic, over the unknown and the uncontrollable. He can feel something is wrong, even if he’s not sure what it is. Even if Benji can’t tell how long he’s been in the presence of the Patterson’s, he can tell it’s gone terribly wrong. Benji’s intellectual disability hinders his comprehension of something as serious and complicated like extramarital affair, yet it does not hinder his very human reaction to Mrs. Patterson’s anger and the unknown.
Another example of Benji’s active participation in the collective human experience, despite not having a sense of time, occurs during a familial dispute. “I’ll run away and never come back.” Caddy said. I began to cry. Caddy turned around and said “Hush” So I hushed…Caddy was all wet and muddy behind, and I started to cry and she came and squatted in the water. ( TSAF, 19)
Again Benji’s intellectual disability inhibits his ability to understand that Caddy’s words in the moment are just a threat, that in reality she won’t actually leave in the precise moment. Caddy does eventually leave, but because to Benji his memories are like a continuous stream, he doesn’t realize that she leaves the family later. Yet, Caddy’s words produce a momentary separation anxiety in Benji that is beyond his control, so he gives away to tears. Benji can’t sense the days and weeks go by, yet he can feel the emotional distress over the mere possibility of Caddy leaving. We share Benji’s apprehension, and concern, over the future. We also fear the worst. These are familiar feelings we have all experienced over one reason or another. Instead of feeling alienated, or disconnected to Benji, we empathize and relate to him. Benji is capable of experiencing the range of human emotions, despite his intellectual disability. Benji may not be able to understand the days, weeks, or months that have transpired between many of the difficulties that will afflict his family, yet all of the complex human emotions register in Benji. I am in complete awe of Benji, and also in Faulkner’s ability to write a character like Benji. Despite all the nuances that escape Benji due to his intellectual disability, Benji’s character is very much like us. We fear change and the uncertain. We fear loss of love, family, and the familiar. Faulkner remarkably infuses Benji with many admirable qualities, and we can’t help relating to Benji as we see him endure one difficulty after another. Faulkner’s Benji is relevant to us, because Benji is a powerful reminder of all the emotions experienced by members of the collective human experience.