Light in August and Symbolism

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.

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’ section 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. Other characters also defined it by their wooden imagery: Lena Grove with trees, Gail Hightower with his wooden