Light in August by William Faulkner

Light in August

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The narrative structure consists of three connected plot-strands. The first strand tells the story of Lena Grove, a young pregnant woman who is trying to find the father of her unborn child, Lucas Burch. With that purpose she leaves her home town and walks several hundred miles to Jefferson, a town in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County. There she is supported by Byron Bunch, an employee in the planing mill who falls in love with Lena and hopes to marry her. Bunch keeps secret that Lucas Burch is hiding in town under the alias Joe Brown. Lena is a simple child of nature, representing positive human qualities like innocence and endurance. Her journey in August and the birth of her child are symbolic of the eternal cycle of nature.

The narrative plot of Lena's story is also circular; it builds a framework around the two other plot-strands. One of these is the story of the enigmatic character Joe Christmas.

Christmas came to Jefferson three years before the novel's beginning, and got a job at the planing mill. The work at the planing mill is a cover up for his illegal alcohol business. He has a sexual relationship with Joanna Burden, an older woman who descended from a formerly powerful abolitionist family. Joanna Burden continues her ancestors' struggle for Black emancipation, which makes her an outsider in the society of Jefferson, much like Christmas.

Her relationship with Christmas begins rather unusually, with Christmas sneaking into her house to steal food, for he has not eaten in twenty-four hours. As a result of sexual frustration and the beginning of menopause, Joanna turns to religion. Joanna's turn to religion is frustrating for Christmas, who as a child ran away from his abusive adoptive parents who were conservatively religious. At the climax of her relation to Christmas, she tries to force him, by threatening him with a gun, to admit publicly his black ancestry and to join a black law firm. Joanna Burden is murdered soon after by Christmas. Her throat is slit and she is nearly decapitated. Her body was left to burn inside her house which is set on fire to cover the evidence of her murder. The murder was presumably committed by Joe Christmas, but this is not explicitly narrated. It appears that Lucas Burch/Joe Brown may have at least set the house on fire. Lucas is initially cast as a possible murderer, as he was found inside the burning house by a passing farmer who rescued Joanna's body from the flames.

Thanks to a tip-off by Lucas Burch/Joe Brown, Christmas' previous business partner in the moon-shining venture and the father of Lena's child, Christmas is caught after giving himself up in a neighboring town. During his unsuccessful escape attempt, Christmas is shot and castrated by a national Guardsman named Percy Grimm.

The third plot strand tells the story of Reverend Gail Hightower. He is obsessed by the past adventures of his Confederate grandfather, who was killed while stealing chickens from a farmer's shed. Hightower's community dislikes him because of his sermons about his dead grandfather, and because of the scandal surrounding his personal life: his wife committed adultery, and later killed herself, turning the town's community against Hightower and effectively turning him into a pariah. The only character who does not turn his back on the Reverend is Byron Bunch, who visits Hightower from time to time. Bunch also tries to convince the Reverend to give the imprisoned Christmas an alibi, but Hightower initially refuses. When Christmas escapes from police custody he runs to Hightower's house where he tries to hide. Hightower then accepts Byron's suggestion, but it is too late as Percy Grimm is close behind.