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continues to narrate Browns conversation with the sheriff.
Brown told the sheriff about having discovered that Christmas was
sleeping with Joanna Burden. Brown also said that Christmas had hinted
that he had killed Joanna. But the sheriff implied that Brown
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himself might be the culprit. Then Brown said that Christmas had
admitted to being part black.
Even without any proof, this accusation seems to change everyones
attitude. People seem to regard having falsely passed for white as a
more serious offense than murder. This example of Jeffersons attitude
to blacks is at least the third youve read so far. The mill workers
were glad to see Joanna Burdens house burning because they hated
her for being friendly to blacks. And for hiring black servants
Hightower aroused the wrath of the town and the K.K.K.
Byron relates that the sheriff locked Brown up anyhow. Hightower
worries about what the people will do with Christmas when they catch
him. And Byron, who still hasnt told Lena about any of these
happenings, worries about having to tell her.
CHAPTER 5
-
Faulkner now moves to Christmass point of view. The chapter
portrays Christmas readying himself for his violent confrontation with
Joanna Burden.
Its late Thursday night, almost three days before Byrons
unexpected Sunday evening visit to Hightower. Christmas is lying awake
in bed as Brown walks into the cabin they share. Brown is drunk and
noisy. Christmas tells him to shut up. When Brown falls on the floor
and laughs loudly, Christmas repeatedly hits him in the face. Brown
calls Christmas a nigger, but Christmas continues slapping and choking
him until Brown finally agrees to be quiet. He falls asleep.
In the last chapter Byron reported having heard about an incident in
which Christmas slapped Browns face. Now Christmas is hitting Brown
gain. Look for other incidents of violence to the face or head in
Light in August, especially in connection with Christmas.
So far, Christmas seems cold, ruthless, and violent, hardly
Christ-like. But in this chapter you will get some hints about
Christmass motivations and your first brief glimpses of his
thoughts and feelings. Christmas thinks that something is going to
happen to him and that he is going to do something. These two
thoughts, the first of his youve had access to, could suggest two
opposite interpretations of Christmass behavior. The first is that
Christmas is the victim of forces beyond his control, and the second
is that he controls his own actions. Some readers see Christmas as a
passive pawn of society or fate. Others see him as the novels only
character who consciously takes charge of his own destiny. As you read
further, consider which approach to Christmass life you agree with
more. Neither extreme is necessarily true.
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NOTE THE CHORUS OF SOUNDS Christmas thinks he hears what
Faulkner refers to as myriad sounds. A similar expression appeared
in Chapter 4, when Byron was taking Lena to town and again when
Hightower and Byron were talking. In the first instance it described
the townspeople abuzz with the rumors of Burdens murder. In the
second it described the insects chirping outside Hightowers house.
Here the reference is less specific. Many kinds of sound seem to be
emerging from Christmass memory, and indeed the next seven chapters
will take you into that memory. Why does Faulkner include this
chorus of sounds humming in the background? Perhaps this image of
myriad sounds connects his characters to something larger than
themselves. However, the image, while powerful, is open to other
interpretations.
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-
Christmas cannot sleep. He suddenly says, Its because she
started praying over me, and he repeats this insight several times
throughout the night. You dont know yet what he is referring to.
But this exclamation is the first hint that religion is an issue in
Christmass life.
As Christmas thinks about his relationship with Joanna Burden, he
tears the last remaining button off the underclothes he is wearing. He
thinks about a time when a woman used to sew on his missing buttons,
and he would deliberately thwart her by cutting them off again. Here
is another insight into Christmass character. He seems to feel
hostile to womens kindness, perhaps even to feel that such kindness
confines him, buttons him in. Note that Christmas is becoming the
third character in Light in August to avoid sustained relationships
with women. Note also that the button is one of many circular images
to appear in Light in August.
Christmas walks outside nude. He yells, White bastards! at a
passing car. Then he goes to sleep in the stable with the horses.
(Here is another character who seems fonder of horses than people.)
Less than two hours later, Christmas wakes. It is dawn, Friday
morning. He returns to the cabin, dresses, gets his shaving things,
and walks to a nearby valley. He spends the day there, thinking the
same thoughts over and over, thinking that he is going to do something
and that she, Burden, shouldnt have started praying.
That night Christmas goes into town. Walking aimlessly, he finds
himself in Freedman Town, the black section of Jefferson. He panics
and runs away. What provokes Christmass fear? Note that in this
passage Christmas associates blacks with women and both of them with
softness and warmth. When he gets back to the white section, the air
feels cold and hard. He sees some blacks and curses them, just as he
cursed the whites the night before. He seems hostile to both races.
Christmas lies awake until midnight. His mind is empty as he gets up
and walks to Joanna Burdens house.
CHAPTER 6
-
In this chapter we flash back to Joe Christmass earliest memories
of life in an orphanage. Faulkner describes a childhood incident
that led to the discovery of Joes possible black ancestry and to
his adoption by Simon McEachern.
-
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NOTE KNOWING AND REMEMBERING The words that begin this chapter
(Memory believes before knowing remembers) recall those that
introduced Chapter (Byron Bunch knows this). Such expressions seem
to be cues indicating that Faulkner is starting to use the heightened
voice of a characters deeper perceptions and feelings. Faulkner
may be suggesting that he will go deeper into Christmass inner mind
than he did into Byrons in Chapter , beyond mere knowing into
memory. Christmas, Faulkner seems to be saying, does not necessarily
even know that he has these memories, but they are part of him
nonetheless.
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-
Christmass memories take him back to a corridor, the first of
many long, narrow passageways youll see him in. He is five years old.
The corridor is in an orphanage. As he has already done many times
before, Christmas is sneaking into the dietitians room to sample some
of her toothpaste. He likes the feminine colors and smells of the
room. In fact they remind him of the sweet, sticky, pink toothpaste he
enjoys.
But the dietitian comes back to her room before Christmas has
finished eating. A young intern is with her. He talks her into
making love, though she is afraid. The child doesnt know what the
couple is doing and isnt even curious about them. But he knows that
he must stay hidden among the dietitians soft clothes in order to
avoid being caught with the toothpaste. So, as the couple makes
love, he eats more and more until he starts to feel sick. He sweats
profusely, and then, after realizing that something is about to happen
to him, he vomits. The dietitian hears him and wrongly accuses him
of spying on her. She calls him a nigger.
This innocent child doesnt yet resemble the adult Christmas
youve been introduced to. But Christmass memories may have turned to
the first event that helped produce the man who is about to commit
murder. In Christmass flight from Freedman Town, you have seen his
revulsion from the soft, warm, and feminine. And now his memory has
taken him back to an experience that combines all three of those
qualities.
Its also an experience in which he waits passively for something to
happen to him. Perhaps his memory has selected this experience because
hes having that same fatalistic feeling as he walks toward Joanna
Burdens house thirty-one years later.
The memories continue. The dietitian is desperately worried that the
boy will tell on her. She doesnt realize that the innocent boy has
nothing to tell. The only reason that he follows her around is that he
expects her to punish him for eating the toothpaste and he wants to
get the punishment over with. But by now the dietitian is almost
insane with fear and anger.
She goes to the janitor, a mysterious man who arrived at the
orphanage one month after Christmas had been left on the door step.
Day after day, whenever the children are playing, the janitor sits
staring at Christmas. The dietitian asks him if he knows Christmass
origins. She has noticed that the other children call Joe nigger.
The janitor sounds crazy. He calls Christmas a sign given by the
Lord to condemn sin and fornication, and he rants against women, but
he implies that Christmas is indeed black.
That night the janitor goes to the dietitians room. Calling her
Jezebel and womanfilth, he asks what will happen when she tells
the matron that Christmas is black. He is afraid that Christmas will
be sent to the black orphanage.
-
------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE In the Old Testament, Jezebel was a woman who urged the
Israelites to turn to the idol-worshipping religion of Baal. Elijah
prophesied that she would be killed, and his prophecy came true. By
extension the term has come to refer to any shameless, impudent, or
sexually unrestrained woman.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-
That night Christmas feels himself being carried away. He knows that
the man carrying him is someone with whom he has a special bond, but
he doesnt understand what that bond is. The man takes him to
another orphanage, but three days later the police come to take
Christmas back. Once more he seems to be passively experiencing a fate
beyond his control.
By the time Christmas is returned to the original orphanage, the
dietitian has told the matron about his mixed racial identity. The
matron decides not to reveal this news and immediately seeks out
someone to adopt Christmas. The man she finds is full of severe talk
about hard work and the fear of God. He calls the name Christmas
sacrilegious and insists that Christmas take his name, McEachern.
Along with the janitor, Simon McEachern is the second person in
Christmass life with a harsh religious outlook. Could there be any
connection between Christmass experiences with these two men and
his complaint that Joanna shouldnt have prayed over him? You wont
know for sure until later.
CHAPTER 7
-
This chapter describes two crucial incidents in Joes life with
the McEacherns. In the first, he defies his foster father and
endures the punishment. In the second, he is about to have his first
sexual experience but resorts to violence instead.
Joe Christmas remembers the day when, he believes, he became a
man....
He is eight years old. Simon McEachern is standing over him and
accusing him of not even trying to learn his catechism (lessons in
religious doctrine). McEachern says that he will give Joe a second
hour. Exactly on the dot of the hour, he asks again if Joe has learned
the lesson. When Joe says he hasnt, McEachern takes him to the
stable to beat him. Joe puts the book he has been studying on the
ground. McEachern scolds Joe for believing that a stable floor is a
proper place for the word of God. What do you think of this remark?
Faulkner may be making an ironic comment about McEacherns attitude to
religion, since, of course, Jesus was born in a manger.
McEachern beats Joe again after the third hour. After the fourth
hour, Joe collapses and in the late afternoon, awakens in his bedroom.
McEachern orders Joe to kneel with him in prayer. Then he gives Joe
the book yet one more time.
You will want to remember this incident when you read of Christmass
relationship with Joanna Burden. You already know that she made the
mistake of praying over him. But even before you learn more about
Joanna, you can ask yourself whether Christmas is right in believing
that this day was the moment he became a man. You could argue that
standing up to McEachern is Joes first act of self-assertion, and a
dramatic change from the passivity of his childhood. But you could
also argue that the change is not as great as it first seems. Joes
self-assertion has a passive and fatalistic quality. He defies
McEachern by accepting a punishment that both of them regard as
inevitable. Perhaps Joes interaction with McEachern forms him into
the man he is to be henceforth. But is that a manhood he should be
proud of? Note that Joe seems to be developing the same hard, stubborn
personality as that of the adoptive father he is defying.
Lying in bed after McEachern leaves, Joe realizes that he has not
eaten all day. You might expect him to be glad when Mrs. McEachern
brings food. But he just smashes the dishes on the floor. Only after
the old woman has left, does he get down on the floor and gobble up
the remains.
Christmass hostility to womens attempts at kindness has begun.
This incident with Mrs. McEachern might also remind you of Christmass
angry refusal of Byron Bunchs kind offer of lunch when the two
first met. Because Light in August makes many of its points by
comparing and contrasting different characters, compare Christmass
rejection of generosity to Lenas ready acceptance of Armstids
offer of a place to stay, food, and even money.
Christmas is now fourteen years old. He and four friends are
taking turns having sex with a black girl. But when his turn comes, he
doesnt approach her sexually. He feels revolted, as he did when he
ate the toothpaste, and he kicks and beats her. Then the fight turns
into a free-for-all between him and his friends. When he gets home, he
knows he will be beaten, not because he has done anything, but because
McEachern always beats him regardless of what hes done.
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NOTE You have already noticed the possible religious significance
of Christmass name. In this chapter Faulkner uses a variety of
religious terms to describe Christmas. He describes him as being
like a monk, like a Catholic choir boy, and like a hermit. Faulkner
seems to be underlining the calm pleasure the boy takes in
suffering. Is he giving Christmas a certain grandeur with these
comparisons? Or is he instead subtly criticizing some aspects of
religion? Christmas seems to experience the exalted suffering of monks
and hermits without their higher purpose.
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