“He looked like a phantom, a spirit, strayed out of its own world, and lost,” (114) can easily be regarded as one of the most impactful lines in William Faulkner’s Light in August. A very prominent theme throughout the novel is identity, which the quote...
William Faulkner came from an American South background and in his time, wrote a number of novels that featured themes of patriarchal power and struggles caused by race. Joe Christmas plays an unusual role in Light in August – in him, Faulkner creates a central...
Absalom, Absalom!, African American, African diaspora, African immigration to the United States, Afro-Latin American, Baltimore, Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, Black people, Demographics of the United States
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In William Faulkner’s novel Light in August, Joe Christmas is often depicted to be an almost Christ-like figure. There are many thematic similarities between the struggles Christmas goes through during his lifetime, and the struggles braved by Jesus as described by the Bible. One noticeable...
In both novels, All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy and Light in August by William Faulkner, a central theme of heroism and the expectations placed on the two main characters and other’s surrounding them is presented as a pivotal point for the advancement of...
William Cuthbert Falkner started his life on September 25, 1897, in Mississippi. He was born into a prominent family, who owned banks and a railroad. Mammy Callie, his childhood nurse, was a major contributor to his works. The stories she would tell him stayed with...
A Rose for Emily, Absalom, Absalom!, American literature, Barn Burning, Flannery O'Connor, For Emily, Joyce Carol Oates, Light in August, Modernist literature
Hemingway’s In Our Time and Faulkner’s Light in August are both pieces of literature that revolve around violence. However, the authors’ treatments of violence contrast sharply. Hemingway focuses on culturally sanctioned forms of violence, while Faulkner focuses on more illicit violence. While Faulkner lays a...
Big Two-Hearted River, Black blood, Domestic violence, Ernest Hemingway, Faulkner’s Light, In Our Time, Indian Camp, Joe Christmas, Light in August, Mark Twain
Although most men and women recognize how traditional gender roles dictate their actions in hopes of being accepted into society, very few can claim that they have been completely exiled from their community because they appear too “masculine” or vice-versa. In Light in August, the...
Joe Christmas is a walking contradiction in the Southern society in which he resides. Throughout Light in August, central character Joe Christmas experiences many factors that contribute to his inability to form substantial relationships with other characters. Joe’s childhood in the orphanage and living with...
As one of the great stylists of the twentieth century, William Faulkner explores the South’s haunting past throughout several novels. His novel Light in August is one of many set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional place in Mississippi, where he explores the fallout and change...
African American, Anti-miscegenation laws, Black people, Caucasian race, Color terminology for race, Faulkner, Joanna Burden, Joe Christmas, Pardo, Race
