Religious Symbolism in Light in August
William Faulkner’s, "Light in August" has many references to Christianity. He employs a great deal of religious symbolism in all of his characters. These parallels seem very intentional, even though, Faulkner himself says he did not do it purposely. The Christ story is one of the most popular stories invented and it seems right that at some point someone is going to write similar to it. William Faulkner says he did not put the Christian parallels in intentionally. Many critics argue that there is no religious symbolism in this novel and that other critics are looking too deep into the novel. After reading Faulkners’ novel, it is hard not to make some connections to Christianity. The most obvious of his ties to the Catholic background and knowledge is in his writing of "Light in August".
William Faulkner was born in New Albany. His family was a mixture of Presbyterians and Baptists. As an adult, he became a communicant of the Episcopal Church in Oxford, but he rarely attended services there. In response to a question on Faulkner’s Christianity, he said: "I have the sort of provincial Christian background I feel that I’m a good Christian—whether it would please anybody else’s standard I don’t know" (203). According to Amy Dooley (who is the research assistant of the Center of Faulkner Studies Southeast Missouri State University), Faulkner spoke about religion being something a Southerner absorbs as part of the culture, and he can’t stop using it. He said it doesn’t matter if he believes it or not. It appears as if Faulkner uses Christianity in his writing to aid his themes of human suffering, renewal of rebirth, human continuity, and death.
The most significant example of Fau...
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...that is never specified either. Christmas might have Negro blood in him so he could be black or he might be white. This gives him a character, which does not fit in with the other people; he is different. This is similar to Jesus Christ in that there was something different about him to separate him from the other people. That fact and the fact that his initials are the same as Jesus’ can lead a person to believe that William Faulkner did this intentionally. If one looks at Joe Christmas’ personality and his entire life and death, one will see that there are no parallels. If Faulkner says he did not put the parallels in intentionally, then it seems only ironic that there are some. In conclusion, Joe is a character in William Faulkner’s novel, "Light in August", and nothing more.
Works Cited:
Faulkner, William. Light in August. 1932. New York: Vintage, 1987.
He was impacted by the encounters from his past and from the Christmas stories of different creators.
A popular literary technique that can be found in a number of literary works is the biblical allusion. John Steinbeck perfects this technique in his novel The Grapes of Wrath by introducing a character who is symbolic of Jesus Christ. This character, Jim Casy, not only shares initials with this biblical figure, but he also grows thoughout the novel as a speaker, a mediator, an organizer, and, most remarkably, a martyr.
While I was watching the documentary William Faulkner, a Life on Paper I found it striking how the different people that were interviewed talked about two different sides of the author William Faulkner. His daughters, Jill Faulkner Sommers and his stepdaughter, spoke mainly about his alcohol abuse and his moodiness whereas Faulkner’s contemporaries from Oxford underlined Faulkner’s generosity and kindness. The documentary shows Faulkner not only as father of Jill and his stepdaughter but also as a father figure for many others. He had to take care of several families at once. At one point Faulkner had seventeen dependents to provide for. Many of the people that were interviewed describe Faulkner as being very generous and always willing to help others even when he had almost nothing himself. One special example is his brother Dean who died in an airplane accident and because Faulkner had bought the plane he apparently felt guilty about the death of his brother for the rest of his life as his sister-in-law says in the interview.
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Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.
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As a child, Faulkner was well aware of his family background, especially the notoriety of his great-grandfather who had moved to the Mississippi Delta from Tennessee in 1841 (Zane). William Clark Faulkner was a Civil War Colonel, a lawyer, a planter, a politician, a railroad entrepreneur, and a best-selling novelist best known for The White Rose of Memphis. He died in the streets of Ripley, Mississippi, where a former business partner he had forced out of his railroad gunned him down (Padgett). While Faulkner had never met his great-grandfather, he was a powerful influence. When his third grade teacher asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, the young William replied “I want to be a writer like my great-granddaddy”(Padgett).
Palumbo, Donald. "The Concept of God in Faulkner's "Light in August," "The Sound and the Fury," "As I Lay Dying" and "Absalom, Absalom!"" The South Central Bulletin 39.4 (1979): 142-46. JSTOR. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
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