Light in August

by

William Faulkner

Light in August: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Early the next morning, Monday, Lena’s child is born. Byron goes to Hightower’s house and finds Hightower asleep in bed. He wakes him, saying that Lena is in labor and that he is going to fetch a doctor. He asks if Hightower still has the book he used to deliver the black woman’s child, in case he is too late bringing the doctor back. Byron then promises he will be as quick as he can and leaves. As he hurries away, Byron curses himself for not making arrangements with the doctor earlier. The doctor is an old man and moves slowly. He is annoyed at having been woken so early in the morning, and can’t find the key to his car, though he refuses to let Byron smash the lock.
Just as Hightower appears to have abandoned all consideration for others and to be acting only in his own interests, he redeems himself by agreeing to go and help Lena give birth to the baby. In the world of the novel, the idea that a white man with no medical qualifications would help birth a child born to an unmarried mother is highly scandalous—yet something about Hightower’s involvement is also strangely moving.
Themes
Race, Gender, and Transgression Theme Icon
Haunting and the Past Theme Icon
When Byron and the doctor arrive at the cabin, the birth has already taken place, and the doctor says that with Hightower there his presence was hardly needed. Mrs. Hines is there too, holding the newborn baby, and the doctor says he didn’t know the whole family would be there, including grandparents. Mrs. Hines whispers to Byron that he can take care of “Milly” now, while she looks after “Joey.” It suddenly occurs to Byron that he somehow never quite believed Lena was really pregnant, that she would actually have a baby. He’d refused to believe it because in his mind, Lena was a virgin. He now realizes that he will have to tell Brown, who until this point he hadn’t even let himself believe was real.
Both Mrs. Hines and Byron are revealed to be in (or emerging from) the grip of delusional thinking. Mrs. Hines becomes convinced that Lena is her daughter, Milly, a detail that again emphasizes the haunting return of the past. Meanwhile, Byron is finally forced to confront the reality that Lena really was pregnant by another man. Although Byron is kinder than most of the other characters, he clearly has a level of sexist thinking that made him convince himself that Lena was a virgin because of his love for her.
Themes
Race, Gender, and Transgression Theme Icon
Names and Identity Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Haunting and the Past Theme Icon
Hightower heads home, feeling exhausted and slightly resenting Byron for the fact that he now has to walk the whole two miles home. Once there, he makes coffee, planning to go back to bed but knowing he will be unable to sleep. Then, in the midst of his loneliness, he feels a sudden surge of “triumph and pride.” For the first time in 25 years, he has a sense of purpose. He takes a copy of Henry IV from his bookshelf and sits in his deck chair underneath the mulberry tree to read. He then goes back into the house, shaves, and puts on some nice clothes, thinking: “I must do this more often.”
The birth of Lena’s baby is the perfect example of a cloud that ends up having a silver lining. While the conservative values of the society in which the novel is set would dictate that the baby’s birth is nothing more than a scandal and a tragedy and that Lena is “ruined” by it, it’s made clear here that the birth can also be seen as a positively transformative event.
Themes
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Haunting and the Past Theme Icon
Hightower goes back to the cabin and finds Lena lying there alone with the baby. Byron has gone into town, and when Mrs. Hines realized this, she followed him. Lena admits that although she is grateful for Mrs. Hines’s help, she is glad she is now gone, because she kept calling the baby Joey. Hightower asks what the baby’s actual name is, and Lena replies that she has not named him yet. Hightower realizes that Lena has combed her hair and made up her face because she is waiting for Lucas to come. He tells her that Byron is “a good man,” but that she should send him away. Lena replies that she has never tried to keep Byron with her in the first place.
Considering how important names are in the novel, readers should pay attention to the fact that Lena waits to name her baby. The most obvious explanation for this is that the baby’s life—and Lena’s own life—are still radically undetermined, and Lena does not know if Lucas will come back (and if he does, one can imagine that she will probably want him to name the baby). The unknown fate of the baby is reflected in his lack of name, which means that others can project an identity onto him.
Themes
Names and Identity Theme Icon
Haunting and the Past Theme Icon
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Lena then reveals that five days ago Byron asked her to marry him, and she said no. She says she doesn’t know where he is now, but that before he left, he said that the authorities would bring Lucas to see her that evening, checking that this was okay. Lena said it was, and Byron left without saying anything else. She then begins to cry, saying that she said no to him, and now will never see him again. Hightower goes to the planing mill and is informed that Byron quit his job there that morning. A man working there advises him that Byron is probably at the courthouse, explaining that the Grand Jury is meeting that day to convict the murderer.
This passage shows that Lena is evidently acting against her own desires to some degree in turning down Byron’s marriage proposal. While she may be determined in her mission to reunite with Lucas, her tears indicate that she has also developed an attachment to Byron and fears losing him. She is caught between what she “should” do (reunite with the father of her child) and what she wants to do.
Themes
Race, Gender, and Transgression Theme Icon
Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon