Light in August: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

Christmas managed to escape from jail, but the hiding place he chose after getting out—Hightower’s house—was such a strange choice that the townspeople say that he might as well have committed suicide. The District Attorney, a Harvard graduate from an old slaveholding Jefferson family, is named Gavin Stevens. On Monday night, a college friend of Stevens who is now a professor at a nearby university arrives in Jefferson. He sees Stevens talking to Mr. Hines and Mrs. Hines. He hands Mrs. Hines train tickets while discussing funeral arrangements with her.

After Mr. and Mrs. Hines get on the train, Stevens tells the professor (who is not named) the whole story. He speculates that Christmas sought shelter in Hightower’s house because of his grandmother. Mrs. Hines did not expect that she could stop Christmas dying, but she wanted him to die in a “decent,” legal way, rather than being lynched (which was what Mr. Hines wanted to do). Stevens then reflects that for the first time in her life, Mrs. Hines found someone—Hightower—to whom she could tell her story. He thinks that she probably told Christmas that “Hightower would save him” when she went to see him in jail.

Stevens thinks Christmas believed Mrs. Hines, and that this inspired him to run. He miraculously managed to break free despite being handcuffed, but at that point he had done “too much running” in life. All his life, Christmas had been running from himself, from his own actions. Stevens characterizes all Christmas’s actions as being driven either by his “black blood” or his “white blood.” Stevens argues that it was Christmas’s white blood that sent him to Hightower’s house, and his black blood that led him to grab the pistol and point it at Hightower. Yet his black blood then “failed him.” Instead of killing the minister, he just struck him and then hid behind a table, where he was quickly shot to death.

The narrator then shifts to describe a young man living in Jefferson named Percy Grimm. He was born just too late to fight in the First World War, which he deeply resented. The first fight Grimm ever got into was with a soldier who had served in the war, and who said that the US was foolish to get involved and ally with France. Grimm was beaten by the man, but was proud of the scars he had gained. Thanks to the new civilian military act, Grimm is able to fulfil his dream of wearing a military uniform. He is a fiercely patriotic man, a white supremacist with fanatical reverence for the American military. On every national holiday, Grimm proudly strides about town in his uniform.

By the time Christmas is brought back to Jefferson from Mottstown, Grimm has already been to see the commander of the local Post of the American Legion. He tells the commander that “it is the right of no civilian to sentence a man to death,” and that as soldiers they must enforce this rule. The commander is skeptical, but Grimm is adamant, saying that as soldiers they must be the “first to state where we stand.” The commander indicates that he won’t stop Grimm, but that Grimm mustn’t use his name. On the Saturday before Christmas’s death, Grimm goes through Jefferson gathering men who have served in the military and “divided them into squads.” He advises all of them to carry a gun.

Grimm goes to see the sheriff to ask for permission for the group of men to station themselves in the town square. The sheriff immediately refuses, telling Grimm that he and his men should not carry their guns around town, and Grimm pretends to accept this answer. However, later that night the sheriff arrives in the town square to find the group of men standing outside the courthouse and jail. The sheriff approaches Grimm and reluctantly says that Grimm can be his “special deputy,” but that he is not permitted to show his gun to anyone. As the night goes on, most of Grimm’s men end up going home.   

Sunday is a calm, quiet day. Everyone knows that the Grand Jury will meet tomorrow, and the secrecy implied by the words “Grand Jury” makes Grimm’s men even more convinced of their own “makebelieve." Most of the townspeople have quickly accepted the presence of Grimm and his men and even started to see Grimm as a kind of authority, and Grimm’s men have been agitated to the point that “they might die for him, if the occasion rose.” They come to believe that it is Grimm who is really in charge, not the sheriff

On Monday, the day of the Grand Jury, Grimm’s men wear their uniforms. The townspeople see Grimm walk past with his gun and comment that the sheriff has “no say” in what will happen that day. Grimm is inside the courthouse when he hears Burford fire his gun. While being walked across the town square, Christmas has fled, and chaos ensues. Grimm demands that the courthouse aide turn on the fire alarm in order to alert everyone that something has happened. He then steals a bicycle and zooms off, overtaking Burford. and manages to follow Christmas to a cluster of “negro cabins.” Christmas, who is holding a gun, sees that Grimm has found him and manages to run off.

Now on foot, Grimm follows Christmas to Hightower’s house, now accompanied by some of his men. When Grimm demands that Hightower reveal which room Christmas is in, Hightower begins to say that he was with Christmas on the night of the murder and that he is thus not guilty. Grimm is appalled by this. As if by intuition, he runs into another room and immediately begins shooting. Although he hits Christmas, he does not kill him; he then uses a butcher knife to castrate Christmas. Seeing this, one of Grimm’s men vomits. At this point the life finally leaves Christmas’s body.