Light in August

by

William Faulkner

Light in August: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Byron Bunch recalls a Friday morning three years ago, when a stranger wearing dirty clothes arrived at the planing mill in Jefferson. The stranger seemed to come from nowhere, and seemed to be “almost proud” of this fact. The millworkers were suspicious of the man’s strange, haughty expression; however, the foreman gave him a job. Later, someone mentioned that the man’s name was Christmas, which everyone agreed was odd. For the first time, it occurred to Byron that a person’s name can reveal a great deal about who they are and what they will do—as long as one interprets the name correctly.
The passage in which Christmas is introduced provides several key pieces of information about his character. Firstly, he—like Lena—is defined as a stranger and misfit, someone who doesn’t belong in Jefferson. Secondly, he has an unusual name, which intensifies the impression that he is a strange figure who does not belong in Jefferson.
Themes
Race, Gender, and Transgression Theme Icon
Names and Identity Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Haunting and the Past Theme Icon
Quotes
At lunchtime, Byron sat down with his lunch pail and saw Christmas nearby, smoking. Christmas’s flesh was the color of “dead parchment.” Byron asked if Christmas was going to take a break and offered him some food, but Christmas rudely refused, asking how much they paid for overtime. Even after six months of working at the mill, Christmas still never spoke to anyone. No one knew where he lived. The job he was given at the mill was a “negro’s job.”
Although no concrete information has been given yet about Christmas’s race, there are already clues that it might be ambiguous or significant somehow. First of all, he is given a black worker’s job despite (presumably) being white; furthermore, the detail about the color of his skin suggests there is something unusual about him in a society that expects people to be entirely black or white.
Themes
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Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Later, many of the local men will admit to having bought illicit whisky from Christmas, meeting him in the woods near Joanna Burden’s old colonial plantation house. However, they did not know that he was living in a “negro cabin” on the property of the unmarried, middle-aged woman Joanna. About six months ago, another stranger showed up at the mill, and was assigned to work in the sawdust pile with Christmas. He had a “weakly handsome face” and a scar near his mouth. Nobody cared what the man’s name was, where he was from, or where he was housed—people felt that he was just “living on the country, like a locust.” His name was Joe Brown. He gambled his first week’s pay and lost it all.
Already, readers can see that Joe Brown and Joe Christmas are paired characters in some way. Not only do they have the same first name, but they both arrive in Jefferson as strangers around the same time. Both have mysterious pasts, and both are involved in illicit activities (selling bootleg liquor and gambling, respectively).
Themes
Race, Gender, and Transgression Theme Icon
Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon
Names and Identity Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Brown kept gambling and at another point supposedly earned $60. He would laugh loudly while he worked. He and Christmas became friends, and could be seen together in town on Saturday nights. Everyone expected Brown to quit first, but it is actually Christmas who does so first. Brown usually arrived to work on Monday unshaven and in a boisterous mood, which the other workers find shameful. On the morning Christmas quits, though, Brown is sullen and doesn’t say anything.
In a town like Jefferson,  not much cause is needed to be suspicious of someone. Anytime someone appears to act differently or against the expectations of the community, they are regarded as suspect. This homogeneity and nosiness is a key aspect of the more malicious side of Jefferson.
Themes
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Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
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Brown and Christmas have somehow bought a car, and the other workers expect that Brown will quit soon too. The workers mentioned to Byron that anyone could buy a pint of whisky from them any Saturday night as long as they knew the password. The next day, Brown complained about “slaving all day like a durn n_____” at the mill. He got into an argument with the foreman, who pointed out that no one was forcing Brown to stay at the mill. Shortly after this Brown left, never to return.
Brown and Christmas are running a bootleg whisky operation together, and this is how they both got rich so quickly. During this period, the Great Depression meant that it was basically impossible to get rich at all doing labor at the planing mill—yet Prohibition allowed huge profits to be made from the illegal sale of alcohol.
Themes
Race, Gender, and Transgression Theme Icon
Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
By this point everyone knows that Brown is running an illegal bootlegging operation; people are still not sure whether Christmas is involved, although they suspect he is. The two men live together in the cabin on Joanna’s property. Joanna was born in Jefferson, but is considered a “foreigner” because her family were Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction. Joanna is considered a “lover of negroes.” Her grandfather and brother were both killed by a former slaveholder during a dispute about black enfranchisement. This history makes her relationship with the people of Jefferson strained.
Joanna’s story reinforces the book’s thematic consideration of transgression, outcasts, and the past. The “transgressions” of abolitionism and supporting black people doom Joanna’s family to be seen as outcasts forever, even though some of them were born in Jefferson. This story also illustrates how the past continues to haunt people in the present, determining the course of their lives.
Themes
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Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Haunting and the Past Theme Icon
Quotes
Byron has worked at the planing mill for seven years. He chooses to work on Saturdays, and people imagine that this is because he gets overtime pay, although no one knows for sure. Byron is a mystery; the only person in town who knows him well is Rev. Gail Hightower, who was once a minister at one of the main churches in the area. Only Hightower knows that every Sunday, Byron travels 30 miles away to lead the choir at a country church. Byron lives at a boarding house run by a woman named Mrs. Beard. Hightower is a “fifty-year-old outcast” who lives in a shabby house.
Here the story introduces even more outcasts. Both Byron and Rev. Gail Hightower are isolated figures, connected only to one another. Their bleak living situations further intensify this sense of isolation, suggesting that they are both forgotten or excluded from mainstream Jefferson society.
Themes
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One day, Byron unexpectedly falls in love. It is Saturday afternoon, and Byron is alone at the mill. The house in the distance is still burning. Lena Grove approaches, and he can see the disappointment on her face when she sees him. She says: “You aint him.” She adds that she was told she would find Lucas Burch here, and Byron explains that he is called Byron Bunch. He says that he knows everyone in town, and that there is no one called Lucas Burch. Lena sighs and sits down, mentioning that she has come all the way from Alabama.
Lena finds Byron due to the mistaken belief that he is Lucas (based on their similar last names), and this case of mistaken identity immediately pairs Byron and Lucas as another set of twinned characters. While Lena experiences this confusion as a disappointment, for Byron it is romantic, the beginning of him falling in love with Lena.
Themes
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Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Byron helps make Lena more comfortable, and they discuss the burning house in the distance. Byron explains that Joanna lives there by herself, and that she is a “Yankee” who is sympathetic to black people, treating them as if they were white. He adds that two men live on the property, Joe Brown and Joe Christmas. Lena comments that Christmas is a funny name, and Byron says Joe Brown’s name probably is Joe Brown, even though it’s “a little… too easy for a natural name, somehow.”
Byron’s introduction of the main characters in the novel to Lena also serves as an introduction to the reader. This is one of many times in the novel where a particular character serves as a framing device, providing information about the enclosed community of Jefferson to both another character and the reader.
Themes
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Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon
Names and Identity Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon
Quotes
Lena suddenly grows serious, and asks Byron what Joe Brown does for a living. Byron says he has heard rumors, but doesn’t repeat them. However, Lena insists, and Byron says that he is rumored to be selling whisky. He also says there is a rumor that one night when Brown was drunk, he almost revealed a big secret that Christmas doesn’t want people to know. Lena asks Byron to describe Brown’s appearance, asking if he has a little scar near his mouth. Byron is mortified, wishing he hadn’t said anything.
At this moment Lena’s naivety appears to melt away. Where before she ignored information pointing to the reality of what has happened to Lucas/Brown—that he has abandoned her—here she instantly and intuitively recognizes that Brown is Lucas, despite the fact that Byron did not actually give much information about him.
Themes
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Freedom, Discipline, and Violence Theme Icon
Names and Identity Theme Icon
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging Theme Icon