Light in August: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Shortly after the incident with the cow, Joe puts on his new suit and sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night. He is planning to meet an unnamed woman (Bobbie) at a nearby schoolhouse, where a dance is taking place. Distressed, he is worried that he has missed her, as he was made late by waiting for Mrs. McEachern to fall asleep. While he is creeping out, he thinks he sees McEachern and almost wishes that McEachern could see him getting into the car and escaping.

When Joe was 17, he met a petite woman (Bobbie) working as a waitress in a “small, dingy, back street restaurant.” She is older than 30 years old, but to Joe she seems 17 like him. Her thin frame seems to betray an “inner corruption of the spirit itself.” Joe is drawn to her because of her childlike smallness. They first meet during one of the trips to town Joe sometimes takes with McEachern. Rather reluctantly, McEachern takes Joe to a restaurant that does not advertise itself as such. In fact, it has no sign or any other indication of what kind of business it is.

Inside, Joe can also not see or smell any food. There is only a long bar with stools, and a group of men who look like they are in transit. Joe and McEachern eat a simple, plain meal, and as soon as they are done McEachern pays the woman (Mame) standing at the cigar counter and hurries them out. Afterward McEachern says that they had no business eating there, and that it is a place where men can go but boys of Joe’s age shouldn’t. He says that Joe should not go back—although he refuses to explain exactly why this is.

Six months pass, and Joe does not see the restaurant again. He thinks about it, but only abstractly, remembering the shape of the bar and the faces of the people inside. He remembers watching the men speak to the woman at the cigar counter, and being confused about what they could possibly be saying. He does not see Bobbie again until the spring. He is now 18, and has once again accompanied McEachern into town. McEachern goes to meet his lawyer, telling Joe he will be an hour. He gives Joe permission to “walk about and see the town," and hands him a coin.

Joe walks to the “restaurant” somewhat automatically, without thinking about what he is doing. The woman behind the cigar counter (Mame) is there again, as is proprietor of the restaurant (Max), sitting among the group of men and smoking. Joe feels self-conscious, convinced that everyone inside is watching him. Max calls “Bobbie,” and, hearing this man’s name, Joe is worried that the small waitress has been replaced by a male waiter. However, Bobbie then emerges to take his order, and he realizes that this is her name. He asks for coffee and pie, and when she lists the flavors of pie, he is so overwhelmed that he just says “Yes” instead of picking one.

Though they are facing each other, Joe cannot even bring himself to look at Bobbie. He asks for coconut pie and then, realizing that he only has a dime, cancels the coffee. Bobbie takes it away and pretends that she made a mistake. He leaves the restaurant feeling miserable, thinking: “It’s terrible to be young.” From that point on he avoids going into town on Saturdays, making up excuses so he doesn’t have to accompany McEachern. He throws himself into work. McEachern is pleased, although he remains convinced that Joe will relapse into “sloth and idleness again.”

A month later, Joe comes back into town with McEachern, carrying a half dollar that Mrs. McEachern gave him. As soon as he is alone, he goes back to the “restaurant” to give a nickel for the coffee he never paid for. However, Max rudely dismisses him, telling him to “go back to the farm” where he might be able to get a girl for a nickel. The men sitting around laugh and Joe leaves, humiliated. However, Bobbie comes after him. He explains that he was worried that she paid for his coffee herself. She asks where he lives and what his name is. He introduces himself as Joe Christmas.

During Joe’s childhood, he only saw girls at church and thus began to associate them with religion, which made him hate them. However, he still discussed girls with his male friends, and this is how he learned about things like sex and menstruation. At the time, Joe tried to construct an image of what periods were actually like. One Saturday, Joe pretended to go hunting with the other local boys as usual, but instead stayed behind and hid in the barn all day. The next Saturday he went hunting very early, before the boys were out. He shot a sheep, and while handling its still-warm carcass he almost threw up. However, he suppressed the impulse and, while touching the sheep’s blood, “found that he could live with it.”

Joe meets Bobbie again two days after he tried to pay her for his cup of coffee, sneaking out of the house in the dark. While he is waiting, he thinks about how desperate he is to hide the fact that he is a virgin from her. He waits for her for more than an hour before she finally appears. He explains that he had to wait for the McEacherns to fall asleep, and that he ran almost the whole five miles to her because he was worried about being late.

Bobbie explains that she lives with Mame and Max “from the restaurant.” She laughs at the memory of Joe coming in, trying to pay for his coffee. She then says that she forgot what time of the month it is, and that she’s actually sick, adding that it’s getting late. Failing to understand, Joe asks if she has any medicine for her sickness, and Bobbie comments that he clearly hasn’t “had a sweetheart” yet. She touches his arm, but he breaks away and walks off as fast as he can. He is not walking in the direction of home, but away from it. He goes into the woods and throws up.

They meet again the next Monday. Joe is carrying a rope, and leads Bobbie through the rural landscape. Her dress rips on a fence, and he ends up partially carrying her. Joe promises to buy her another dress, but she doesn’t reply. Afterward Joe starts stealing money from Mrs. McEachern’s secret tin and using it to buy presents for Bobbie. The narrator comments that “it is very possible” that no one ever told Joe to start giving Bobbie gifts, and that he did not even realize “he was paying with money for pleasure.”

Bobbie meets with Max, who derides her for sleeping with a poor farm boy. She assures Max that Joe pays her and that she is not doing it on Max’s time. She asks if he’s ever considered that she might actually like Joe. Mame joins, and also asks Bobbie if Joe is paying her. Although Bobbie repeats that he is, Mame laments that they brought Bobbie down from Memphis just for her to “give it away.”

After Joe buys Bobbie the first gift (a box of candy), she introduces him to Max and Mame. This time Joe gives his name as McEachern. Max mocks Joe, calling him “Romeo,” but then offers him a drink “on the house.” Joe timidly admits that he’s never tried alcohol before. Max and Mame go out, leaving Joe and Bobbie alone. Bobbie undresses; it is the first time Joe has ever seen a fully naked woman, though he and Bobbie have been having sex for weeks now.

While they have sex, Joe keeps thinking: “Jesus. So this is it.” After, they lie together talking. Bobbie explains that the first time they met she was on her period, and Joe tells her about the incident with the black girl in the shed years ago. He then asks if Bobbie has noticed his “skin” and “hair,” before telling her that he thinks he has “some n_____ blood in me.” Bobbie is shocked and says he must be lying.

The next week, after Joe steals another half dollar for Bobbie, Mrs. McEachern confronts him. She begins to say that she knows he probably needs more money than McEachern gives him, but Joe immediately denies that he has any need for money. The next week Joe earns $2 chopping wood for his neighbor and gives it to Bobbie. The couple begin having sex in her room a couple of times a week.

One day, Bobbie doesn’t show up at their usual meeting spot. Joe goes to her house and sees that there is a man in her room with her. He tries to tell himself that it’s just Max, but at this point his naivete has evaporated: he knows that Bobbie is a sex worker. The next time they are supposed to meet he doesn’t show up, nor the time after that. Eventually he does go to meet her, and as soon as he does, he hits her with no explanation. He finally knows what he refused to believe before, and he begins crying.

Bobbie holds him, and the two of them sit down and talk. She explains that the “restaurant” is a brothel, and she sleeps with the men in there for money. She says she thought that Joe knew. Joe did not know, but even after this he keeps going back to Bobbie’s house. He starts smoking and drinking with the other men at the brothel, and calls Bobbie “his whore.” He takes her to dances in Max’s car, carefully keeping this secret from McEachern.