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Byron Bunch
Joanna is a middle-aged, unmarried “spinster” who lives alone in a big house in Jefferson. Although she was born in the same house where she still lives, she is treated as a stranger and “enemy” by the white community in the town because her family were Northern abolitionists who moved to the area during Reconstruction. Joanna begins a sexual relationship with Christmas, revealing a passionate internal life beneath her cold, placid exterior. However, over time—and, it is indicated, after she goes through menopause—Joanna turns to religion. This infuriates Christmas, who kills her by sawing her head off.
Joanna Burden Quotes in Light in August
The Light in August quotes below are all either spoken by Joanna Burden or refer to Joanna Burden. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2
Quotes
She has lived in the house since she was born, yet she is still a stranger, a foreigner whose people moved in from the North during Reconstruction.
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Chapter 11
Quotes
They hated us here. We were Yankees. Foreigners. Worse than foreigners: enemies. Carpet baggers. And it— the War— still too close for even the ones that got whipped to be very sensible. Stirring up the negroes to murder and rape, they called it. Threatening white supremacy.
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Remember this. Your grandfather and brother are lying there, murdered not by one white man but by the curse which God put on a whole race before your grandfather or your brother or me or you were even thought of. A race doomed and cursed to be forever and ever a part of the white race’s doom and curse for its sins. Remember that. His doom and his curse. Forever and ever. Mine. Your mother’s. Yours, even though you are a child. The curse of every white child that ever was born and that ever will be born.
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Joanna Burden Quotes in Light in August
The Light in August quotes below are all either spoken by Joanna Burden or refer to Joanna Burden. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
She has lived in the house since she was born, yet she is still a stranger, a foreigner whose people moved in from the North during Reconstruction.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11
Quotes
They hated us here. We were Yankees. Foreigners. Worse than foreigners: enemies. Carpet baggers. And it— the War— still too close for even the ones that got whipped to be very sensible. Stirring up the negroes to murder and rape, they called it. Threatening white supremacy.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Remember this. Your grandfather and brother are lying there, murdered not by one white man but by the curse which God put on a whole race before your grandfather or your brother or me or you were even thought of. A race doomed and cursed to be forever and ever a part of the white race’s doom and curse for its sins. Remember that. His doom and his curse. Forever and ever. Mine. Your mother’s. Yours, even though you are a child. The curse of every white child that ever was born and that ever will be born.
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