William Faulkner’s Light in August focuses on the lives of three major characters: Lena Grove, Reverend Hightower and Joe Christmas. Each character seems to be very different from one another, especially when comparing their lifestyles. An interesting aspect of this novel is that each character is focused on a different time in their life. In other words, Reverend Hightower is stuck living in the past, Joe Christmas is primarily living in the present, and Lena Grove is focused more on her future life.
Reverend Hightower is not a well-respected man in town and is known to live a strange and lonely lifestyle. The reason why is the fact that he cannot move past the time of the Civil War. Faulkner describes “the young minister was still excited even after six months, still talking about the Civil War and his grandfather, a cavalryman, who was killed” (61). There is no clear explanation as to why he cannot seem to move forward. It could possibly be that he regrets something that he did in the past and wishes to rewind and start again. His constant mention of his grandfather is curious as well. All that is certain is Reverend Hightower is stuck living in the past and this caused him to live the rest of his life in solitude.
Joe Christmas, on the other hand, lives in the present time, not thinking about the future or the past. Whenever Christmas is the focus, Faulkner incorporates much more imagery and description of the scenery to describe the present time to establish the fact that Christmas lives entirely in the present. For example, when he woke one morning, “He felt quite rested, as if he had slept an unbroken eight hours. It was the unexpected sleep, since he had not expected to sleep at all” (109). Faulkner describes how Christmas feels at this precise point in time. Christmas does not think about his future, his past, or the consequences that he must suffer for his actions; instead, he acts without thinking. This could also be a possible cause for his violent behavior.
Lena Grove, a pregnant woman, sets out from Alabama on a quest to find the father of her child, Lucas Burch. She thinks about her future with her family. Whether she is looking for Burch for herself or the benefit of the child is still unclear. Either way, her quest is for a better life in the future. Along her journey, Mr. and Mrs. Armstid provide hospitality for her. During her stay, Lena tells her how she feels about family: “I reckon a family ought to all be together when a chap comes. Specially the first one” (21). In this particular statement, Faulkner establishes the lack of clarity about Lena’s reasoning. She could want Burch around to help her raise the child, or she could want him around so the child will have a father to look up to. She does not seem to care how long it will take to find him; she is primarily focused on the final goal, the future.
Another conclusion that can be made about the lifestyles of the main characters is their age. Reverend Hightower is the oldest of these characters, and he is the one that is living in the past. This could imply that he cannot accept the fact that he is aging; therefore, he does not wish to leave the time when he was younger. On the other hand, Lena Grove is the youngest and she is constantly looking toward the future as a justification for her quest. As most young people do, she is wishing her life away with the hopes of receiving an instant gratification of a fulfilled lifestyle.
All in all, Faulkner plays with time in his novel Light in August. Each of his main characters seem to live in a different time frame: Reverend Hightower in the past, Joe Christmas in the present, and Lena Grove in the future. Each character has a completely different mindset and different goals; therefore, the time frame in which they live parallels with their thought process.
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