Faulkner’s Light in August begins with the story of Lena Grove. When she was 12, she moved in with her brother’s family after the death of her parents. She met a worker named Lucas Burge, who impregnated Lena and took the opportunity to leave. As Lena’s stomach grew larger, she escaped through the window of her brother’s house and set out on a journey to find Burge. During the nearly one-month journey, many kind people offered Lina rides, lodging and even money in case she needed it. At last, Lena made it to the town of Jefferson.
When Lena arrived, she saw only Byron Bunch, who was also working at the planer. Byron Bunch told Lena she was looking for someone named Brown. Just then they saw a house in Jefferson burning.
It is this fire that leads to the story of another main character, Chrismus, who lives with Brown in the Burtons’ cabin. Chrismus was the product of a union between his mother and a black man, and when his father disappeared, his grandfather abandoned him in front of an orphanage after his mother died giving birth to him. As a child, he was retaliated against for unwittingly spying on a female nurse, and adopted into a strict Puritan family. During his adoption, Chrismoth always rebelling against his strict father and resenting his friendly adoptive mother. When his adoptive father knew about his affair with a fickle woman, he accidentally killed his adoptive father. Then he stole the money from his adoptive mother and fled through the window. From then on, he began a 15-year wandering life until he came to the town of Jefferson. Chrismus also works in a planing mill and makes a good living by selling bootleg alcohol. Meanwhile, he has a close relationship with Miss Burton. At first, life is smooth, until Miss Burton begins to want to control Chrismus’ life, his misogynistic feelings begin to show, and finally kill Miss Burton and set her on fire.
The police immediately offered a reward of 1,000 for the person responsible for the heinous crime. In exchange for the reward, Brown A.K.A. Lucas Burge told the police that Chrismers was the killer and helped the police arrest the man for the reward. So when Lena arrived in Jefferson, she never saw Brown. Byron Bunch, who fell in love with Lena at first sight, had a big change of heart, so he helped Lena find a place to live, but never let Lena have a chance to meet the father of his child. Confused, Byron went to Hightower, his former priest.
This leads to the story of the novel’s third main character, Hightower. Hightower was an outsider in the town and was not accepted by the residents, especially after his wife died and his position as pastor was taken away, but because his grandfather had been killed in battle in the area, Hightower lived alone. He was a loner who fled society, not accepted by society or even his family, and always seemed out of place. He never considered the feelings of others, and even pushed his father and wife to other places. He had been a man of the cloth, but he felt that there was something bigger and broader in the world than God. For decades, he has been away from the world, until the end of his life, he realized his own selfishness, and finally reconciled with the world, and himself.
Lena, Chrismers and Hightower are the three main characters in the novel, forming three story lines, and it is their life experiences that interweave together to form the whole story. Novels are basically chronological stories told from different points of view, which makes them more appealing and mysterious. The final chapter, in particular, is refreshing to learn where Lena and Byron ended up, as told by a husband in a car to his wife.
In fact, the story takes place over a short period of time, just over a week, from Lena’s imminent arrival in the town of Jefferson, to the burning fire after Burton’s murder, to the arrest of Chrismers after a week of escape, finally, Chrismers is killed, Brown sees Lena flee again after giving birth, and Lena and Byron embark on a journey to find Brown again with the baby. In less than two weeks, the author has given us a deceptively simple but richly plotted tale spanning three generations. In particular, the story of generations of Burtons through Chrismers’ story, and Hightower’s grandfather, father, and himself. Both Miss Burton and Hightower were persona non grata in this town. They kept to themselves, and if any of them had any connection with them, it was in private. Miss Burton’s family was called the Yankees because their attitude toward the negroes, despite their long roots, still did not belong here. The last fire burned away all traces of their generations’ lives here. And when Hightower dies, he will be forgotten by the people of Jefferson, a blank town, even though he lived here for decades, even though his grandfather died fighting in the town.
Chrismoth has been hostile to women because of his previous encounters, the revenge of the female nurse in childhood, the womanly prostitute he met in adulthood that led him to kill his adoptive father, which led him to dislike his good adoptive mother and kill Miss Burton who tried to integrate and control his life. And because of the black blood in his blood, he always felt embarrassed and ashamed. This is a key factor in his life of crime. At the same time, his lack of resistance when he was arrested, and his calm expression when he was finally shot, finally gave him a sense of relief, a sense of inner peace.
It’s not easy to live in this bad world, and death is sometimes the best, most strap to escape reality and achieve happiness.
The town where Chrismus was arrested lived his maternal grandfather and grandmother who had abandoned him. In the last moments of their lives, the maternal grandparents tried to see Chrismus. They were a mysterious couple who almost never went out, but now they moved from one town to another. Hightower refused his grandmother’s request to perjue himself on Chrismus’ behalf, only to return to reality at the end of his life and tell the police that Chrismus had been with him the night Miss Burton was killed. But by this time, Chrismus had been shot dead, and nothing could be done.
Just because of the black blood in his body, Chrismus was abandoned from an early age, and he lived in self-abasement and loneliness. Although this seems very unreasonable now, it also shows the cruelty and inequality of the society at that time. Black life is hard. When Burton’s body was found, people’s first reaction was black. When Brown said Chrismus was black, it made sense for everyone to assume he was the killer.
But novels are not always tragic plots. Lena’s story is an exception, even though she was twice abandoned by Brown. But she firmly set out to find the journey. I first found Brown and then I lost him. The second time, holding her newborn baby and accompanied by Byron, she continued her search for Brown. And in the process, she always met good people to help, which makes the cruel reality rose a ray of hope and warmth. Let a person see the courage not to give up and keep moving forward.
Yes, there is hope, hope, even in the depths of darkness there is the possibility of the sun. Though this hope may be as fleeting as the light of August, and exist only for a few days, it is the most beautiful sight in the world to be seen.
