However, he also feels he does not deserve to belong in White communities and hide or run away from them. However the confusion lies in Christmas’ inability to decipher his true African-American lineage as he appears European. Blackness is conceived as evil because of the perception of its impurity and aloofness from God. To Christmas, traces of his Negro ethnicity, represents a stigma, which is even worsened by the way people treat him. I would like to use the character and situation of Joe Christmas, as significant in the revelation of racism in the society. Order custom essay Light in August: An Analysis

It does not reveal bluntly the truth even reaching a point where the narrator’s self-contradiction impacts on the complexity yet meaning of the story.

The narrator may seem unreliable because it highlights how untrustworthy each of the characters' own perceptions is, by contrasting them with each other. It is important to note that the narrator’s style poses before the audience a challenge of determining the truth and engaging them in the process of understanding the characters the way it is in actual reality. This illustrates the elements in the context where we live the presence of rumor mongering, envy, relative perception, deception, misunderstanding and isolation. A lot of the characters are introduced in two or three ways first through the eyes of the other characters second thorough a self-analysis of the characters by using internal monologues and third through the narrator in a series of flashbacks and stream of consciousness technique. Our aim is to be able to unveil through the characters and their interactions in the story the issues which serve as the themes also of the novel.

Yet Lena Grove, a protagonist in the story contributes more meaning to the title as it also signifies her new-born child who was born in August and the “light” that the baby carries signifying a new generation devoid of racism, prejudice and discrimination. The writer reveals his interests in history and its significance to the present by arriving at a novel which illuminates Mississippi in August, which seems to come from the far past hence the symbolism of the title. William Faulkner’s Light in August gives us an exploration of pertinent issues in the society namely gender, race and class.

Light in August by William Faulkner