Light in August by William Faulkner is a story about three character's lives-Joe Christmas, Lena Grove, and Rev. Gail Hightower- blended to show the consistent struggles. A theme of Light in August, a man's past experiences mold his present and future, is concentrated on Joe Christmas and his racial identity.
             Joe Christmas is perhaps the most controversial character in Light in August. He is labeled as a victim because of his plights with Doc Hines, the orphanage, his adoptive father, Simon McEachern, and his waitress girlfriend Bobbie Allen. At every major milestone in Christmas's life he was put down, shut out, or beaten by people that should have cared about him. His racial grandfather, Doc Hines, gave him up for adoption. Mr. McEachern tried to force religion on him. Bobbie Allen abused his trust. "Why, I committed murder for her. I even stole for her" (Faulkner 217). Christmas progresses through his life as at first only a little knowing child, then an angry adolescent still capable of some human interaction, then an adult at war with the world. As Christmas arrives in Jefferson, Mississippi, his past struggles show through. He is very anti-social at the mill, and he lives in the woods. Perhaps his biggest fear is someone finding out that he has "black blood."Race is one of Joe Christmas's biggest issues; fear of the truth, and trying to embrace it at the same time. Throughout his life, Christmas was punished for having a black father. Given up by his grandfather, Christmas lived in an orphanage. At the orphanage the other children called him names and suspected his hidden racial identity. After Christmas ran away from the McEachern's house, he lived with some black women and tried to embrace his black heritage. "He thought that it was loneliness which he was trying to escape and not himself" (226). When this failed he found himself living in Jefferson in an old slave cabin owned by Joanna Burden. Joanna Burden a...