Light In August Explication

Jeremy Keeshin Light in August Explication He refused to tell who had done it. The town knew that that was wrong, and some of the men came to him and tried again to persuade him to leave Jefferson, for his own good, telling him that next time they might kill him. But he refused to leave. He would not even talk about the beating, even when they offered to prosecute the men who had done it. But he would do neither. He would neither tell, nor depart. Then all of a sudden the whole thing seemed to blow away, like an evil wind. It was as though the town realised at last that he would be a part of its life until he died, and that they might as well become reconciled. As though, Byron thought, the entire affair had been a lot of people performing a play and that now and at last they had all played out the parts which had been allotted them and now they could live quietly with one another. They let the minister alone. They would see him working in the yard or the garden, and on the street and in the stores with a small basket on his arm, and they would speak to him. They knew that he did his own cooking and housework, and after a while the neighbors began to send him dishes again, thought they were the sort of dishes which they would have sent to a poor mill family. But it was food, and wellmeant. Because as Byron thought, people forget a lot in twenty years. ‘Why,’ he thinks, ‘I don’t reckon there is anybody in Jefferson that knows he sits in that window from sundown to full dark every day that comes, except me. Or what the inside of that house looks like. And they don’t even know that I know, or likely they’d take us both out and whip us again, since folks don’t seem to forget much longer than they remember.’ Because there is one other thing, which came into Byron’s own knowledge and observation, in his own time since he came to Jefferson to live (Faulkner, 72-73). This passage is taken from William Faulkner’s Light in August during the section in which Byron Bunch learns about the ex-minister Gail Hightower and his demise from the town, while overlaying it with his own thoughts on the subject matter, and his connection to it. This excerpt details the final events regarding Reverend Hightower’s prolonged exile from the town, and how he grew to be an accepted but misunderstood memento of the past, similar to how in Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily,” the town develops a “respectful affection for a fallen monument” for Emily. The town’s brutal misunderstanding and disconnection from Hightower causes him to pass more as an afterthought, and slowly lose meaning to them. Faulkner demonstrates this idea through his use of many stylistic devices. Faulkner says that the Hightower affair “seemed to blow away, like an evil wind” (72). He uses a simile here to emphasize how his entire ordeal was

Jeremy Keeshin more of a minor temporary obstacle to the town than anything else. Faulkner uses a metaphor to compare the incident to a play: “At last they had all played out the parts… and now they could live quietly with one another” (73). This device highlights that the affair seemed like a superfluous and complex ordeal that just seemed to go away. Faulkner also uses Byron Bunch’s musings about Hightower to reveal the little thought and concern to which the town gives the exminister. “As Byron thought, people forget a lot in twenty years…. ‘I don’t reckon there is anybody in Jefferson that knows that he sits in that window from sundown to full dark every day that comes, except me’” Here, the shift in perspective from third person narrating to limited omniscient thoughts about a character reveal, that in general, nobody in the town gives any attention to Hightower, and just considers him a bizarre reminder of the past. Hightower’s stubborn and delusional nature causes him to be pitied, rather than accepted, by the town. Surrounding this excerpt Faulkner uses recurring images and repetition to emphasize a symbol. He repeats the idea of “a cavalryman, who was killed,” (61) his “dead grandfather shot from the galloping horse,” (62) “galloping horses,” (63) “galloping cavalry,” (64) “galloping horses and his dead grandfather” (65). This repetition of theses images accentuates Hightower as a near-crazy person who is so intensely connected to his past. His tie to these images highlights his disconnect from his town and specifically his wife, which is the root of these problems. Faulkner uses repetition to highlight his stubborn nature. He uses specific negative diction with words like “he refused,” “he would do neither,” “he would neither,” to convey this idea of obstinacy. Faulkner also uses a tone a pity and sadness when talking about Hightower to reveal how the town views him. Faulkner writes that, “He was just unlucky. He was just born unlucky” (69). This tone is also accomplished through the gifts of pity he received, which set him apart as an outsider.

Jeremy Keeshin Reverend Gail Hightower is a character whose dwelling on his past causes him to be unable to acknowledge the present. Because of this his relationships with his wife, and subsequently his community, slip away. Faulkner’s use of diction, figurative language, tone, and images highlight Hightower’s traits. Gail Hightower’s delusional and stubborn character cause him to become disconnected from his wife and town, and his disconnect becomes so wide that he becomes of relatively no importance to the people around him.