Light in August

Byron Bunch recalls a Friday morning three years ago, when a stranger wearing dirty clothes arrived at the planing mill in Jefferson. The stranger seemed to come from nowhere, and seemed to be “almost proud” of this fact. The millworkers were suspicious of the man’s strange, haughty expression; however, the foreman gave him a job. Later, someone mentioned that the man’s name was Christmas, which everyone agreed was odd. For the first time, it occurred to Byron that a person’s name can reveal a great deal about who they are and what they will do—as long as one interprets the name correctly.

At lunchtime, Byron sat down with his lunch pail and saw Christmas nearby, smoking. Christmas’s flesh was the color of “dead parchment.” Byron asked if Christmas was going to take a break and offered him some food, but Christmas rudely refused, asking how much they paid for overtime. Even after six months of working at the mill, Christmas still never spoke to anyone. No one knew where he lived. The job he was given at the mill was a “negro’s job.”

Later, many of the local men will admit to having bought illicit whisky from Christmas, meeting him in the woods near Joanna Burden’s old colonial plantation house. However, they did not know that he was living in a “negro cabin” on the property of the unmarried, middle-aged woman Joanna. About six months ago, another stranger showed up at the mill, and was assigned to work in the sawdust pile with Christmas. He had a “weakly handsome face” and a scar near his mouth. Nobody cared what the man’s name was, where he was from, or where he was housed—people felt that he was just “living on the country, like a locust.” His name was Joe Brown. He gambled his first week’s pay and lost it all.

Brown kept gambling and at another point supposedly earned $60. He would laugh loudly while he worked. He and Christmas became friends, and could be seen together in town on Saturday nights. Everyone expected Brown to quit first, but it is actually Christmas who does so first. Brown usually arrived to work on Monday unshaven and in a boisterous mood, which the other workers find shameful. On the morning Christmas quits, though, Brown is sullen and doesn’t say anything.

Brown and Christmas have somehow bought a car, and the other workers expect that Brown will quit soon too. The workers mentioned to Byron that anyone could buy a pint of whisky from them any Saturday night as long as they knew the password. The next day, Brown complained about “slaving all day like a durn n_____” at the mill. He got into an argument with the foreman, who pointed out that no one was forcing Brown to stay at the mill. Shortly after this Brown left, never to return.

By this point everyone knows that Brown is running an illegal bootlegging operation; people are still not sure whether Christmas is involved, although they suspect he is. The two men live together in the cabin on Joanna’s property. Joanna was born in Jefferson, but is considered a “foreigner” because her family were Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction. Joanna is considered a “lover of negroes.” Her grandfather and brother were both killed by a former slaveholder during a dispute about black enfranchisement. This history makes her relationship with the people of Jefferson strained.

Byron has worked at the planing mill for seven years. He chooses to work on Saturdays, and people imagine that this is because he gets overtime pay, although no one knows for sure. Byron is a mystery; the only person in town who knows him well is Rev. Gail Hightower, who was once a minister at one of the main churches in the area. Only Hightower knows that every Sunday, Byron travels 30 miles away to lead the choir at a country church. Byron lives at a boarding house run by a woman named Mrs. Beard. Hightower is a “fifty-year-old outcast” who lives in a shabby house.

One day, Byron unexpectedly falls in love. It is Saturday afternoon, and Byron is alone at the mill. The house in the distance is still burning. Lena Grove approaches, and he can see the disappointment on her face when she sees him. She says: “You aint him.” She adds that she was told she would find Lucas Burch here, and Byron explains that he is called Byron Bunch. He says that he knows everyone in town, and that there is no one called Lucas Burch. Lena sighs and sits down, mentioning that she has come all the way from Alabama.

Byron helps make Lena more comfortable, and they discuss the burning house in the distance. Byron explains that Joanna lives there by herself, and that she is a “Yankee” who is sympathetic to black people, treating them as if they were white. He adds that two men live on the property, Joe Brown and Joe Christmas. Lena comments that Christmas is a funny name, and Byron says Joe Brown’s name probably is Joe Brown, even though it’s “a little… too easy for a natural name, somehow.”

Lena suddenly grows serious, and asks Byron what Joe Brown does for a living. Byron says he has heard rumors, but doesn’t repeat them. However, Lena insists, and Byron says that he is rumored to be selling whisky. He also says there is a rumor that one night when Brown was drunk, he almost revealed a big secret that Christmas doesn’t want people to know. Lena asks Byron to describe Brown’s appearance, asking if he has a little scar near his mouth. Byron is mortified, wishing he hadn’t said anything.