Light in August

Hightower sits in his study, where he can look out onto the street through the window. He can see the large sign, which he calls his “monument.” Hightower made the sign after realizing that he would have to make money somehow. Before he lost his job at the church, he used to send regular donations to an “institution for delinquent girls” in Memphis. Telling the institution that he could only send half of his usual amount from then on was the worst moment of his life. The sign lists the services Hightower used to offer for money: art lessons, photo printing, and Christmas cards. All this business has now dried up.

The townspeople gossip about Hightower, saying that his wife Mrs. Hightower “went bad on him” and ended up getting killed in Memphis. Hightower was forced to resign as a minister but for some unknown reason couldn’t leave Jefferson. The townspeople tried to force him to go, as they were worried about the consequences of the scandal on the church’s reputation. The fact that Hightower refused to leave is also seen as scandalous. The townspeople are at least relieved that the street on which Hightower lives, which used to be the main street in Jefferson, now no longer retains that status, so he is somewhat hidden from the community.

Hightower is known to do his own housework; people believe no one else has been inside his house in 25 years. When Byron first moved to Jefferson, the sign offering Hightower’s various services intrigued him. He heard that Hightower arrived in Jefferson in a kind of rapture, obsessed with the past, and particularly his grandfather, who had been a Confederate cavalryman killed in the Civil War. Indeed, he seemed to care far more about this than about religion.

Hightower’s neighbors often overheard Mrs. Hightower sobbing; sometimes she even failed to show up at her husband’s church services. She disappeared for days at a time, and was once seen by a Jefferson woman going into a hotel in Memphis. Then one day, she attacked Hightower while he was preaching, hysterically screaming. The church elders raised money to send her to a sanatorium. Once she returned, she seemed better. The congregation “forgave her,” but they did not forget about her trips to Memphis.

Then one day, the people of Jefferson found out that Mrs. Hightower had either jumped or fallen out of a hotel window in Memphis and died. There had been a drunk man in the room with her. It turned out he and Mrs. Hightower were registered as married under a fake name. The story appeared in all the newspapers, and reporters showed up to Hightower’s next service, which horrified the congregation. However, Hightower simply ignored them. The next day he buried his wife’s body himself. Everyone knew that he had been asked to resign and had refused, until the congregation refused to come to services in protest.

Hightower finally agreed to resign. The congregation suddenly felt sorry for him, and raised some money to help him relocate. However, he then insisted on staying in Jefferson. Rumors sprang up that Hightower had insured his wife’s life and then paid someone to kill her so he could gain the life insurance, although deep down “everyone knew that this was not so.” Hightower kept the same black cook that he’d had when Mrs. Hightower was alive, but suddenly the townspeople got suspicious about the fact that he was spending all day at home alone with her. One night a group of “masked men” went to Hightower’s house and demanded that he fire the cook. He refused, but the next day she decided to quit, saying he had asked her to do things “against God and nature.”

Hightower eventually hired a black man as a cook, but a group of men (not wearing masks this time) grabbed and whipped the cook. They also threw a brick through Hightower’s window with a note demanding that he leave, signed “K.K.K.” The next day, Hightower was found tied to a tree, beaten unconscious. He refused to say who beat him, and still refused to leave. Eventually, the whole drama subsided, and Hightower was finally left alone. These days Hightower does his own housework, and sometimes his neighbors send him meals out of charity.

Hightower reads a lot, on a great variety of subjects. He once helped a local black woman give birth using information from one of his books. Although the baby was born dead, when the doctor arrived, he approved of Hightower’s efforts. However, rumors still circulated that Hightower had left the baby to die on purpose. Both Byron and Hightower live isolated, reclusive lives. Hightower asks Byron why he works on Saturdays, and Byron replies: “I don’t know… that’s just my life.” Hightower observes that people tend to be willing to deal with their existing problems, but frightened of change. Similarly, people are more wary of the living than the dead, even though Hightower thinks the dead pose a greater threat.

Now, on Sunday night, Hightower sits at his desk. He can hear the sound of the church choir in the distance. Caught in the tail end of another rapturous moment thinking about his grandfather and the Civil War, he sees a “puny” man walking along the street. He is so surprised that he speaks aloud, saying that Byron Bunch is in town on Sunday night.