Nothing really seems to work out in William Faulkner's Light in August. Lena opens the novel searching for the father of her child, and at the end finds herself without any steps forward. Byron Bunch wants to marry Lena, but she is only concerned with finding her baby's father. Byron helps to tell the reader another story where a girl's relationship with a circus man gets her in trouble, and produces a son named Joe. Joe Christmas, our protagonist, has led a rather pointless, volatile life and ends up shot dead at the end of the novel. The commonality between all of these messes is that some form of masculinity caused them. Masculinity is twofold in its importance: one part is to reproduce, and the other is to dominate. Faulkner reveals masculinity's duality as solely problematic, as an animalistic trait that no longer need exist. But, despite the negative consequences of over-masculinity, it is rewarded. Joe Brown gets off scot free after impregnating Lena and Joe Christmas lives......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: Light In August
Approximate Word Count: 261
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on Light In August, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!