Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Light in August, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Gender, and Transgression
Freedom, Discipline, and Violence
Names and Identity
Strangers, Outcasts, and Belonging
Haunting and the Past
Summary
Analysis
McEachern lies in bed, unable to sleep. He is tormented because he can tell that the suit Joe bought with the cow money has been worn. He concludes that Joe must be sneaking out at night, wearing the suit and committing “lechery.” McEachern himself has never committed this sin, and even avoids discussions of it. Nonetheless, he quickly develops an amazingly precise and correct intuition of what Joe has been up to lately. McEachern’s bigotry functions as a kind of “clairvoyance.”
The way McEachern thinks in this passage is decidedly paranoid, and thus one would probably expect him to come to the wrong conclusions—particularly considering that he knows so little of the world into which Joe has now descended. However, somewhat bizarrely, his paranoia actually gives him almost supernatural insight into the exact details of what Joe is doing.
Themes
Still in his slippers and nightshirt, McEachern gets his horse from the stable and rides to a building where he knows a dance is being held, although there is no rational way he could know that there would be a dance taking place here. He doesn’t even bother to tie up his horse, instead going straight inside. Seeing Joe, McEachern runs toward him. Joe is dancing with Bobbie, who sees McEachern and immediately stops, frozen. McEachern attempts to banish Bobbie, calling her “Jezebel” and “harlot.”
This passage further emphasizes the idea that McEachern is guided by a supernatural vision. (Indeed, a religious reading of the situation would interpret McEachern as being guided by the voice of God.) Note the similarity between the way McEachern behaves here—less an active agent and more compelled by some unseen force—and how Joe behaves immediately after killing Joanna.
Themes
McEachern tries to hit Joe, no longer seeing him as the child he has raised for years but rather as “Satan.” Joe ducks and grabs a chair. He brings it crashing down onto McEachern, who descends into “nothingness.” McEachern falls to the floor, seemingly asleep and looking quite peaceful. Joe pauses, still holding the chair, while Bobbie starts screaming at him, calling him a bastard and a son of a bitch.
The explosion of violence that takes place in this passage seems almost predestined (as does so much of the rest of the violence depicted in the novel). The extreme repression and discipline to which McEachern subjected Joe, as well as the intense passion and angst involved in Joe and Bobbie’s relationship, comes to an explosive, destructive climax.
Themes
Joe shakes the chair at the people surrounding him, telling them to get back even though no one has approached him. He shouts that he told McEachern he would kill him one day. Finally throwing the chair to the ground, Joe runs after Bobbie, who is getting into a car. He tells her that she should head into town and that he will meet her soon, though he is not able to speak very clearly.
While it is not totally clear that McEachern has been killed, Joe obviously wanted to kill him, as shown by his triumphant exclamation that he always told McEachern he would kill him. This is notable because it foreshadows Joe’s carelessness about getting caught for his crimes later in the novel.
Themes
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Almost by instinct, Joe mounts McEachern’s horse and heads home. As he is riding, he shouts: “I have done it! I told them I would!” Inside, Mrs. McEachern is awake. She asks what is going on, as she heard her husband get out and ride outside. Joe rudely replies that McEachern is at a dance, but is not dancing. He laughs and then runs upstairs. Mrs. McEachern follows him. Joe dumps the rest of the money out of the secret tin, telling Mrs. McEachern that he has been stealing the money rather than asking for it, because he was afraid Mrs. McEachern would give it to him if he asked.
Joe’s reaction to Mrs. McEachern’s concern—particularly the moment when he makes a cruel joke about McEachern being dead and then laughs—illuminates an incredibly sinister side of his character. While on one hand readers might sympathize with Joe’s relief at having fought back against the man who abused him for so many years, the delight he takes in McEachern’s murder is disturbing.
Themes
Joe rides into town. The horse is now so tired that it won’t move. Joe gets off and begins beating it with a stick. Passing the corner where he and Bobbie used to meet, he thinks about how long ago that period of his life now seems to be. He goes to Bobbie’s house, expecting her to be ready to run away with him. He is somehow convinced that she will be packed and ready to go, even though he never told her about this plan to leave together. However, he imagines that his intentions must have been obvious. He knocks on the door and no one answers.
Joe does not seem to have a secure grip on reality, though it is difficult to know if this a result of panic after his murder of McEachern or whether it is what prompted it. His naivety regarding the possibility of marrying Bobbie may seem harmless, but his overall detachment from reality could in fact prove very dangerous.
Themes
Eventually Max comes to the door and brings Joe inside, commenting: “Here’s Romeo at last… the Beale Street Playboy.” Joe has never heard of Beale Street, the district in Memphis that is a famous hub of black culture. Joe sees an enormous pile of suitcases, and wonders how he will be able to carry them all. He goes into Bobbie’s room with her and Max. Inside, Bobbie is sitting on the bed next to a man Joe doesn’t know. Bobbie is wearing a hat, and both of them are smoking. Although Joe’s body is completely still, there is some part of him that is already “running.”
Max’s snarky invocation of Beale Street indicates that Bobbie has told him the secret of Joe’s black heritage. At this point Joe himself is too oblivious to even understand the reference Max is making, a detail that highlights Joe’s alienation from himself and his (possible) heritage.
Themes
Max asks Joe if McEachern is dead. Joe stammers in reply, suggesting that he doesn’t even understand the words the men are saying. Joe tries to talk to Bobbie, but she ignores him. The stranger tells Joe to “quit stalling” and answer the question. Joe exclaims that he doesn’t know if McEachern is dead, only that he hit him like he always promised he would. Max asks why Joe came to the house, and Joe splutters that he came to take Bobbie so they can get married. He shows them the money he brought from home. Bobbie starts shouting at him, cursing him for letting her treat him like a white man. Joe is shocked, thinking: “I committed murder for her. I even stole for her.”
Here Joe learns one of the most painful lessons of his life: in the world in which he lives, race trumps everything. Although his logic of why Bobbie should be grateful to him is perverse and misguided (who would really be happy that someone committed murder for them?), it is also striking that the only thing Bobbie seems to care about is that Joe passed as white when in fact he was black. Note also how Joe considers stealing worse than his act of murdering McEachern—he does have some kind of code of honor, but one that justifies murder when he thinks the person deserves it.
Themes
Mame is now also in the room. She instructs someone to “take [Joe],” because soon the police will come looking for him. Bobbie is still screaming about Joe being a “n_____ son of a bitch,” lamenting that she slept with him for free and that now she might get into trouble with the police because of him. The stranger hits Joe twice and Joe falls to the ground, unable to move. He can hear the group of them talking, speculating about whether he is really black. Someone hits him again to gather his blood in order to see if it is black. The group of them then set off for Memphis, leaving Joe lying on the floor.
This scene encapsulates the bizarre racial terror that can be whipped up in a matter of seconds in this society. The idea that black people have black blood shows how misguided and delusional ideas of race are in the world of the novel.
Themes
