Nonlinear Time in Light in August by William Faulkner Essay Example

In this paper, I will discuss how William Faulkner uses nonlinear time in his novel Light in August to demonstrate how characters' pasts have affected their present state. Throughout the novel, rather than explain a character's past and then describe them in the present, Faulkner introduces the character in the present and then travels backward in time to describe their past. By doing so, he forces the reader to think more critically about each scene and how it impacts the character's future, which allows them to more fully understand each of the characters.

Faulker effectively utilizes nonlinear time to introduce the reader to Joe Christmas's character, and how his past has shaped his character. When the reader is first introduced to Joe, they know very little. All they know is that he worked at the mill, he has black ancestry, and he is accused of killing a woman. Then we go back in time all the way to Joe's childhood and learn about his life as he grew up, and what led to his actions later on in the novel. Then the story flashes back to two days before Joanna's murder, with Joe Christmas and Joe Brown. The two get into an argument, and "Christmas put his hand flat upon Brown’s mouth and nose, shutting his jaw with his left hand while with the right he struck Brown again with those hard, slow, measured blows" (chapter 5). Here, the reader is able to observe Christmas's short temper and violent tendencies, but still does not fully understand where it comes from. The story then flashes back even further, back to Christmas's childhood. When the audience learns about how Mr. McEachern treated Christmas throughout his childhood, constantly beating him and trying to force him to believe in the Presbyterian religion. The reader can observe how this violent nature rubs off on Christmas and causes him to act similar to his father. In chapter 7, when he is with the black girl outside the shed, "he kicked her hard, kicking into and through a choked wail of surprise and fear." He also beats Bobbie and kills a sheep when he finds out that she is menstruating, and hits his father with a chair, possibly killing him. Rather than go in sequence, starting with Joe's young childhood and progressing chronologically toward his present self, Faulkner starts with his present self, then goes back through his childhood and when he was younger, and then returns back to the present. This allows the reader to actively try to better understand Christmas's character while they are reading. By already having knowledge of Joe in the present, they can find clues to understand how he reached his present state while reading about his past, which helps reinforce their understanding of his character and how his past shaped who he became. By providing the audience with this better understanding of Christmas's character, Faulkner is able to more effectively highlight the idea of nature vs nurture and how people's pasts always continue to affect them in the present.

Faulkner also describes events in a non-chronological order in depicting Gail Hightower. When the reader is first introduced to Hightower, he is a very isolated man who does not really enjoy interacting with people too much. The only thing they learn early on is that he was involved with scandals relating to his wife being with another man and him dating a black woman. He is ostracized by his community but he has still remained in Jefferson in isolation. The reader has no idea why he is so isolated or why he stayed in Jefferson for a large portion of the novel. In chapter 20, however, the audience gains new insight into Hightower's family and his past, when they learn about his father and grandfather. After learning about this, they see that Hightower has tried to sort of "live" in the past and not really consider the present world. "He couldn’t get religion and that galloping cavalry and his dead grandfather shot from the galloping horse untangled from each other, even in the pulpit" (chapter 20). After hearing about all the accomplishments of his grandfather and his father, he feels like he's living in their shadow and doesn't really think too highly of himself or the present world. Instead, he focuses more on the past, which he views as a more glorious time. This emphasizes how he obsesses too much about the past and doesn't even consider the present. By starting off with Hightower's present state, Faulkner lets the reader know that he is living in isolation in Jefferson, but does not let them see why. In chapter 20, when Hightower discusses his family and how he feels overshadowed by his ancestors, the audience sees everything come together and understands both why he isolates himself and why he chose to stay in Jefferson after the whole scandal. By seeing Hightower's present life early on in the novel, when the reader learns about his past and family history, they can actively piece together how each of the past events leads to his current state. This creates a more powerful impact on the reader since it forces them to really consider how each aspect of Hightower's past has shaped his life. After Hightower really reflects on his own life, he realizes that he didn't make as much of it as he could have because he kept trying to live in the past, and the reader is able to sympathize more with him because they have a deeper understanding of his character and his past. Faulkner uses this as a warning that one should not dwell too much on the past and should focus on the present instead. Thus, Faulkner is able to utilize nonlinear time to provide the reader with more insight into Hightower's life, which helps highlight the dangerous effects of obsessing too much over the past.

Overall, I thought Faulkner's style of using nonlinear time was really interesting. It was an enjoyable experience to read through the novel and try to see how all the different pieces of each character's past fit together to create their present self. I feel like this style was one of the most effective ones at really making me think critically about every scene to get a better understanding of the characters and how they were influenced by their pasts. When comparing this to the traditional chronological style, I really think that the use of nonlinear time helped me get a fuller understanding of each character and how each event in their past helped shape how they turned out.