Pondering Light in August

I am pretty excited to tell you...I just finished another Faulkner book that I actually understood. I'm feeling quite accomplished! Perhaps Radcliffe kindly listed these novels in order of difficulty and it will be smooth sailing from here on out?

Truth.

Now that I understand what's happening, I more readily see the beauty in Faulkner's page-long-sentences and unique style. I somewhat wish that I'd started with Light in August and worked my way up to The Sound and the Fury. I might have appreciated it more.


Light in August follows Lena Grove's quest to locate her unborn baby's father in Jefferson, Mississippi, and along the way we learn of the tragic life of Joe Christmas, a mixed race man who commits a murder in the town. Each of the main characters is in some way an outcast, whether that because of racial heritage, marital status (or lack thereof), social beliefs, or a checkered past.

Not because they sang chart topping hits.

In reading the story, I wondered if Faulkner chose to portray each of these individuals on the fringe of society because they were more interesting, or because society then was so judgemental that there were just more outcasts as a result. I would not expect an unwed single mother or an interracial couple today to be ostracized in the way that these people were, but perhaps I'm being naive.


What do you think? Have we become more accepting as a society? Is this good or bad or maybe a bit of both?


Images found here and here.