Memphis

Within William Faulkner's fictional world, the city of Memphis, Tennessee symbolizes immorality, lust and corruption. The characters that fall victim to its life of sin are represented as whores, gangsters and criminals. In the novel, //Light in August//, Faulkner illustrates the city's debauchery by juxtaposing it to the city of Jefferson where the main action of the novel takes place. Unlike many of Faulkner’s novels that focus on familial relationships, //Light in August// attempts to focus on the relationships within a town, in this case, Jefferson. While Memphis is referenced constantly through many of the novel’s central characters, Faulkner never actually takes the reader directly to the city. Its introduction is simply a negative one introduced through several flashbacks. Two of the novels most important contributors – Hightower and Christmas – have a past that involves Memphis and its wrongdoings, which contributes heavily to both of their downfalls. In addition to representing two completely different lifestyles, the two cities could also not be more physically separated from one other, with Memphis located approximately 420 miles southwest of Jefferson. While the cities never become physically closer, as the novel progresses it is possible to argue that their distinct juxtaposition from the beginning becomes blurry. As //Light in August// moves forward, Jefferson slowly becomes a town of murder, secrecy and lust. Yet, at the core of the novel, Memphis remains that steady symbol of corruption in which to compare against Jefferson.

 The first solid introduction of Memphis in //Light in August // occurs through the Reverend Hightower. In fact, the city’s introduction occurs simultaneously with the Reverend’s debut. Hightower is characterized by a life of solitude which is a result of his wife and her immoral conduct in Memphis. When the reader is first meets Hightower, his history and life of seclusion is explained through the lens of town gossip – one townsperson telling the tale to an ignorant friend. This choice on Faulkner's part leads to a level of skepticism on the reader’s part. How credible is this story that is being communicated? There is a level of uncertainty when it comes to Hightower’s connection to Memphis, however one thing is certain: the city’s degradation. Hightower's backstory begins, "Hightower. He lives there by himself. He come here as minster of the Presbyterian church, but his wife went bad on him. She would slip off to Memphis now and then and have a good time...Then one Saturday night she got killed, in a house or something in Memphis...He had to resign from the church, but he wouldn't leave Jefferson, for some reason" (59). In more detail it is explained how the wife was constantly absent from Jefferson, seen slipping into hotels in Memphis, was then sent to an institution, and eventually fell to her death from a hotel window in the city of corruption. The minister’s wife illustrates the draw of an immoral lifestyle for small town and rural residents. As Cheryl Lester attempts to explain in her article, “ ‘Same as a Nigger on an Excursion’: Memphis, Black Migration, and White Flight in //Sanctuary //,” “Their excursions to the…vice district in Memphis articulate middle-class fantasies and fears about race, safety, social position, sexual boundary crossing, and physical and symbolic violence” (37). Memphis defines the minister’s downfall. Shortly after his wife’s death, Hightower is forced to resign from the church and begins a life of seclusion offering art lessons to the town that despises him. Memphis’s purpose is clear – it is an evil place where “naughty” things occur. Hightower's wife went "bad" by having a "good" time. This pull towards corruption is what ultimately leads to the wife's death. Hightower’s story reads almost as a fable – a life of debauchery will lead to death, a pure life away from these vices is what leads to goodness.

 While Memphis is what practically defines the Reverend Hightower in //Light in August//, the city is just a small part of Joe Christmas’s story. However, Christmas’s past connection to Memphis has an everlasting effect on his future. Faulkner places the most emphasis on the character of Joe Christmas’s past. It is most important that, as readers, we make sense of his history to better understand Christmas’s current situations and decisions. While Hightower’s story was told through the lens of gossip, Joe Christmas’s tale is explained through an omniscient narrator, which leads to a better level of credibility. Christmas’s past introduces the reader to a whole new cast of characters including his first real love – Bobbie the waitress. The relationship with the waitress is characterized by sex, deceit, infidelity and eventually murder. It is Christmas’s involvement with Bobbie that causes him to embrace a darker side of himself – a side that will ultimately murder its father. Prior to meeting Bobbie, Christmas is an orphan deemed different because of his mixed ancestry who eventually becomes adopted by Mr. and Mrs. McEachern. Christmas is abused by his fanatically religious father which leads to an adolescence of rebellion. The waitress becomes the symbol of Christmas’s disobedience. It is through her that Christmas discovers his revolt. Bobbie introduces him to the vices that are found in Memphis. While on the one hand, Christmas falls in love with this waitress, she herself is a whore brought to town from Memphis by the characters, Max and Mame. Mame at one point chastises Bobbie for having sexual intercourse with Christmas, without a form of payment. “The blonde woman looked at her, leaning against the bureau as Max had done. ‘Coming all the way down here from Memphis. Bringing it all the way down here to give it away’” (193). It is Christmas’s involvement with the waitress that eventually leads to him murdering his father at a local dance. It is clear that Bobbie’s past and association with Memphis has had an impact on Christmas and led him to a life of corruption, as well.

 In the novel //Light in August//, Memphis is used as vision of the past. Its sole references are brought forth from flashbacks. This gives the reader hope that the atrocities of the city of corruption are behind the novel’s characters. However, as the pages turn, the reader discovers the evils that lurk in Jefferson. Our central characters who are located within the town of Jefferson are no strangers to desire and deceit. Some are even cold blooded murderers. The evil wrongdoings are not solely located in the town of Memphis. Because Faulkner never takes the reader to Memphis, instead referencing it only through flashbacks, it is implied as a place of the past – a place different than where we are now. However, towards the end of the novel these two “separate” cities become somewhat blurred because of the depravity occurring in Jefferson. The juxtaposition is no longer as black and white as it was at the beginning of the novel. It only makes sense that at the end of the novel, we leave Jefferson. The reader and characters, in this case Lena and Byron, must leave its newfound corruption behind and start over in a new and pure city. As Carolyn Porter explains in //William Faulkner: Lives and Legacies//, “Faulkner…emphasizes the inadequacy of any redeeming vision by ending the novel as he does…It is as if a whole new story is about to begin. A new character, a furniture salesman, is introduced to relate to his wife the story of Byron and Lena as they leave Jefferson for an unknown future” (92). Memphis still remains a city of sin and depravity, but it can no longer be a complete contrast to Jefferson. Jefferson has become slightly corrupted and therefore the novel must leave that town and start anew someplace else.

–Greta Bowers

Works Cited

Lester, Cheryl. "'Same as a Nigger on an Excursion': Memphis, Black Excursion and White Flight in //Sanctuary//." Faulkner Journal 26.1 (2012): 37-55. EBSCOHost. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Porter, Carolyn. "The Major Phase, Part 1: //As I Lay Dying//, //Sanctuary//, and //Light in August//." //William Faulkner: Lives and Legacies//. London: Oxford UP, 2007. 55-10