Lucas+Burch+(Joe+Brown)

The father of Lena’s bastard child, a bootlegger, a gambler, and certainly the Judas to our Jesus Christ allegory that we find in Joe Christmas, this man is just an all-around deceiver. We learn of him from Lena who is desperate to find him throughout our story. Lucas’s main focus seems to be that he is Byron Bunch’s foil throughout Light in August. Reverend Hightower makes this point clear on 316 when he says “there are always two men in the world and their number is legion: Lucas Burches and Byron Bunches.” In a book called “Modern Language Notes” there is a section dedicated to this fact called "Lucas Burch and the Polarity of Light in August" by David L. Frazier. Frazier stated that this theme plays out over the novel we see Byron as this simple virgin, religious, responsible, honest, completely predictable, and hard-working man. While Lucas is the wild card, took his sexuality for granted, has never accepted any form of religion, only cares about himself, has an illegal bootlegging business (which he hardly has to do anything for), and never takes responsibly for anything (Frazier 418). Byron is constantly picking up the mess that Lucas created. He wants to take on the responsibility by taking care of this child, he wants to continue having an honest job to support Lena, and defends this woman every chance he gets. Burches goal was completely monetary, Bunch even says that “he was not thinking about Lena at all; she was as completely out completely out of his mind as if he has never seen her face nor heard her name” (LIA 426). Bunches goal was the complete opposite of monetary, his goal was affection and even though Lena denied his affection, he still wanted to make sure Lucas would take on the responsibility, even though he knew he wouldn’t. Although they’ve heard of each other, their meeting does not come until toward the end of the novel. This meeting kept up the concept of them being each other’s foil. Burch is “bigger” and stronger physically, while Bunch is stronger emotionally. But, you would like to think that the protagonist and antagonists meeting would be an epic battle where Bunch defeats Burch and Lena would fall into his arms. Not at all, Faulkner made the point of making Bunch say “now I’m going to get the hell beat out of me and I don’t care” (LIA 439). He absolutely got bested by Burch and watched him get away on the train. Frazier made an excellent point by discussing how Bunches life started out meaningless, just living to live, but by the end of the novel we find that he finds meaning in life, and that is to live it with Lena, even if it’s not romantic, he learns his place in this world. Burch is damned "to a living nothingness that is not life and not death" (Frazier 418). He will be on the run forever, running from the police, until he finds his death, never understanding the consequences of any of his actions. All he will wonder is what could have been if he did have that money. So while Burch will spend his life running, Bunch will spend his chasing him down with Lena. In the end of this story I found they did have one thing in common, and that is their continual lying to Lena. Burch did it so that he could get away without a fight, Bunch did it to stay close to her for the rest of his days.

Works Cited Faulkner, William. //Light in August.// New York: Vintage Books, 1985. Print. Frazier, David. "Lucas Burch and the Polarity of Light in August," //Modern Language Notes.// 1961. 417-19. Print.