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Forgiving
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continues to narrate Brown's conversation with the sheriff. Brown told the sheriff about having discovered that Christmas was sleeping with Joanna Burden. Brown also said that Christmas had hinted that he had killed Joanna. But the sheriff implied that Brown himself might be the culprit. Then Brown said that Christmas had admitted to being part black. Even without any proof, this accusation seems to change everyone's attitude. People seem to regard having falsely passed for white as a more serious offense than murder. This example of Jefferson's attitude to blacks is at least the third you've read so far. The mill workers were glad to see Joanna Burden's house burning because they hated her for being friendly to blacks. And for hiring black servants Hightower aroused the wrath of the town and the K.K.K. Byron relates that the sheriff locked Brown up anyhow. Hightower worries about what the people will do with Christmas when they catch him. And Byron, who still hasn't told Lena about any of these happenings, worries about having to tell her. CHAPTER 5 - Faulkner now moves to Christmas's point of view. The chapter portrays Christmas readying himself for his violent confrontation with Joanna Burden. It's late Thursday night, almost three days before Byron's unexpected Sunday evening visit to Hightower. Christmas is lying awake in bed as Brown walks into the cabin they share. Brown is drunk and noisy. Christmas tells him to shut up. When Brown falls on the floor and laughs loudly, Christmas repeatedly hits him in the face. Brown calls Christmas a nigger, but Christmas continues slapping and choking him until Brown finally agrees to be quiet. He falls asleep. In the last chapter Byron reported having heard about an incident in which Christmas slapped Brown's face. Now Christmas is hitting Brown gain. Look for other incidents of violence to the face or head in Light in August, especially in connection with Christmas. So far, Christmas seems cold, ruthless, and violent, hardly Christ-like. But in this chapter you will get some hints about Christmas's motivations and your first brief glimpses of his thoughts and feelings. Christmas thinks that something is going to happen to him and that he is going to do something. These two thoughts, the first of his you've had access to, could suggest two opposite interpretations of Christmas's behavior. The first is that Christmas is the victim of forces beyond his control, and the second is that he controls his own actions. Some readers see Christmas as a passive pawn of society or fate. Others see him as the novel's only character who consciously takes charge of his own destiny. As you read further, consider which approach to Christmas's life you agree with more. Neither extreme is necessarily true. - ------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE: THE CHORUS OF SOUNDS Christmas thinks he hears what Faulkner refers to as "myriad sounds." A similar expression appeared in Chapter 4, when Byron was taking Lena to town and again when Hightower and Byron were talking. In the first instance it described the townspeople abuzz with the rumors of Burden's murder. In the second it described the insects chirping outside Hightower's house. Here the reference is less specific. Many kinds of sound seem to be emerging from Christmas's memory, and indeed the next seven chapters will take you into that memory. Why does Faulkner include this chorus of sounds humming in the background? Perhaps this image of "myriad sounds" connects his characters to something larger than themselves. However, the image, while powerful, is open to other interpretations. ----------------------------------------------------------------- - Christmas cannot sleep. He suddenly says, "It's because she started praying over me," and he repeats this insight several times throughout the night. You don't know yet what he is referring to.
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