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Hightower dubs Byron Bunch as "the guardian of public weal and morality. The gainer, the inheritor of rewards
...(ibid. 147)." He is religious and keeps a low profile in his Christian humility.
Byron Bunch is portrayed in stark contrast to Mr. And Mrs. Hines, our old racists, This is in contrast to religious hypocrites like Mr. Hines that use religion to demean and downgrade from humanity another group of people so that the religious fanatic can feel superior. These airs of superiority are seen again as Hines couple is shown to be prejudiced not just against Blacks, but also against Mexicans as well (ibid., 151-152). Truly, he is an equal opportunity hater that does not discriminate in his distribution of racist zealotry and vitriol.
Joe Christmas as a Jesus Christ Type of Figure
In the book, Faulkner portrays Joe Christmas in the mode of Jesus Christ type of figure (ibid., 156-157). Like Jesus, he probably had a stealth sexual relationship with Joanna Burden, an older woman who was descended from a former abolitionist family (ibid., 40). Burden continues her ancestors' struggle for the emancipation of Black emancipation this makes her an outsider in the society of Jefferson, Mississippi much like Joe Christmas. This Jesus and Mary Magdelene give the example to the little town of human decency even as they are persecuted for that humanity...
Interestingly, religion here functions as much to control white behavior as much as black behavior. The notation of amazement by Hightower that Christmas was staying in the old black cabin would indicate that he had transgressed the accepted norms of white behavior as Ms. Burden allows him to live nearby (ibid. 34).
Conclusion
Just as in most of Faulkner' novels, we have seen that the Light in August is very hard on religion and with good reason. It was used as an instrument of repression and control in the Jim Crow south 67 years after the end of the American Civil War. This was however not the only application it had in the Southern Society. We also saw how the McEachern. Hightower, the Hines couple, Byron Bunch, Joe Christmas and Joanna Burden's lives were formed and circumscribed (for good and for bad by religion. Unfortunately, more often than not, as William Faulkner points out sadly, religion's influence is more often than not bad. The martyrdom of Joe Christmas is proof of this and the suffering of Black humanity casts great doubt upon Christianity as a moral force in American life, especially in the years following the American Civil War that shapes the society of the early 20th century in the United States.
References
Faulkner, William. Light in August. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1972.
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