In Light in August by William Faulkner, Joe Christmas is a character that is very troubled due to his upbringing. Because of his abused, horrible upbringing, his behavior is violent especially towards women. Orphaned as a baby, Christmas is raised in an orphanage until Mr. McEachern adopts him. Growing up, McEachern teaches Christmas about things such as the importance of religion and the amount of a hard earned dollar; however, he does not teach him about women. So he learns from his group of guy friends, “ “They all want to,” he told the others. “But sometimes they cant”” (185). Mrs. McEachern tries to nurture him and be the mother figure in his life, but because of Mr. McEachern’s power in the household it has no affect on Christmas and ultimately he rejects her affection as a mother.
His behavior is also due to his racial identity. Christmas does not know who exactly he is in terms of race because he never knew who his real parents are. Throughout the novel, it is referred that he had a parent that was “part nigger” (254). Christmas still does not exactly know if it’s true or not. However, because a part of him has “black blood” in him, it affects not only him psychologically, but also realistically. If he reveals his heritage, women would not want him and he would be treated completely differently. Not knowing his racial identity affects him completely because during this time period, race is everything. How someone is treated to where someone could live depended on race. Since Christmas really does not know what he is exactly, his supposedly “black blood” makes society treat him badly.
Up to this point, Christmas has dealt with a huge amount of rejection from people. Even the prostitute he was seeing, Bobbie, refuses to marry him after he proposes. Because of his upbringing, Christmas does not know how to have a relationship with women at all unless it is purely physical. If the relationship tries to become something more, he becomes scared and even abusive.
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