5 Light in August, Ch 9-10

1. Incipient: beginning to come into being or to become apparent. -Merriam-Webster Online

Page 204: "Apparently his eyes were not even momentarily at fault with the sudden light and the motion as he thrust among bodies with turned heads as, followed by a wake of astonishment and incipient pandemonium, he ran toward the youth whom he had adopted of his own free will and whom he had tried to raise as he was convinced was right."


2. At the beginning of chapter nine, Mr. McEachern finally realizes that Joe's suit has been worn, meaning he has been sneaking out. Furious, he follows Joe to a dance he goes to with Bobbie. After Mr. McEachern calls Bobbie a harlot she goes into a frenzy, contorting her face and screaming at him. Joe hits Mr. McEachern with a chair and presumably kills him. Bobbie flees in her car and Joe takes Mr. McEachern's horse back to the house. He takes the money that Mrs. McEachern has been saving and immediately goes to Bobbie's house. When he gets there he sees that she is packed, but not to leave with him. Because of the "jam" he put her in, Bobbie is heading back to Memphis and Max and Mame's prostitution business is at risk. Max and the stranger who is in Bobbie's room beat Joe thoroughly and leave him on the ground. Chapter ten begins with Joe lying on the floor, unmoving. Max and Mame dispute about what to do with Joe's money, and finally Mame leaves some money in his pockets before they all disperse. When the "wires" in his head finally reconnect, he gets up and leaves the house. The next fifteen years are a blur of travel and work, of sleeping with prostitutes and disgusting them by telling them of his black heritage. Joe lives with a black woman for awhile, but eventually he winds up in Jefferson. He comes across Miss Burden's house and after acquiring information about her living situation he sneaks in at night to steal food. When Miss Burden comes into the kitchen, Joe refuses to flee, instead just pausing in his meal of peas. Miss Burden is not surprised to see him there, remarking that he may finish his food.


3. Mr. McEachern is a very complex character. While he sees himself as a pious, hard-laboring man, he is actually cruel and detached. He pushes his beliefs on Joe throughout his entire childhood and refuses to accept anything less than perfectly holy behavior, even though he himself does not exhibit this behavior. McEachern beats Joe on numerous occasions and is never kind to his wife. He is condescending, irrational, and aggressive. I find his hypocrisy to be fascinating; he truly believes that he is living the life of Christ, while in reality he is a hard hearted man with no compassion whatsoever. I believe that his behavior models Joe into the man he becomes. The book makes several mentions of how similar the men are, whether they realize it or not, and I agree. I think it's almost a case of nature versus nurture, and in this case Joe is a victim of nurture. There is no telling how he would have turned out if he had been raised in a loving, compassionate environment, but due to his surroundings growing up, I believe Joe had little chance to become anything other than a wicked and violent man. When McEachern enters the dance and sees the face of Satan on his son, he has crossed a line. He has gone from being a self-righteous man to a lunatic obsessed with being devout. Joe is no better though, murdering the man who raised him.


4. My first question is regarding Miss Burden. Why was she not surprised to see Joe in her kitchen? Most people would have freaked out, but she was totally collected.

My second question is also about Miss Burden. Was she put in the story to be a female version of Joe? It certainly seems like she is at the end of chapter ten. If so, does he kill her out of self-loathing?

My third question is regarding Joe's actions during his fifteen years on the road. Why does he get such joy from telling people he's black? Is he having a major identity crisis? Does he hate white people?