As one of the greatest stylists of the twentieth century, William Faulkner explores the South's haunting past in several novels. His novel Light in August is one of many set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional place in Mississippi, where he explores the fallout and change in the first half of the 1900s caused by Reconstruction. In this novel, Faulkner uses a strange protagonist, Joe Christmas, to reveal the moral and social values ​​of that society. Joe, a man supposedly of racially diverse origins, has never been shown to be part black. His alienation from white society, however, is just one example of the influence of white supremacist theology on the people he interacts with. Faulkner also tries to illustrate how religion can be abused, becoming nothing more than a tool of racism. The interactions between Joe Christmas and the townspeople reveal that truth and facts are ambiguous and not always consistent; but which does not prevent public opinion from expressing judgments on what it interprets as truth. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Joe Christmas is alienated from society because of his perceived race and behavior. Christmas grew up in a white orphanage and appears to be white. However, he is ostracized by the other children and becomes the object of racist insults. During his stay at the orphanage, the dietician notes that "they've been calling him nigger for years." (133). Furthermore, the dietician states, for her own benefit, that he should be moved to an orphanage for black children and tells the director that: “I don't see how we haven't been able to do this for so long. Now you can look at his face, his eyes and his hair. (134). Even though the dietician wants to get rid of Christmas because it jeopardizes her job security, her comment was based on the fact that she shouldn't look like other white kids. Faulkner deliberately keeps Christmas's father's race a secret. Previously, Christmas was not described as black, but foreign. Later, Mr. Hines, Christmas's grandfather, recounts how when he asked the ringmaster about the employee his daughter was sleeping with, the ringmaster initially replied that he was black, but then moments later changed his answer and replied that he was not it was. Safe. When Christmas speaks to Joanna, when she questions his race, Christmas is forced to reply "I don't know." (254). Although Christmas' race is never confirmed, the citizens of Jefferson judge him to be black on the word of Joe Brown, an untrustworthy man who illegally distilled alcohol with Christmas, and then seek punishment for murder with religious and social undertones. Faulkner's fictional county embodies the racial prejudices and strong influence of religion that were present in the South in the early 1900s. Faulkner uses a unified citizen voice to articulate the opinions and moral assumptions of that society. In his novel Faulkner often uses the word “they” or “them” to describe the city. For example: “They believed for a while that he helped them do it.” (in relation to Joe Brown's responsibility for the murder) and “Then they wouldn't have suspected him if it hadn't been for a fellow named Brown, who the nigger was selling whiskey pretending to be a white man and trying to pin the murder on and the whiskey to Brown, but Brown told the truth. (pages 420, 449). The city speaks as one voice and chooses to believe Joe Brown because he is white. In addition to the way he writes, Faulkner highlights the segregation of blacks and whites and the implicit racial superiority of whites in his description and images of the city. In his.