Light of August - The Epiphany of Hightower Most criticism regarding Faulkner's novel, Light of August, usually considers the character by Joe Christmas. Christmas certainly deserves the attention given to it, but too often this attention overshadows other noteworthy elements of the complex novel. Often lost in the shuffle is another character, the Reverend Gail Hightower, who deserves closer examination. A closer examination of Hightower reveals Faulkner's deep concern for the South and the collective suffering of its people. Hightower, through his personal epiphany, transcends the curse the South has suffered from for so long. Of course, the central character of Joe Christmas has dominated criticism of the novel, mainly because he represents the problematic and sensitive issue of racism. Those wishing to prove that Faulkner was or was not a racist often turn to Christmas, who is abandoned as a child outside an orphanage and found on Christmas Day (hence his name); called a "nigger bastard" (LIA 135) by the orphanage dietician when he catches her with a young doctor; and thereafter suspects that he may possess Negro blood. All this pushes many readers to see Christmas as a symbol of racial tensions and conflicts. For example, in his italicized emendations to the novel excerpt used for The Portable Faulkner, Malcolm Cowley refers to the character as "Joe Christmas, the mulatto" (51). Unfortunately, such readings presuppose unproven facts. Cowley's additions do more than provide necessary context; they resolve a question about which Faulkner was decidedly vague. He said of the background of Christmas, or lack of one: I think that was his tragedy: he... middle of paper... Douglas Day. New York: Vintage, 1973.------. Light in August. 1932. New York: Vintage, 1987.------. The undefeated. 1938. New York: Vintage, 1959. Gwynn, Frederick L. and Joseph Blotner, eds. Faulkner at the University. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1995. King, Richard B. A Southern Renaissance: The Cultural Revival of the American South, 1930-1955. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1980. Longley, John L., Jr. “Joe Christmas: The Hero in the Modern World.” Faulkner: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966: 163-174. Runyan, Harry. A Faulkner glossary. New York: Citadel, 1964. Snead, James. Division figures. New York: Methuen, 1986. Taylor, Walter. In Search of a South by Faulkner. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983.