Prayer in William Faulkners Light in August Essay example -- Light in

     Ã‚   "I decline to accept the end of man...I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."   -William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1949      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Faulkner illustrates many dimensions of prayer in Light in August: his characters avoid it, abuse it, embrace it, and blame it. In every case, Faulkner portrays prayer's power on the psyche. His fictional world seems Godless, yet his characters' struggle to prevail through prayer. Joanna Burden, Gail Hightower, and Joe Christmas exemplify three different approaches to prayer. Joanna turns toward prayer shortly before she is murdered; Hightower turns from it and finally feels liberated before his symbolic death; and Christmas, who is murdered in the end, prays throughout the novel. In comparing these three, Faulkner rejects pompous prayers and advocates for authenticity. Faulkner suggests that it is better to avoid prayer altogether, like Lena Grove, the happy pagan, than to be stunted by false prayer, like Hightower. To highlight these extremes, Faulkner fuses his novel with tensions between Judeo-Christianity and paganism, filling his charact ers with an urge to somehow find something permanent.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First, Joanna wrestles with her faith, but her shift toward prayer brings pride and prejudice. Faulkner's first mention of prayer in reference to Joanna actually comes through Joe: he observes her longing to meet God on her own terms and her struggle to do so: "She wants to prays, but she don't know how to do that either" (Faulkner 261). Faulkner inten... ...Black and White. New York: Twayne, 1992. Brooks, Cleanth. ‘Faulkner’s Vision of Good and Evil.’ Religious Perspectives in Faulkner’s Fiction. Ed. J. Robert Barth. Notre Dame: Notre Dame P, 1972. 57-87. Faulkner, William. Light in August. New York: Book of the Month Club, 1997. Fowler  Doreen,  Abadie  Ann   Faulkner and Popular Culture.  Jackson:  UP of Mississippi,  1990. Kazin, Alfred. "The Stillness of Light in August".  William Faulkner: Three Decades of Criticism.  Eds. Frederick J. Hoffman and Olga W. Vickery.  New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960. Porter, Carolyn.  William Faulkner: Lives and Legacies. Oxford University Press. 2007. Print. Tuck, Dorothy. Crowell’s Handbook of Faulkner. New York; Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1964 Waggoner, Hyatt H.  William Faulkner: From Jefferson to the World. Lexington: University   of Kentucky Press, 1966. Prayer in William Faulkner's Light in August Essay example -- Light in      Ã‚   "I decline to accept the end of man...I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance."   -William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1949      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Faulkner illustrates many dimensions of prayer in Light in August: his characters avoid it, abuse it, embrace it, and blame it. In every case, Faulkner portrays prayer's power on the psyche. His fictional world seems Godless, yet his characters' struggle to prevail through prayer. Joanna Burden, Gail Hightower, and Joe Christmas exemplify three different approaches to prayer. Joanna turns toward prayer shortly before she is murdered; Hightower turns from it and finally feels liberated before his symbolic death; and Christmas, who is murdered in the end, prays throughout the novel. In comparing these three, Faulkner rejects pompous prayers and advocates for authenticity. Faulkner suggests that it is better to avoid prayer altogether, like Lena Grove, the happy pagan, than to be stunted by false prayer, like Hightower. To highlight these extremes, Faulkner fuses his novel with tensions between Judeo-Christianity and paganism, filling his charact ers with an urge to somehow find something permanent.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First, Joanna wrestles with her faith, but her shift toward prayer brings pride and prejudice. Faulkner's first mention of prayer in reference to Joanna actually comes through Joe: he observes her longing to meet God on her own terms and her struggle to do so: "She wants to prays, but she don't know how to do that either" (Faulkner 261). Faulkner inten... ...Black and White. New York: Twayne, 1992. Brooks, Cleanth. ‘Faulkner’s Vision of Good and Evil.’ Religious Perspectives in Faulkner’s Fiction. Ed. J. Robert Barth. Notre Dame: Notre Dame P, 1972. 57-87. Faulkner, William. Light in August. New York: Book of the Month Club, 1997. Fowler  Doreen,  Abadie  Ann   Faulkner and Popular Culture.  Jackson:  UP of Mississippi,  1990. Kazin, Alfred. "The Stillness of Light in August".  William Faulkner: Three Decades of Criticism.  Eds. Frederick J. Hoffman and Olga W. Vickery.  New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1960. Porter, Carolyn.  William Faulkner: Lives and Legacies. Oxford University Press. 2007. Print. Tuck, Dorothy. Crowell’s Handbook of Faulkner. New York; Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1964 Waggoner, Hyatt H.  William Faulkner: From Jefferson to the World. Lexington: University   of Kentucky Press, 1966.