Life: Woman and Bobbie
Maura Simokaitis
Ms. Ogolin
Honors English III
Due: February 16, 2012 Hit Me Baby One More Time William Faulkner’s “Light in August” shows readers that Joe Christmas is the main protagonist of the book. Throughout the story, Christmas has many different encounters and relationships with a variety of women in an aggressive manner. No matter the color of the woman, Christmas’s desire to hurt grows stronger as the book unfolds. Ranging from his foster mother to his ex-girlfriend, Christmas injures his relationships with every woman he comes into contact with. Studies have shown that people who have been physically or mentally abused as a child are more likely to have an abusive personality as an adult. Christmas acts this way towards women as a result of his mistreatment and experiences with females throughout his childhood. Joe Christmas is most affected by his ex-girlfriend Bobbie Allen. Bobbie was the first sexual and emotionally unstable relationship he had. These two emotions are expressions of Christmas's mind in which his hate for woman begins. Christmas occasionally beat Bobbie out of fits of anger. “The arm which she held jerked free. She did not believe that he had intended to strike her; she believed otherwise, in fact” (177). After being betrayed the way he was by the woman to whom he was most connected and attached to, his hate for women began to inflate. Faulkner shows readers that Joe has a sort of normalcy with the order of things. He would tell every prostitute that he met throughout the book that he was a black man. This would always bring one emotion from the women. When Bobbie showed that she didn’t care if he was a Negro, Joe’s reactions became violent. When Bobbie later tries to resolve things between the two, Joe ran to the woods to vomit. This shows that even when coming into contact with a woman, he feels sick. Joe’s actions of throwing up came from the unconscious memory from his experience with the dietician. The
Ms. Ogolin
Honors English III
Due: February 16, 2012 Hit Me Baby One More Time William Faulkner’s “Light in August” shows readers that Joe Christmas is the main protagonist of the book. Throughout the story, Christmas has many different encounters and relationships with a variety of women in an aggressive manner. No matter the color of the woman, Christmas’s desire to hurt grows stronger as the book unfolds. Ranging from his foster mother to his ex-girlfriend, Christmas injures his relationships with every woman he comes into contact with. Studies have shown that people who have been physically or mentally abused as a child are more likely to have an abusive personality as an adult. Christmas acts this way towards women as a result of his mistreatment and experiences with females throughout his childhood. Joe Christmas is most affected by his ex-girlfriend Bobbie Allen. Bobbie was the first sexual and emotionally unstable relationship he had. These two emotions are expressions of Christmas's mind in which his hate for woman begins. Christmas occasionally beat Bobbie out of fits of anger. “The arm which she held jerked free. She did not believe that he had intended to strike her; she believed otherwise, in fact” (177). After being betrayed the way he was by the woman to whom he was most connected and attached to, his hate for women began to inflate. Faulkner shows readers that Joe has a sort of normalcy with the order of things. He would tell every prostitute that he met throughout the book that he was a black man. This would always bring one emotion from the women. When Bobbie showed that she didn’t care if he was a Negro, Joe’s reactions became violent. When Bobbie later tries to resolve things between the two, Joe ran to the woods to vomit. This shows that even when coming into contact with a woman, he feels sick. Joe’s actions of throwing up came from the unconscious memory from his experience with the dietician. The