Ch. 5 Interpretation
Chapter 5 takes on a different story than the previous 4 chapters. Lena is not mentioned; it is all about Joe Christmas two days before Miss Joanna Burden's house burns down. Apparently, Christmas gets upset with her because she lied about her age; one could assume that they were having illegal relations. He has an innate hatred for women, perhaps spawning from Miss Burden's lie. The chapter basically details his day, with him going to a restaurant to eat, shaving (has his razor), going to Freedman Town where all the black people live, and dumping out the buried whiskey. This scene with the whiskey perhaps represents how he does not necessarily like his illegal bootleg profession. The people in Freedman Town reject him as well, so Joe Christmas has now been rejected by both whites and blacks. He thinks to himself that God loves him, trying to find something to identify with. At the end of the chapter, Joe Christmas thinks to himself that something is going to happen to him, and Faulkher leaves out a necessary period (.), signifying how the thing that is going to happen to him is yet to come. This all makes sense because this chapter precedes the death of Miss Burden. This is another example of the unique way Faulkner writes.
In a sense, this feeling of rejection and unknown identification can related to everyone when they are feeling down. Everyone feels distant some time in their life. Though this chapter may seem out of place, Faulkner strategically places it in between the climax and other important chapters so that the reader knows how Joe Christmas is feeling, why he chooses to do or not to do certain things.
Written by Caroline Ward
posted by Caroline Ward @ 2:30 PM
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