NCHS AP English Language

THE PAST - L. Mill

In LIGHT IN AUGUST so far, one has learned many things about three important character: Joanna Burden, Joe Christmas and Joe Brown. Especially in Chapter Four, one discovers many new things about these three and their confusing pasts.
Joe Brown is the father of Lena Grove's child. Therefore, some months ago, he was in her area and was obviously a millworker there for a long enough time to get to know her well enough to impregnate her. Furthermore, Joe Brown has a flighty personality, more than likely formed by his past. He does not stay long in an area and does not have a strong work ethic. He is the epitome of a pleasureseeker.
Joanna Burden was an abolitionist back in the day. Moreover, she is shunned by the people of her hometown, where she has lived all her life, namely because she helped the blacks in the past. Although she has always lived in this same house her whole life, she is ostracized from the group, probably for the people she consorts with, blacks and other outcasts of the racist whte society they live in and experience.
Joe Christmas has an enigma for a past. He grew up an orphan and the fact that he does not know who his parents are gives him a sense of having no past, beign rootless. He is constantly moving, "no sqaure of earth to call his own", and he is a hardworker. This gives reason for one to believe that he had a hard childhood, growing up an orphanage probably, working hard to earn his keep, not too many emotions for the lack of parents in his life or a parental figure.
The past determines our future. Our past events and experiences mold and shape our fears and morals, along with our character and personality. The present is fleeting, lasting only a few seconds and then turning into the past. Therefore, the past is made up of our everyday decisions, conversations and regrets. Our past is a huge part of our life and our future is the undetermined aspectof life which will eventually always become the past. However, although the past molds us and shapes us, it does not determine how our lives shall be. One cannot change the past, but one can change the future is one is willing to rise above the past and not allow it to form them. In ths sense, the past influences heavily upon our everyday lives.
Now, how do these three's past intersect? Joe Brown is the father of Lena Grove's child, and Joe Christmas loves Lena. Furthermore, Joe Brown and Joe Christmas live at Joanna Burden's house, they intersect there. Also, Brown and Christmas bootleg liquor together so they obviously had rough pasts as well. All three are alienated from society and are bonded in that sense too. Lastly, Christmas has no past, no parents, an orphan and Joanna Burden is enriched in the past, living in the same osue her whole life, with her now gone family, passed down through the generations. In this sense,t ehy are complete opposites, which links htem as well, especially when urden's house burns down, eliminating her past just as Christmas's past was eliminated by his lack of parentage.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 8:49 AM