Collision And Reconciliation

American Modernist writer William Faulkner’s Light in August is a tragedy witha vairety of collisions. The main characters in the story suffer from prejudices,repressions and their own spiritual disruption and fall into the collisions with socialcircumstances, social relations and their own acts. Based on Hegel’s theories ofcollision and tragedy, this thesis analyzes social features of Yoknapatawpha County,three significant types of collisions and the essence of tragedy in Light in August.The thesis employs four crucial terms in Hegel’s theories of collision andtragedy:“the Situation，，，’"the Collision","the Tragedy" and "the Reconciliation", tostudy the situation, three types of collisions, and the essence of the tragedy in Light inAugust respectively. The thesis states that the situation in the novel is the miniature ofAmeircan South, Yoknapatawpha County and its Jefferson town. Its traditional values,and the history of Slavery and Puritanism exert significant influence on its townpeople.There are three essential types of collisions in Light in August. The ifrst type ofcollisions is those between men and social circumstances. In the novel, born as amulatto, Joe dedicates himself to ifghting against the injustices and pursuingself-identity, which brings him into ineluctable collisions between him and the societyof racism and religious repression. Joanna tires to break the fetters and release herself,which birngs about collisions between her and the society full of sexism and religiousrepression. Minister Hightower is stuck in the illusion of the glorious past andinsulates himself from the reality, which causes collisions between him and the socialresponsibilities.The second type of collisions focuses on those between men and social relations.They are originated from natural irghts in the society, such as the kinships，differenceof birth, and subjective passion. In the novel, Joe’s grandfather and foster father havegreat influence on Joe’s life. Being deeply influenced by racism, Joe’s "fathers" haveingrained prejudicial opinions of the blacks，which causes Joe’s4bemusement on his mulatto identity, and the collisions between him and his “fathers”，Joanna and Joe arefrom different races and castes，which leads to their dispute about the blacks and theblack cause and gives irse to intense collisions between them. Hightower is inducedby his subjective passion of engaging in the glorious past and totally disregards hisresponsibilities as a husband and a minister, which causes collisions between him andhis wife, and collisions between him and the congregation.The third type of collisions is disunions which have their ground in spiritualdifferences, proceeding from man’s own act. Because of collisions with the societyand "fathers", Joe feels more and more confused about his dual identity and began tofall into disruption in his spirit. Atfer meeting Joe, Joanna’s doubt about her missionbecomes activated and magniifed, and hence falls into a dilemma of whether tocontinue her cause or not. Hightower’s collisions with his wife and the congregationmakes him think about the wrong of his deeds of engaging into the past and aboutmaking choice of the past or the present.The essence of tragedy in Light in August is that under certain circumstancesgood and evil are interdependent and even interchangeable. The tragedy should not betaken as pessimism because what are destructible are only individuals who partiallypresent one-sidedness of ethical forces. Those ethical forces themselves, instead, willexist eternally and undefeatable. Faulkner shares similar viewpoint on the essence oftragedy with Hegel. They both think there is no absolute good or absolute evil. Thetwo sides in the collision both have justiifable reasons and there is a reconciliation forthe tragedy, and ethical forces gain eternity at last.