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Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
Of Mice and Men
Romeo and Juliet
Twelfth Night
No Fear Shakespeare
Literature
Other Subjects
Teacher
Blog
Help
Light in August
William Faulkner
Study Guide
Study Guide
Summary
Plot Overview
Summary and Analysis
Chapters 1–2
Chapters 3–4
Chapters 5–6
Chapters 7–8
Chapters 9–11
Chapters 12–13
Chapters 14–15
Chapters 16–17
Chapters 18–19
Chapters 20–21
Characters
Character List
Joe Christmas
Lena Grove
Reverend Gail Hightower
Byron Bunch
Main Ideas
Themes
Motifs
Symbols
Key Facts
Quotes
Important Quotes Explained
Further Study
Context
Full Book Quiz
Section Quizzes
Context
Plot Overview
Character List
Analysis of Major Characters
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Chapters 1-2
Chapters 3-4
Chapters 5-6
Chapters 7-8
Chapters 9-11
Chapters 12-13
Chapters 14-15
Chapters 16-17
Chapters 18-19
Chapters 20-21
Study Questions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Writing Help
How to Write Literary Analysis
Suggested Essay Topics
How to Cite This SparkNote
Further Study
Full Book Quiz
Further Study
Full Book Quiz
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1. Why does Lena leave her brother’s house?
She is wanted for petty theft.
She is searching for her baby’s father.
She is searching for her birth father.
She does not get along with his wife.
2. Who first sees Lena along the road in the novel?
Armstid
Joe Christmas
Hightower
Bobbie Allen
3. How does Reverend Hightower’s wife die?
In a fire
In an automobile accident
In a fall from a hotel window
Of a drug overdose
4. How do Joe Brown and Joe Christmas earn a living after quitting at the mill?
Tending to Miss Burden’s house and property
Robbing trucks along the road to Memphis
Making and selling liquor
As professional gamblers
5. What is revealed about Joe Christmas after the fire at the Burden house?
He is Miss Burden’s son
He was Miss Burden’s occasional lover
He is using an alias
He was orchestrating an insurance scam
6. What does young Joe Christmas steal from dietician’s room at the orphanage?
Money
Chocolate cake
The dietician’s hairbrush
Toothpaste
7. What does Joe Christmas do when he finds out that Bobbie Allen is a prostitute?
He runs away
He prays with her
He asks her to marry him
He beats her
8. What does Joe Christmas purchase with the money from selling the heifer his father gave him?
A suit
A train ticket to Memphis
A gun
A car
9
. How does Joe Christmas kill his father at the school dance?
By shooting him
By strangling him
By smashing a chair over his head
By beating him to death
10. Where does Joe first meet Miss Burden?
In the town square of Jefferson
In her house, while he is stealing food from her kitchen
By the side of the road, where her wagon is stranded
At the diner in town
11. Where is Miss Burden’s family from?
Canada
New Hampshire
Alabama
Maryland
12. What is Miss Burden’s first name?
Joanna
Bobbie
Evangeline
Mildred
13. How does Miss Burden try to help Joe Christmas?
By asking him to move into the main house
By hiring him as her personal assistant
By trying to send him to college
By deeding all her property to him
14. Where does Lena decide to live?
With Reverend Hightower
At Mrs. Beard’s boardinghouse
In a tent with Byron
In Joe Brown’s cabin on the Burden property
15. Where is Joe Christmas captured?
In a cotton house
On the main street of Mottstown
On a train bound for Memphis
At a backwoods church
16. When is Mr. Hines is arrested?
After he beats up Joe Christmas’s biological father
After he strangles his daughter
After he pulls a gun on the members of an all-black church
After he tries to burn down an all-black church
17. Which of the following is true of Joe Christmas’s biological father?
He worked in a traveling circus
He was actually part Mexican
He abandoned the family shortly after Joe’s birth
He died in an accident at the rail yard before Joe was born
18. Who does the janitor at the orphanage turn out to be?
Joe’s father
Joe’s grandfather
Reverend Hightower
Miss Burden’s father
19. After Joe’s arrest, what does Byron ask Hightower to do?
Let the Hineses stay with him while they are in town
Resume the pulpit to try to sway public opinion
Convince Joe Brown to confess to the crime
Claim falsely that Joe was with him the night of the murder
20. After Lena gives birth, what does Hightower ask her to do?
Reject Byron’s attentions
Leave Jefferson
Give the child to an orphanage
Give the child to the Hineses to raise
21. What does Joe Brown do after his reunion with Lena?
Holds her and the baby hostage
Asks her to marry him
Runs away and escapes on a train
Confesses to Miss Burden’s murder
22. What happens after Joe Christmas escapes?
He is caught on the outskirts of Memphis
He is shot and killed in Reverend Hightower’s house
He is lynched by an angry mob of town residents
He returns to the cabin, where he holds Lena and her baby hostage
23. What does Percy Grimm do after he kills Joe Christmas?
Cries
Throws up
Drags Joe’s body through town
Castrates Joe with a knife
24. Why did Hightower want to come to Jefferson in the first place?
His wife’s family had roots there
It was the only community that would take a young preacher
His mother was born there
His grandfather was killed there during the war
25. What do Byron and Lena do at the novel’s conclusion?
Head for Tennessee in search of Joe Brown
Get married and take up residence at the Burden place
Give the baby to the Hineses for them to raise
Return to Lena’s family in Alabama
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Light in August
Character List
CHARACTERS
Joe Christmas: Character Analysis
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Important Quotations Explained
MAIN IDEAS
Themes
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