literary ladies we love: lena grove
Alright, so this is my post for Literary Ladies We Love: A Celebration of Women in Literature. I'm going to talk about Lena Grove, from William Faulkner's Light in August.
(This is from a statue of Lena made by the sculptor John Sisko. To see it in its entirety, go here.)
I have spent a lot of time with Faulkner's novels and I intend to spend a lot more time with them when I do my Master's, so I'm pretty familiar with his female characters, and Lena is, by far, my favourite. I think that when people set out to read Faulkner they tend to start with A Rose for Emily and then progress to As I Lay Dying and The Sound the Fury, and then maybe move on to Go Down, Moses. I have a lot of love for everything Faulkner has written, but I think this is such a loss. People should read Sartoris, people should read Sanctuary, and people should read Light in August. This was the novel that turned my puppy love for Faulkner into a full-out literary crush, and Lena was a big part of that.
Faulkner once said, of Lena, "she was the captain of her own soul." This resonated with me so much that I tattooed it on my body. In Faulkner's other novels you encounter a lot of archetypal women: fallen women, conniving women, crazy women, and women who have little choice in their lives. The thing that's so beautiful about Lena is that she's all of these and none of these. She finds her own path and sets out on it, no matter who might try to deter her.
Essentially, Lena saves herself. She starts out as little more than a slave to her brother and sister-in-law, and when she needs to get out, she does. The man who impregnated her virtually abandons her? No problem, Lena will go find him. She stumbles across another man who falls in love with her, but she keeps following the father of her child because she believes that's what is best for her baby. It's unclear by the end of the novel if Lena will end up with either of the men (Byron or Lucas) or alone, but her ending is remarkably hopeful. Lena can take care of herself; you don't have to worry about her. Though she spends the majority of the novel searching for a man, the wonderful thing about Lena is that she proves that she doesn't need one.
One of my favourite things about Lena is the way she defies 1930s Southern categorical divisions of women. Women are grouped as virgins, whores, or mothers, and Lena is a little bit of all three. She is a 'whore' because she engaged in premarital sex and got pregnant, a mother dedicated to providing her child with a family, and she maintains the innocent idealism that is typically associated with virgins when women are one-dimensionally cast. Lena lives in a categorized society, but she does not fit into a category.
Lena even defies Faulkner. Faulkner is perhaps most famous for the phrase, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." For Lena, unlike the majority of his characters, this isn't true. Lena is always moving forward. Her narration begins and ends on the same refrain: "My, my. A body does get around." As long as she can walk, Lena can move on. Her baby is a physical manifestation of her past, but once she has given birth, Lena takes her baby with her and continues moving forward. Lena's narration bookends the novel, full of optimism and femininity.
Lena is one of Faulkner's only female narrators. She is more relatable than Addie Bundren or Caddy Compson, perhaps because she is more than a narrator - she is a narrator with agency. When I read this novel for the first time I sided with Lena, I hoped for things for her, and I admired the depth of her courage and determination. Characters tend to help Lena and one of her character quirks is that she expects help - she expects the world to be good, even though it has not always been good to her, and this expectation is a presumptuous flaw in her characterization that makes her real. Lena is relatable. She is loveable. There are multiple strains of narration in this novel, but to me, Lena's will always stick out the most. Lena is this novel: "light in August" is a phrase that refers to cows after they've given birth in the springtime and refers to Lena as a pregnant female, and she finds a light in August - she moves forward, she follows the sun.
(This is from a statue of Lena made by the sculptor John Sisko. To see it in its entirety, go here.)
I have spent a lot of time with Faulkner's novels and I intend to spend a lot more time with them when I do my Master's, so I'm pretty familiar with his female characters, and Lena is, by far, my favourite. I think that when people set out to read Faulkner they tend to start with A Rose for Emily and then progress to As I Lay Dying and The Sound the Fury, and then maybe move on to Go Down, Moses. I have a lot of love for everything Faulkner has written, but I think this is such a loss. People should read Sartoris, people should read Sanctuary, and people should read Light in August. This was the novel that turned my puppy love for Faulkner into a full-out literary crush, and Lena was a big part of that.
Faulkner once said, of Lena, "she was the captain of her own soul." This resonated with me so much that I tattooed it on my body. In Faulkner's other novels you encounter a lot of archetypal women: fallen women, conniving women, crazy women, and women who have little choice in their lives. The thing that's so beautiful about Lena is that she's all of these and none of these. She finds her own path and sets out on it, no matter who might try to deter her.
Essentially, Lena saves herself. She starts out as little more than a slave to her brother and sister-in-law, and when she needs to get out, she does. The man who impregnated her virtually abandons her? No problem, Lena will go find him. She stumbles across another man who falls in love with her, but she keeps following the father of her child because she believes that's what is best for her baby. It's unclear by the end of the novel if Lena will end up with either of the men (Byron or Lucas) or alone, but her ending is remarkably hopeful. Lena can take care of herself; you don't have to worry about her. Though she spends the majority of the novel searching for a man, the wonderful thing about Lena is that she proves that she doesn't need one.
One of my favourite things about Lena is the way she defies 1930s Southern categorical divisions of women. Women are grouped as virgins, whores, or mothers, and Lena is a little bit of all three. She is a 'whore' because she engaged in premarital sex and got pregnant, a mother dedicated to providing her child with a family, and she maintains the innocent idealism that is typically associated with virgins when women are one-dimensionally cast. Lena lives in a categorized society, but she does not fit into a category.
Lena even defies Faulkner. Faulkner is perhaps most famous for the phrase, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." For Lena, unlike the majority of his characters, this isn't true. Lena is always moving forward. Her narration begins and ends on the same refrain: "My, my. A body does get around." As long as she can walk, Lena can move on. Her baby is a physical manifestation of her past, but once she has given birth, Lena takes her baby with her and continues moving forward. Lena's narration bookends the novel, full of optimism and femininity.
Lena is one of Faulkner's only female narrators. She is more relatable than Addie Bundren or Caddy Compson, perhaps because she is more than a narrator - she is a narrator with agency. When I read this novel for the first time I sided with Lena, I hoped for things for her, and I admired the depth of her courage and determination. Characters tend to help Lena and one of her character quirks is that she expects help - she expects the world to be good, even though it has not always been good to her, and this expectation is a presumptuous flaw in her characterization that makes her real. Lena is relatable. She is loveable. There are multiple strains of narration in this novel, but to me, Lena's will always stick out the most. Lena is this novel: "light in August" is a phrase that refers to cows after they've given birth in the springtime and refers to Lena as a pregnant female, and she finds a light in August - she moves forward, she follows the sun.