Sunday, November 23, 2014

Binaries as Categories

A pretty big theme in William Faulkner’s Light In August is identity, especially in the case of Joe Christmas. Throughout the novel, he seems to struggle a lot with whether he should consider himself black or white: on page 254, Christmas tells Ms. Burden that he identifies himself as black, and says, “If I’m not, damned if I haven’t wasted a lot of time”. This quote gives us the impression that there is a sort of demand for Joe to know what he is, which brings us to the concept of binaries.

Jessica Benjamin explains binaries as a type of set up where one person or idea is more dominant over the other: MALE/female, FATHER/son, POWER/weakness are all good examples. However, binaries also serve as categories that define people based on specific attributes or differences. I am male, therefore I am not female; I am powerful, therefore I am not weak, etc.

This is why Joe Christmas has a difficult time deciding which race to identify with. Even though he is part black and part white, the WHITE/black binary only allows him to fall under one category.
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 23, 2014 at 6:17 PM

    I found this particularly relevant when he was walking through the white and black communities. He did not know which group to identify with and felt out of place and anxious, which is why he was carrying the razor. The identity binary is really interesting in this book.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 24, 2014 at 7:50 PM

    I thought you had a really interesting take on Joe's identity. Specifically when he doesn't seem to associate with any race.

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  3. AnonymousNovember 25, 2014 at 6:39 AM

    I like that you suggest that Joe is struggling because he is attempting to define himself opposition to each category in a society based on a racial binary. I think that's absolutely true because Joe doesn't seem to fit in either category. It all connects with Freud, who wrote about defining oneself in opposition to another.

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  4. AnonymousNovember 28, 2014 at 2:47 PM

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  5. AnonymousNovember 28, 2014 at 2:50 PM

    I find the part of your post about differences between binaries particularly interesting: "I am male, therefore I am not female; I am powerful, therefore I am not weak, etc."

    In my opinion, we sometimes stereotype not to deride the stereotyped but to elevate ourselves by comparison. If I want to feel powerful, I see women and stereotype them as weak. If I want to feel good, I see people making mistakes and stereotype them as bad people. If I want to feel privileged, I see minorities and stereotype them as underprivileged.
    Then by comparison we feel like we're on the superior side of things. It's really a coping mechanism that is so effective it's difficult to eliminate from society.

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