Ends and Loose Ends: The Triptych Conclusion of Light in August
In the second chapter of Light in August (1932), a chapter told primarily from the point of view of Byron Bunch, a narrative presence more distanced and objective than Byron offers the following caution about the difficulty of interpreting human motivation: "Man knows so little about his fellows. In his eyes all men or women act upon what he believes would motivate him if he were mad enough to do what that other man or woman is doing" (43). Antecedent to the often-debated question of whether free will or determinism governs the characters in William Faulkner's seventh novel is the issue of understanding itself. To the extent that this book implies a cohesive philosophy of life, it is that life at least resists and probably defies explanation.1 Therefore, the ambiguity and paradox of the three-part conclusionÂ—substantively and structurally the novel's loose endsÂ—cement the epistemological integrity of Light in August and set the capstone to one of its major themes, the poverty of comprehension against