Light in August MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature


Updated on: November 16, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 16 min

Light in August MCQs

1. Where does Lena Grove come from at the start of the narrative?

A. Doane’s Mill
B. Mississippi
C. Alabama
D. Jefferson

C. Alabama.
Lena confirms she has come ‘a fur piece’ all the way from Alabama, walking to find her intended partner.

2. Who is Lena Grove traveling to find in Jefferson?

A. McKinley
B. Armstid
C. Lucas Burch
D. Winterbottom

C. Lucas Burch.
Lena is diligently looking to meet Lucas Burch, who she believes is working at the local planning mill.

3. How did Lena leave her brother McKinley’s house at Doane’s Mill?

A. By the door
B. Through the window
C. On horseback
D. In a borrowed wagon

B. Through the window.
She chose to leave McKinley’s house by night and climbed again through the window with her small bundle.

4. When Lena first arrived at Doane’s Mill, with whom did she live?

A. Her parents
B. Her brother
C. Armstid’s family
D. Gail Hightower

B. Her brother.
After her parents died, Lena departed for Doane’s Mill to live with her brother McKinley.
5. What is Lena likened to due to her characteristic patient fidelity?

A. A gentle mule
B. A stray dog
C. Sheeplike
D. A fierce lioness

C. Sheeplike.
She is described as unshakable and ‘sheeplike,’ relying on her steadfast fidelity, which Lucas Burch exploits.

6. How does Lena primarily travel on the road to Jefferson?

A. On foot
B. By railway
C. Anonymous wagons
D. Borrowed horses

C. Anonymous wagons.
She advances in identical and anonymous wagons through a long, monotonous succession of days and nights.

7. What discovery does Lena make about her pregnancy while eating in the wagon?

A. It is early
B. She will rest
C. It is twins
D. It is a boy

C. It is twins.
She realizes this during a spasm while eating cheese and sardines, thinking, ‘It’s twins at least’.

8. What does the wagon driver point out that Lena sees as they approach Jefferson?

A. A burning house
B. The planning mill
C. A massive church
D. The sheriff’s office

A. A burning house.
The driver points out a tall yellow column of smoke, noting that it is a house burning.

9. Where does Byron Bunch work six days a week for seven years?

A. Town church
B. Post office
C. Plaining mill
D. Sheriff’s office

C. Plaining mill.
Byron Bunch has spent six days a week for seven years feeding boards into the planing mill machinery.
10. When Joe Christmas first appeared, what kind of clothes did he wear to work?

A. Clean overalls
B. Sunday clothes
C. A black tie
D. Work boots

B. Sunday clothes.
He wore decent serge trousers, a white shirt, and a new straw hat when he first started working.

11. What did the workers speculate about Christmas’s name when they first heard it?

A. It was foreign
B. It was common
C. It was a joke
D. It wasn’t very sensible

A. It was foreign.
Because they had never heard the name “Christmas” before, they immediately thought he was a foreigner.

12. What did Joe Christmas refuse when Byron Bunch offered it to him?

A. A cigarette
B. Overtime work
C. Food pail
D. A new hat

C. Food pail.
Christmas turned away from Byron’s offered pail and told him, “I ain’t hungry. Keep your muck”.

13. Where was Joe Christmas secretly living for more than two years?

A. Downtown boardinghouse
B. Abandoned church
C. Burden’s cabin
D. Under the bridge

C. Burden’s cabin.
He had been living in a tumble-down negro cabin on Miss Burden’s place for over two years.

14. What physical mark did Joe Brown have beside his mouth?

A. A small tattoo
B. A faint bruise
C. A white scar
D. A thick beard

C. A white scar.
Joe Brown’s face was described as weakly handsome with a small white scar beside his mouth.
15. What illegal activity were Christmas and Brown involved in at the cabin?

A. Gambling
B. Counterfeiting
C. Selling whiskey
D. Stealing cars

C. Selling whiskey.
They were selling whiskey, using the cabin near Miss Burden’s place as a blind and headquarters.

16. What does Byron Bunch usually do on Saturday afternoons?

A. Loads freight cars
B. Attends church
C. Visits Hightower
D. Takes a holiday

A. Loads freight cars.
He loads finished boards into freight cars alone at the mill, keeping his own time for the overtime pay.

17. What former profession brought Gail Hightower to Jefferson originally?

A. Mill foreman
B. Army captain
C. Minister
D. Professor

C. Minister.
Hightower came to Jefferson as the minister of the principal Presbyterian church twenty-five years ago.

18. What event immediately caused Hightower’s disgrace and loss of his church?

A. Wife’s death
B. Financial ruin
C. Promoting negroes
D. Civil War talk

A. Wife’s death.
His wife was killed in Memphis, leading to public shame and forcing him to resign from the church.

19. What historical event was often mixed up with Hightower’s preaching?

A. The Revolution
B. The Civil War
C. Spanish-American War
D. World War I

B. The Civil War.
Hightower constantly mixed up religion, galloping cavalry, and his grandfather being shot in the Civil War.
20. What was the name of the woman murdered in the burning house?

A. Mrs. Armstid
B. Mrs. Beard
C. Joanna Burden
D. Milly Hines

C. Joanna Burden.
The burning house was the old Burden house, and Miss Burden was found inside with her throat cut.

21. According to the countryman, what was the state of Miss Burden’s body when found?

A. Buried in fire
B. Head nearly cut off
C. Shot in the back
D. Burned completely

B. Head nearly cut off.
The man who found her said he was afraid to move her because her head might come clean off.

22. What was the reward offered for the capture of Joanna Burden’s murderer?

A. Five hundred dollars
B. A new car
C. Ten thousand dollars
D. One thousand dollars

D. One thousand dollars.
Miss Burden’s nephew in New Hampshire offered a thousand dollars’ reward for the murderer’s capture.

23. What was Joe Brown primarily motivated by when he told the sheriff about Christmas?

A. Protection
B. Justice
C. The reward money
D. Freedom

C. The reward money.
Brown insisted on talking and immediately appeared to be claiming the thousand dollars’ reward money.

24. What did Joe Brown tell the officers about Christmas’s lineage?

A. He was Italian
B. He was part nigger
C. He was an orphan
D. He was a foreigner

B. He was part nigger.
Brown told the officers that Christmas had “nigger blood in him” and confessed to knowing it.
25. After the murder, where did Joe Christmas go naked in the middle of the night?

A. To the street
B. To the stable
C. To the river
D. To the mill

A. To the street.
He left the cabin barefoot and in his underclothes, standing naked by the road in thigh-deep weeds.

26. What substance did Christmas destroy by piercing the hidden tins?

A. Old gold coins
B. Illegal whiskey
C. Buried documents
D. Stolen tools

B. Illegal whiskey.
He pierced the screw-top metal tins with a shovel edge, emptying the whiskey onto the sand.

27. What location did Christmas flee through, which he felt enclosed him like a “thick black pit”?

A. Freedman Town
B. The Plaining Mill
C. The Burden House
D. McEachern’s Farm

A. Freedman Town.
He saw himself enclosed by cabin shapes in Freedman Town, feeling the black life compound the darkness.

28. What substance did the young Joe Christmas consume excessively while hiding in the orphanage?

A. Sugar cubes
B. Kerosene oil
C. Toothpaste
D. Rotten fruit

C. Toothpaste.
Hiding in the closet, he smeared the cool, sweet paste from the tube into his mouth until he was sick.

29. What was the dietitian’s immediate reaction upon discovering the child behind the curtain?

A. Sympathy
B. Fury and fear
C. Call the matron
D. Beg him to hide

B. Fury and fear.
The dietitian furiously called him a “little rat” and “little nigger bastard” for spying on her.
30. What was the name of the man who adopted the five-year-old Joe?

A. Gail Hightower
B. McEachern
C. Calvin Burden
D. Max

B. McEachern.
The man who adopted the boy stated that from now on his name would be Joe McEachern.

31. What text did McEachern try to force young Joe to memorize on Sunday mornings?

A. The Bible
B. A hymn book
C. A catechism
D. A prayer book

C. A catechism.
Joe sat beside the table with an enormous Bible and an open Presbyterian catechism for him to learn.

32. What physical attribute of Christmas did Mrs. McEachern attempt to help conceal?

A. His hands
B. His hair
C. His clothes
D. His feet

C. His clothes.
She tried to secretly feed him and prevent him from receiving punishment for soiling his clothes.

33. What did McEachern find that revealed Joe’s secret trips to town?

A. A pistol
B. A new suit
C. A stolen horse
D. A love note

B. A new suit.
McEachern found the unworn new suit hidden in the barn loft, confirming Joe’s sinning.

34. Joe Christmas’s father learned about his son’s fighting by the loss of what animal?

A. A calf
B. A mare
C. A heifer
D. A pig

C. A heifer.
McEachern missed the heifer that Joe had sold to buy his clothes and run away.
35. How did Christmas ultimately subdue his adopted father at the dance?

A. He shot him
B. He hit him with a chair
C. He choked him
D. He ran away

B. He hit him with a chair.
Christmas swung a chair at McEachern’s head, sending him into “nothingness” on the floor.

36. Who was the waitress Christmas had an affair with, leading to his conflict with McEachern?

A. Mrs. Beard
B. Bobbie Allen
C. Miss Burden
D. Lena Grove

B. Bobbie Allen.
Bobbie Allen was the waitress in the restaurant run by Max and Mame, Joe’s first lover.

37. During his fifteen years of wandering, what did Christmas sometimes tell women he slept with?

A. He was rich
B. He was a negro
C. He was married
D. He was foreign

B. He was a negro.
When Christmas didn’t have money to pay the women, he would tell them that he was a negro.

38. What type of work did Joanna Burden engage in for negro schools and colleges?

A. Financial advice
B. Teaching music
C. Construction
D. Cooking

A. Financial advice.
She sent replies concerning advice, business, finance, and religion to many negro schools.

39. At what age did Joanna Burden reveal herself to be to Joe Christmas?

A. Thirty-five
B. Forty
C. Twenty-seven
D. Fifty-two

B. Forty.
She told Christmas during the night, sitting side by side, that she was forty-one years old.
40. What did Joanna Burden’s father want Christmas to do in the third phase of their relationship?

A. Marry her
B. Move away
C. Be a missionary
D. Quit the mill

C. Be a missionary.
She wanted him to take charge of all her business affairs with the negro schools, traveling and advising.

41. What type of weapon did Miss Burden use when she tried to shoot Christmas?

A. A knife
B. An old revolver
C. A shotgun
D. A heavy stick

B. An old revolver.
She held an old-style, single-action, cap-and-ball revolver from beneath her shawl.

42. How did Christmas react when the final attempt to shoot him failed?

A. Anger
B. Despair
C. Quiet astonishment
D. Terror

C. Quiet astonishment.
He felt quiet astonishment, thinking that now the finality had occurred and he was free again.

43. When Christmas reached Mottstown, how did he feel about his thirty years of life?

A. Free and joyful
B. Trapped and doomed
C. Peaceful and quiet
D. Weary and starving

B. Trapped and doomed.
He felt he was still inside the circle and had never broken out of what he had already done.

44. What was Joe Christmas’s grandfather, Uncle Doc Hines, known for in Mottstown?

A. Bootlegging
B. Revival preaching
C. Gambling
D. City politics

B. Revival preaching.
Hines went on foot about the county, holding revival services in negro churches.
45. What did Mrs. Hines demand to know from her husband when Christmas was caught?

A. Milly’s baby
B. The reward money
C. The killing details
D. The escape plan

A. Milly’s baby.
She demanded that Eupheus tell her what he did with Milly’s baby, revealing Christmas’s mother’s history.

46. What was the name of Joanna Burden’s minister’s great-grandfather?

A. Nathaniel Burrington
B. Calvin Burden
C. Gail Hightower
D. Lucas Burch

A. Nathaniel Burrington.
Calvin Burden, Joanna’s ancestor, was the youngest son of a minister named Nathaniel Burrington.

47. What did Byron Bunch ask Hightower to do to save Christmas from conviction?

A. Hide him
B. Provide an alibi
C. Marry the couple
D. Pay the reward

B. Provide an alibi.
Byron asked Hightower to lie and say Christmas was with him the night of the murder.

48. Who was the young man who tracked and ultimately killed Joe Christmas?

A. Joe Brown
B. Percy Grimm
C. Byron Bunch
D. Sheriff Kennedy

B. Percy Grimm.
Percy Grimm, driven by blind obedience and racism, tracked Christmas to Hightower’s house and shot him.

49. What physical reaction did Hightower have when he was told of Christmas’s death?

A. He started laughing
B. He fell into a coma
C. He became elated
D. He thought he was dying

D. He thought he was dying.
He felt himself losing contact with earth, emptying, and floating, thinking, ‘I am dying’.
50. What did Lena Grove’s second travelling companion conclude was her true motivation?

A. Finding another man
B. Enjoying the journey
C. Seeking Alabama
D. Hiding the baby

B. Enjoying the journey.
The furniture dealer thought Lena was traveling to see as much as she could.

Brief Overview

Light in August, a novel by William Faulkner, was published in 1932. It is categorized as a Southern Gothic and modernist novel. It explores themes of race, identity, alienation, and the heavy burden of the past on the present day.

The novel starts with Lena Grove, who is pregnant and walks all the way from Alabama to Mississippi. She is searching for Lucas Burch, the father of her child, who abandoned her. Lena’s journey is characterized by steady, peaceful movement.

In the town of Jefferson, a rich woman named Miss Burden is murdered, and her house is burned. Joe Christmas is accused of the crime. Christmas is a mysterious man who once worked at a planning mill. He is widely rumored to have Black heritage, which defines his isolated existence.

Lena meets Byron Bunch, a quiet, compassionate man who helps her. Byron learns that Lucas Burch is actually Joe Brown, Christmas’s partner, and he immediately falls in love with Lena.

Lena gives birth to her baby with the help of the former minister, Reverend Hightower. Christmas is later captured in a different town. He is then shot and killed by the cruel vigilante, Percy Grimm.

Byron brings Lucas Burch to see Lena, but Burch runs away immediately through a window. Byron then decides to leave Jefferson. He, Lena, and the baby travel away together in a furniture truck. Lena remains remarkably calm and peaceful, moving steadily forward.

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