However, rather than enforcing the actual teachings of the Bible, McEachern manages only to instill an aversion to Christianity in Joe Christmas’ character. The cool, methodical administration of pain executed by McEachern does not serve as a means of funneling inner pain, but instead as a teaching tool. (Faulkner 146-150) McEachern’s methodical striking” as a means of reinforcing the tenets of the Bible is meant genuinely to teach his foster son, not as a means to channel anger or revenge.
McEachern began to strike methodically, with slow and deliberate force, without heat or anger. Then the boy stood, his trousers collapsed about his feet, his legs revealed beneath his shirt. It was neither new nor old… ‘You would believe that a stable floor, the stamping place of beasts, is the proper place for the word of God. Faulkner opens chapter seven with this sinister scene of McEachern testing Christmas’ knowledge of scripture: The clean, spartan room was redolent of Sunday… McEachern took from the wall a harness strap. His foster father drills the Bible’s moral tenets into him, brutally assaulting him if he fails to maintain the ethical code of the Good Book.
Upon his induction into the McEachern residence, Christmas is exposed to a religious ferocity that forever taints his character. Ultimately, Faulkner’s novel provides a pessimistic analysis of the effect of Christianity on the moral fortitude of his characters.Īs Joe Christmas grows up, his increasingly disaffected stance on Christianity only intensifies the violence he exhibits. His actions, in conjunction with his strict religious doctrine, demonstrate how Christianity can facilitate genuine good works. Byron Bunch, on the other hand, only redeems himself after disposing of his Christian beliefs.
He is left to impotently observe the folly of others. Reverend Hightower is a dejected minister who failed to bring the word of God to the small town of Jefferson.
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