A Study of Religious Fanatics in William Faulkner\u27s Light in August : Simon McEachern

In William Faulkner\u27s Light in August, Doc Hines, Simon McEachern, Joanna Burden and Gail Hightower are obsessed with their fanatic religious beliefs. Faulkner depicts in the novel the fanaticism of these figures as a mirror of what is central to the Southern culture. Their behavior, of course, is extreme in their enthusiastic and even violent promotion of their religion, but it seems to represent what is central and hidden in the society they belong to. In this paper McEachern\u27s personality and behavior is to be scrutinized with the aid of Max Weber\u27s theory of Protestant ethic, Erich Fromm\u27s theory of sadism, and Martin Buber\u27s theory of "I-Thou" and "I-It" relationships.In William Faulkner\u27s Light in August, Doc Hines, Simon McEachern, Joanna Burden and Gail Hightower are obsessed with their fanatic religious beliefs. Faulkner depicts in the novel the fanaticism of these figures as a mirror of what is central to the Southern culture. Their behavior, of course, is extreme in their enthusiastic and even violent promotion of their religion, but it seems to represent what is central and hidden in the society they belong to. In this paper McEachern\u27s personality and behavior is to be scrutinized with the aid of Max Weber\u27s theory of Protestant ethic, Erich Fromm\u27s theory of sadism, and Martin Buber\u27s theory of "I-Thou" and "I-It" relationships