Burden: the name says it all in light of AugustExpecting parents put so much attention, time and energy into choosing a name for their baby. They turn to family trees and name dictionaries to help them with their important decision. In many ways, a child's name can determine who he or she will become and what kind of person he or she will be. Then there's the surname. It's automatic; no one has a choice in the matter. The surname perhaps has a greater impact in determining who a person will become, because it carries with it generations of ideals, memories and pride. William Faulkner chose very significant surnames for the characters in the novel Light of August (1932). Light in August is the story of Joe Christmas, a man shunned by society due to his possible black origins. The novel describes parts of his youth with a very strict and religious foster family, his struggle with himself, and his life in Jefferson, Mississippi. There he becomes involved in and eventually kills Joanna Burden, a so-called "nigger lover". Joanna is a very strange woman with a rather unusual past. His last name represents generations of self-imposed struggle and desperation. Faulkner gave her and her family the surname Burden to further illustrate, explain, and characterize Joanna and her nature. Joanna is first mentioned in chapter two by a city-dwelling narrator as "a middle-aged woman. She has lived in the house since she was born, yet she is still a foreigner, a foreigner who moved from the North during Reconstruction. A Yankee , lover of negroes, of whom in the city there is still talk of strange relations with the negroes of the city" (33). It is clearly evident that Joanna Burden has no sense of community with the townspeople, nor they with her. In fact, regarding the fire at his house, one man says, "My daddy says he remembers how fifty years ago people said it should have been burned, and with a little fatty human flesh to start it right" (35 ). Additionally, another character elaborates, "They say she's still involved with niggers. She goes to see them when they're sick, like they're white... People say she says niggas are the same as whites. That's why people never go out there" (38).