Lena Grove

Lena Grove is at the center of one of the three major plot lines in Light in August. Born in Alabama in 1912, she moved to her brother's house at the age of twelve, after her parents died. When the novel begins, she is around 21 years old, more than eight months pregnant, and traveling alone and on foot to find Lucas Burch, the father of her unborn child. Lena is a patient, trusting soul who feels no shame at her condition; she is also self-reliant, asking for no one's help yet accepting it gratefully during four weeks of traveling. Arriving in Jefferson, she seeks Lucas Burch at the planing mill, where she finds instead Byron Bunch, who immediately devotes himself to looking after her. Even after her son is born and Bunch runs away again, Lena continues to move on, though like so many other of the characters in this novel, she never appears elsewhere in the Yoknapatawpha fictions. Her story ends - but doesn't conclude - as she and her baby enter Tennessee along with Bryon.