Submitted by cornellgoldw@fo... on Sat, 2014-02-01 10:31
Among the five different cabins occupied by unnamed Negroes in the novel, this is the one in which Hightower tries to help a woman deliver her child. It is located "on the edge of town," "immediately behind" the house Hightower lives in (73).
Submitted by cornellgoldw@fo... on Sat, 2014-02-01 10:29
Among the five different cabins occupied by unnamed Negroes in Light in August, this is the one in which Hightower tries to help a woman deliver her child. It is located "on the edge of town," "immediately behind" the house Hightower lives in (73).
The novel spends a lot of time in Miss Reba's, but the women who work their as prostitutes remain largely offstage. At various times Temple, Fonzo and Virgil hear their laughter or the rustle of their clothes. In Chapter 21 they appear as "a plump blonde woman" (192), a woman "in a kimono" leaving "a trail of scent" (194), a "blonde woman in a red dress" (198).
As a Snopes Virgil provides an occasion for laughter rather than alarm. He is one of the "two youths in new straw hats" that Horace sees board the train from Holly Springs to Memphis (177). Chapter 21 is the story of their misadventures as students in the city's barber college - and as babes in the wood. Virgil has claimed to know something about Memphis from previous trips, but that pretense quickly disappears amid the bustling crowds and opulent hotels of the city. He follows Fonzo into Miss Reba's brothel, never realizing that it is not a boarding house.
Fonzo is one of the "two youths in new straw hats" that Horace sees board the train for Memphis in Holly Springs (177). The other is Virgil Snopes. Chapter 21 tells the story of their misadventures as students at barber school in the city - or as babes in the wood. They move into Miss Reba's, thinking it is a boarding house, carefully hiding their trips to a different Memphis brothel from her. Fonzo is the more concupiscent of the pair.
