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When analyzing William Faulkner's character Lena Grove from Light In August, it is necessary to consider most American literature, where it is common to end a book with a single sentence that has a profound and lasting effect on the reader. It is also common, for that single sentence to have some connection with the beginning of the book, that either answers a question which the book may have put out, or somehow sums up the many events that have taken place. This is why Light in August is strange in both its context and the way it begins and ends. Faulker's book starts out with Lena Grove, a pregnant, well-mannered traveler, in search of the father of her child, Lucas Burch. Lena Grove, however, is a minor character at the most, whose only significance is her tie to Lucas, only in that she is pregnant with his child. However, Lena is the one character you can relate to; the only one that you may be able to have sympathy for.

The story opens with Lena "sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount." ( Faulkner 1) and thinking to herself how she had not been on the road for but a month and was already in Mississippi. The story end with Lena saying how she had only traveled from Alabama but two months and now she was already in Tennessee. Faulkner uses Lena as the optimistic character in an otherwise dark novel about murder. She seems to be placed merely to provide a relief from the moody atmosphere. Joe Christmas and Lucas Burch, or, Joe Brown, were the occupants of the shed in which she stays in while getting prepared to give birth. The shed is located on a property where murder was committed shortly before by Christmas. This is ironic in the sense that Lena gives birth, and brings forth a life where Joe Christmas has taken one away. Even more ironically, Lucas tries to cover up the life taken in the house, and runs from the life in which he has brought forth. There is an exactness in the characters of Joe Christmas and Lena Grove.