Henry's Struggle

Chapter 8 sheds new light on the decision that Henry had to make to kill Charles Bon. In previous chapters, we only saw Bon as a close friend of Henry's, but the fact that Bon turns out to be Henry's older brother adds a new element to Henry's difficult choice. It is interesting how the story develops so that it becomes more and more wrong, in Henry's eyes, for Bon to marry Judith. At first we believe that Henry killed Bon simply because of his one-eighth black mistress and son. Then we find out that Bon is Henry's older brother, and therefore Henry would have to knowingly allow incest if he were to allow Bon to marry Judith. He struggles with this knowledge throughout chapter 8, and finally decides that he will allow the marriage. Finally his father tells him that Bon himself is one-eighth black, and it is interesting that this is the factor that finally makes Henry decide to kill Bon rather than to allow him to marry Judith. "So it's the miscegenation, not the incest, which you can't bear," says Bon to Henry. It seems to me that Faulkner is making a strong statement with this scene. The bigotry of southern culture during the Civil War allows incest as a more acceptable alternative than allowing a black man to sleep with a white woman.