Lena Grove

Character Key: 
Display Name: 
Lena Grove
Sort Name: 
Grove, Lena
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Female
Class: 
Lower Class
Rank: 
Major
Vitality: 
Alive
Date of Birth: 
Monday, January 1, 1912 to Tuesday, December 31, 1912
Origin: 
Alabama
Biography: 

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, when 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.

Note: 
Keywords: calm, placid, hopeful. pregnancy, travel, unmarried mother
Financial Status: 
financially dependent
Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

digyok:node/character/2938