Light in August Inset: McEachern Place (Location Key)

The McEachern farm where Joe Christmas lives for almost a dozen years in Light in August is a modest, well-run, dour place. Although the text gives no indication of what McEachern grows in its "field" (152), the team that pulls McEachern's buggy is "stout, wellkept" (144). There are two milk cows, and an unspecified number of other cattle, including the "heifer" that Joe sells (161). The scenes set there include the barn (sometimes called "the stable"), and a "good sized pasture" (162) with a wood lot beyond it, The inside of the house is "clean," and furnishings like the "yellow oak melodeon" indicate that Mrs. McEachern is a good housekeeper, with some aspirations to gentility (146). The text does not provide a clear indication of where the McEacherns live, except to put it a day's buggy ride from Memphis (143). We are assuming the buggy rides east.