A biracial drifter, Joe Christmas is perpetually out of place with the rest of the world, as Faulkner establishes early on: “He did not look like a professional hobo in his professional rags, but there was something definitely rootless about him, as though no town nor city was his, no street, no walls, no square of earth his home” (31). Joe’s otherness is further reinforced by how he’s treated throughout the South. Many townsfolk peg Joe to be a “foreigner.” People close to Joe judge him for being biracial. His lover Bobbie becomes disgusted with him, and his biological grandfather, Mr. Hines, calls for Joe to be lynched. After he’s accused of murdering Joanna Burden, the Jefferson community constantly refers to Joe using the n-word; the town associates Joe’s negative actions with his being Black. His gruesome death at the end of the novel makes Joe’s story a cautionary one—an example of what happens to a person who, from birth, constantly has their back against the wall because of their race.

Joe’s character enhances Faulkner’s commentary on masculinity and gender relations in the South. From an early age, Joe has a complicated relationship with women. He experiences harsh treatment from the dietitian in his orphanage, who strikes him and calls him the n-word when he misbehaves.