The structure of the novel is best seen in terms of a wheel or of a circular image. Actually, the central metaphor of the novel is also that of a circle.
Joe Christmas is the central character of the novel. His story is the hub or center of the novel, and the circular image is first applied to Joe as a cage which keeps him isolated from mankind. The earliest instance of his isolation is seen in his life in the orphanage. Later in life, he thinks of women, marriage, and children as additional ways to keep men caged in. He even cuts off all buttons — again the circular image — that women have sewed on his clothes. But the strongest symbol of his imprisonment in a cage is expressed through the conflicting white and black blood in his veins. Basically, the circular image is the principal image with Joe, as his life is presented in cyclic repetitions seen in the manner in which he constantly travels around the country until he finally arrives in Jefferson, Mississippi.
Although Joe has spent his entire life trying to break out of his circle, he finally realizes that he has lived only when he has remained within the circle. Thus, he attains peace through self-realization only when he reaches an acceptance of his life and no longer tries to flee from the responsibility of his actions. Joe, in other words comes finally to realize that his lifetime struggle was futile, since man can never escape from himself. The acceptance of this fact gives him the first peace of mind that he has ever had.
The circular image is used, therefore, to correlate the action with the structure. The central scene of the novel is Joanna Burden's house, and the cabin behind her house where Joe lives is described as the axle of a wheel where the numerous paths are like "wheel-spokes" caused by the Negro women "following paths which . . . radiated from the house." It is here at this place (the axle) where Joe murders Joanna Burden and it is also where Lena Grove later gives birth to her child.
