The reader should be aware of the time of this section. It is the day that Joanna Burden's house is burning down and therefore the thought of Christmas connected with Joanna Burden causes Byron to think about him; thus, the reader is introduced to Christmas long before actually meeting him.
Our first view of Joe Christmas is an objective one from Byron Bunch. He thinks that Christmas looks as though he belonged to no definite place in the world, no definite home or community. This description evokes the idea of the Christian symbolism connected with Joe Christmas. The reader should be aware of this aspect of the novel regardless of whether he accepts it or not. For example, Christmas' name is a derivation of Christ's name. We find out that Christmas has no definite home and belongs to the entire world. Christmas' appearance in Jefferson causes surprise, as did the appearance of Christ. Christmas arrived in Jefferson on a Friday, a significant day in Christian religion, and he was thirty-three years old, the same age as Christ when He was crucified. And like Christ, who had twelve disciples, Christmas has at least one in the person of Joe Brown. More significant analogies will appear in later chapters.
The reader should not feel that Faulkner is trying to retell the Christ story. But rather, by these various analogies to the Christ figure, he deepens Joe Christmas' internal struggle by suggesting as an analogy the depth of Christ's struggle.
Faulkner delights in playing or punning on names. Note that Lena thinks Bunch is actually Burch until she meets Byron. And the Bunch-Grove-Burch relationship is a rather lusty pun on that relationship.
