Chapter 15 gives us an excellent presentation of a religious fanatic. By presenting him as the town sees him, Faulkner gives "Uncle Doc" Hines the quality of a freak, a fanatic, a vile type of segregationist, and a pathetic weakling.
Even though old Doc Hines is not identified in this chapter as Joe's grandfather, the reader should at least recognize him as the same man who worked in the orphanage for five years between twenty-five and thirty years ago. He was the one who stole Joe from the orphanage and who called the action of the dietitian "bitchery and abomination" — the same thing he mutters at the end of Chapter 15.
On a realistic level, old Doc Hines' hatred of Joe is a result of his general hatred of the Negro race. Thus this chapter goes into a long presentation of his unreasonable dislike for the Negro race and his absurd interference with the Negro church services. Therefore, old Doc Hines' desire for his grandson's death can be taken on one level as the desire of a typical fanatic for white supremacy. But his fanaticism also functions on another level. It becomes significant when applied to his own grandson because this emphasizes Christmas' isolation from society; he can never be accepted when his own grandfather rejects him.
When Hightower hears the news of Joe Christmas' arrest, he becomes terribly agitated and begins to cry. Hightower has remained alone and isolated so long, has lived without human contact and knowledge of his fellow man for so long that now, as he hears of the suffering of another person, his compassion is intense. He feels even by hearing the story that he is being drawn back into the difficulty and strain of everyday life.
