The importance of land ownership has been a vital part of modern society due to the many goods and resources one can acquire from it. Because of this, landowners have a distinct advantage over non-land owners when it comes to these resources. Not only are landowners able to use the land themselves, but grant others the ability to use their land for a percentage of the produce. This is known as sharecropping. As seen is William Faulkner’s short story, Barn Burn, it is land ownership and not ethnic origins gives power to certain individuals. By controlling the livelihood of individuals who live off the earth, landowners place themselves in a more advanced social class than those without land. In Charles Chesnutt’s story The Goophered Grapevine, the elements of class and race show themselves throughout the story and even the title of the story imposes African vernacular. Race, however, was not the sole factor contributing to class in the 1900’s. In both Barn Burning and The Goophered Grapevine, the issues of land ownership evoke concerns of classism in a post-civil war society; however, the reactions of the characters to landowners range from compliance to petty revenge.
In Barn Burning by Faulkner, the issues of class make appearance in the story by the characters settings. For instance, the main character’s family, the Snopes, are sharecroppers and live in settings very different from their boss (Major de Spain) who owns the land they farm. Major de Spain’s house is the first clear indicator of the economical differences present between the two families. When the main character, Sartoris Snopes, first comes upon the house Major de Spain lives in he is in awestruck. As stated in Barn Burning, “for all the twelve movings, they...
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...e to them than a buzzing wasp” (Faulkner 804). It is through land that this power derives from. Without land, Major de Spain would have less income and would therefore be less powerful. Similarly, Julius from The Goophered Grapevine was never able to own the vineyard he lived on. Because of this, he was unable to stop others from potentially ruining his livelihood and rendering himself homeless. Both Faulkner and Chesnutt’s usage of land in their short stories add a level of realism to the story and also helps depicts the struggles between differing economic classes.
Bibliography
Chesnutt, Charles. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eighth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2012. 699-706. Print.
Faulkner, William. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eighth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 2012. 800-812. Print.
Abner Snopes sharecrops for a living. His sharecropping results in his resentment of the wealthy. As you know, sharecroppers are tenant farmers who pay as rent a share of their crop for wealthy people. Sharecropping was common during this era; McCullough notes that “when the sharecroppers receive their portion of the money from the crops they plant, the debts they have developed comes out of their half of the money. This often leaves the sharecropper with nothing. Between the debt and the hard working conditions, a second form of slavery is created. It was not slavery with a p...
William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Sarty's Point of View in Barn Burning by William Faulkner. William Faulkner elected to write “Barn Burning” from his young character Sarty’s perspective because his sense of morality and decency would present a more plausible conflict in this story. Abner Snopes inability to feel the level of remorse needed to generate a truly moral predicament in this story, sheds light on Sarty’s efforts to overcome the constant “pull of blood”(277) that forces him to remain loyal to his father. As a result, this reveals the hidden contempt and fear Sarty has developed over the years because of Abner’s behavior.
The American author Joyce Carol Oats, in her Master Race, wrote that "our enemy is by tradition our savior" (Oats 28). Oats recognized that we often learn more from our enemy than from ourselves. Whether the enemy is another warring nation, a more prolific writer, or even the person next door, we often can ascertain a tremendous amount of knowledge by studying that opposite party. In the same way, literature has always striven to provide an insight into human nature through a study of opposing forces. Often, simply by looking at the binary operations found in any given text, the texts meanings, both hidden and apparent, can become surprising clear. In William Faulkner's famous short story "Barn Burning," innate binary operations, especially those of the poor versus the rich and the society versus the outsider, allow the reader to gather a new and more acute understanding of the text.
Due to Faulkner’s relevance in modern literature, the literary merit of “Barn Burning,” and the story’s applicability to the core questions and topic of the junior English curriculum, “Barn Burning” should be taught in 11th grade English. No writer exemplifies the American experience quite like Faulkner, especially in his collection of writings surrounding Yoknapatawpha County, and certainly no writer who is so significant in world literature as a pioneer of a new style of writing.
Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 8th ed. Vol A. New York: W.
Sullivan, John Jeremiah. "How William Faulkner Tackled Race — and Freed the South From Itself." The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 June 2012. Web. 08 May 2014. .
Wendell Berry writes in his book, “What are people for?” a thesis that modern culture is destroying the agricultural culture. He feels that technology is seen and used as the easy way to produce food faster and more efficiently. With this modern way of farming comes the idea that we need to work smarter not harder which is not always true. The goal is comfort and leisure and Berry feels that this is the reason for the down fall of the agricultural culture. He believes that hard work and pride in workmanship is more important than material goods and money. This was by no means a perfect society. The people had often been violent wand wasteful in the use of land of each other. Its present ills have already taken root in it. Even with these faults, this society appreciated the hard work of farming compared to the easy way of living today.
In a young boy’s life, making the morally right choice can be difficult especially when the choice goes against someone that is suppose to be respected, such as a parent. “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is a coming of age story about a son of a poor and evil sharecropper. Showing the difference between good and evil, Faulkner uses character descriptions and plot, revealing Sarty’s struggles’s as he chooses between making the morally right decision or to be loyal to a dishonest father.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
At first glance, the story “Barn burning” seems just to be about a tyrannical father and a son who is in the grips of that tyranny. I think Faulkner explores at least one important philosophical question in this story were he asks at what point should a person make a choice between what his parent(s) and / or family believes and his own values?
Understanding literary elements such as patterns, reader/writer relationships, and character choice are critical in appreciating William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Some literary elements are small and almost inconsequential while others are large and all-encompassing: the mother's broken clock, a small and seemingly insignificant object, is used so carefully, extracting the maximum effect; the subtle, but more frequent use of dialectal words which contain darker, secondary meanings; the way blood is used throughout the story in many different ways, including several direct references in the familial sense; how Faulkner chooses to write about poor, common people (in fact to the extreme) and how this relates to the opinions of Wordsworth and Aristotle; and finally, the relationship between the reader and writer, Faulkner's choice of narrator and point of view, and how this is works successfully.
William Faulkner is concerned with the south and its problems with black slavery. The issues in Barn Burning deal with the conflict between father and son. The theme of this story focuses on justice. The boy, Sarty, objects to his father burning barns and wants people to be treated fairly. His father, Abner, believes his son should respect and support kin. Abner thinks family is right no matter what. Faulkner’s intent is to show that choosing between one’s own family and justice is very difficult to do, and in the end justice must prevail. The theme is best illustrated by its point of view, its characterization, and setting.
Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 8th ed. New York: