Analysis of The Barn Burning by William Faulkner
The short story “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is about a ten year
old boy, Sarty Snopes, who has grown to realize that his father, Abner
Snopes, provides a life of “despair and grief” as he refuses to
accept the “peace and dignity” generated by the ties with other
people. In essence, Sarty is faced with the dilemma of choosing
between his family (his blood) and moral conscience of what is right
and wrong.
Jane Hiles interprets this story to be about blood ties through Sartys
character in dealing with his internal conflict with his father. More
specifically, Jane Hiles refers to Abners statement, Jane Hiles refers
to Abners statement to Sarty, i.e. “You’re getting to be a man. You
got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any
blood to stick to you.” I agree with Jane Hiles in her interpretation
as the story clearly demonstrates Sarty’s struggle to find a means in
which to accept his father for the way he is as he does not want to
betray his family by breaking the code, i.e “feeling of blood, of
clan, blood for blood”, but his conscience can’t accept wrongdoing
against others. Abner’s character pursues an “antisocial pattern” and
“alienation from society in order to clan his family with the idea
that family stick together by “defending his own blood whether it be
right or wrong” as suggested in Faulkner’s appraisal of “clannishness”
Abner is an unpleasant and somewhat sadistic character in that he has
a habit of hitting his mules and yet holds back on their reins,
convinced that he is correct all the time, and seeks revenge to get
even by burning barns, yet he is conservative with fire. Abner is
further described througho...
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...do. When Sarty was sent out
to get the oil, Sarty wanted to “run on and on and never look back”,
but instead he tried to stop his father by sidetracking him to “send a
n****r”. This caused his father to demand the mother to hold Sarty so
that he could not get away, but he did. All Sarty wanted to do was
warn the landlord, De Spain of the barn burning. Consequently two
shots were fired.
Sarty will never know if his father and brother were shot, but he does
try to keep running as the “grief and despair now no longer terror and
fear but just grief and despair”, and breaks the blood tie from his
family as he no longer wishes to suffer from his fathers actions.
Regardless of Sartys decision to run away, he still cares for his
family, including his father, but he realizes what his father does is
wrong and he wants no part of it, even if its his own blood.
The Significance of Family Meals in Faulkner’s Barn Burning, Shall Not Perish, and Two Soldiers
...er's unfair ways. Moreover, the injustice of the destruction the fire will cause prompts him to make a decision. Abner tells Lennie to restrain Sarty. He says, "If he gets lose don't you know what he is going to do? He will go up yonder" (238). He knows what Sarty will do. As Abner chooses to set out to make another fire, Sarty chooses freedom from the fires and the injustices associated with them.
mind was focused on other things other than his father. He thought that if he
William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War.
the South, the time period following the Civil War, the only thing that kept the
At the conclusion of his short story “Barn Burning,” William Faulkner strongly implies that Abner Snopes burns yet another barn, although whether he does or not is never made absolutely clear. In any case, his young son, Sarty, has run to warn the owner of the barn, Major De Spain, about his father’s intentions:
Many authors and poets uses symbolism to express emotion and sections throughout the text. Symbols is a great literary device that can help give messages to the reader without the author being too direct. In the story, “Barns Burning” by William Faulkner, Symbolism helps analysis different emotions and meaning throughout the story.
The Strategies of Victims. Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning,” captures the intensity and dynamics of a father and son relationship. The story is set in the Old South, where the dry farming grounds of the plantations are the only places that promise hardworking men a means to support their families. Though Faulkner presents these two man characters as vastly different, the father, Abner, and the son, Sarty, share a striking similarity. They both see themselves as victims and display the traits of a victim’s status.
William Faulkner, recognized as one of the greatest writers of all time, once made a speech as he accepted his Nobel prize for writing in which he stated that a great piece of writing should contain the truths of the heart and the conflicts that arise over these truths. These truths were love, honor, pity, pride, compassion and sacrifice. Truly it would be hard to argue that a story without these truths would be considered even a good story let alone a great one. So the question brought forward is whether Faulkner uses his own truths of the heart to make his story "Barn Burning." Clearly the answer to this question is yes; his use of the truths of the heart are prevalent
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.
Symbolism in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily and Barn Burning. If we compare William Faulkner's two short stories, 'A Rose for Emily' and 'Barn Burning', he structures the plots of these two stories differently. However, both of the stories note the effect of a fathers teaching, and in both the protagonists Miss Emily and Sarty make their own decisions about their lives. The stories present major ideas through symbolism that includes strong metaphorical meaning.
Light in August - Point of View Most of Light in August's story is told by a third-person narrator. In some third-person novels the narrator is omniscient (all-knowing) and objective. In others he takes the point of view of the central character. In Light in August the narrator is often objective, as, for example, when reporting dialogue. But what is unusual about this novel is the way in which the narrator's point of view shifts frequently from one character to another.
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.
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?
Anne Bradstreet, whom most critics consider America’s first “authentic poet”, was born and raised as a Puritan. Bradstreet married her husband Simon at the tender age of eighteen. She wrote her poems while rearing eight children and performing other domestic duties. In her poem “Upon The Burning Of Our House, July 10th, 1666”, Bradstreet tells of three valuable lessons she learned from the fire that destroyed her home.