Southern Masculinities in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished and Barn Burning
The youthful protagonists of The Unvanquished and "Barn Burning," Bayard Sartoris and Sarty Snopes respectively, offer through their experiences and, most importantly, the way their stories are told, telling insights about the constructions of southern masculinities with respect to class. The relative innocence that each of the boys has in common, though ultimately loses, provides a record of sorts to the formation of the impressions that shape their young lives and their early conceptions of what it means to be a man. Through narrative artifice, Faulkner is able to make observations, apt but at times scathing, about these constructions of southern masculinity as envisioned by both aristocratic and lower whites.
Bayard obviously recounts the proceedings of The Unvanquished from an indefinite future. Faulkner's choice to intersperse the first person narration and the boyish dialogue of the participants with mature, pensive commentary betrays the identity of the narrator, but what one may misconstrue as a simplistic strategy instead belies the keen edge that Faulkner inserts with such reflections. By comparison, the narrative tactics of "Barn Burning" offer a more complex relationship between the past events of the story and futurity. A third person, limited omniscient narrator constricts the reader's attention to Sarty's own thoughts, however not only in the present of the story but also in a future in which the protagonist has reached maturity. Faulkner's voice and opinions are not withheld but instead subtly manipulate the reader through a choice of words that provides a sharp dichotomy between Sarty's level of awareness and that of the narrator. These...
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...iolence has limited McCaslin's faculties to reason just as Abner in "Barn Burning" fails to see the value in Sarty's suggestion to subvert de Spain's penalty on his crops in his determination for overt revenge.
The dichotomy between the aristocratic and poor white constructions of southern masculinity defined by assertion and accomplishment create a vicious cycle. The poor, blinded by the limitations of an ideological dependence of violence as an indication of manhood, remains stagnant while the aristocrats, masculinity virtually won already by birthright, take advantage of the enormous resources already at their fingertips to accomplish deeds and forge reputations that encompass more than just violence. What results is a sense of inertia that might only be shattered by the destruction of aristocratic southern power through the Civil War and Reconstruction.
William Faulkner tells his novel The Unvanquished through the eyes and ears of Bayard, the son of Confederate Colonel John Sartoris. The author’s use of a young boy during such a turbulent time in American history allows him to relate events from a unique perspective. Bayard holds dual functions within the novel, as both a character and a narrator. The character of Bayard matures into a young adult within the work, while narrator Bayard relays the events of the story many years later.
William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War.
The Unvanquished is composed of a series of stories during which Bayard Sartoris, the narrator, grows up from a twelve-year-old boy to a young man of twenty-four years. The narrative style makes it obvious that events are being related by an adult who is looking back at his past. There are several indications of this: in the very first story “Ambuscade”, the narrator, while describing his war games with his coloured friend, Ringo, states: “We were just twelve then”. (5) He tells the readers how they fantasized about the military exploits of John Sartoris, Bayard’s father, seeing them as heroic and exciting adventures. The narrator describes himself and Ringo at this stage of the novel as “the two supreme undefeated like two moths, two feathers riding above a hurricane” (7), drawing attention to the fact that while the two boys are positioned in the midst of war with all its attendant destruction and insanity, they have no understanding of its horror.
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 2010 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report- The Future of Nursing described the role that nurses have in the current and future US health care environment (IOM, 2011). This report was completed at a time when the Affordable Care Act had been passed and a new emphasis was being put on interdisciplinary healthcare teams, care coordination, value-based payment systems, and preventative care (IOM, 2011). Nursing is the largest profession in health care and with an aging baby boomer populace, the expanded role of nurses will be critical in meeting the growing healthcare burdens (Sisko et al., 2014).
Sarty is only ten years old, but growing up fast. In “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner, Sarty is estranged as he struggles between obedience to his arsonist father, Abner, and his developing sense of integrity. The internal struggle is evident early in the story, when he is brought before a local Justice of the Peace to be questioned in the case of his father burning a neighbor’s barn. In the moments before he is to be questioned, he knows that his father expects him to lie on his behalf which makes him feel “frantic grief and despair” (Faulkner 801). Sarty can say nothing, and the case results in Abner being told to leave town. Abner knows that Sarty was struggling with the truth, and later that evening forewarns him, “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you” (803). Shortly after they arrive at their new home, Abner takes Sarty with him to go meet the plantation owner, Major. Sarty feels a “surge of peace and joy”() as he arrives at the beautiful home, like he is safe and nothing bad can happen. However, his father deliberately soils an expensive carpet when they enter the home and makes spiteful comments. Sarty doesn’t comment on the incident, but the stark contract between their reactions to the Major’s home reinforces the alienation between them. Sarty continues to hope that this will be a fresh start for his family and his father will change his ways, while Abner escalates the tension with the property owner over the carpet to the point he decides to burn down the Major’s barn. As Abner begins to make preparations, he tells Sarty’s mother to hold Sarty, because he knows the boy will go and warn the Major. In the heat of the moment, S...
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.
This story follows the typical format and is narrated in the third person. In the exposition, Faulkner’s skill as a writer is demonstrated through the way that he uses detail to draw the readers into the story. Also, in the first paragraph we are introduced to the main character and protagonist in the story, Sarty. The setting in which Sarty’s conflict is established is a trial. In the trial, the justice asks Sarty, “ I reckon any boy named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth, can they” (qtd. in...
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.
In the Unvanquished, a version of southern masculinity is developed through the narrator using dialect and the device, or should I say vice of memory. Fairly early in the novel, the reflective standpoint of the narrator becomes obvious, and a certain sense of “retelling” the story, not just telling it as it happened, prevails. This use of memory is not necessarily selective but it does show the processing of perceptions of the narrator’s childhood. As readers, we first get the sense that we are hearing the story from a much older Bayard when he drops comments like “I was just twelve then; I didn’t know triumph; I didn’t even know the word” (Unvanquished 5). If he was just twelve then, he could be just fifteen or sixteen when retelling this story, assuming the grandiosity that adolescence creates, leading to such thoughts as “I was just a kid then.” However, the second part of the statement reveals a much older and wiser voice, the voice of someone who has had time to think out such abstractions as triumph and failure. Furthermore, the almost obsessive description of the father in the first part of the novel seems like the narrator comes to terms, much later in life, with how he viewed his father as a man. “He was not big” (9) is repeated twice on the same page. He was short enough to have his sabre scrape the steps while ascending (10), yet he appeared large and in command, especially when on his horse (13). The shape and size of a man being an important part in defining masculinity, I think Baynard grappled with his father’s physical presence as well as his tenuous position as a leader in the Confederate Army. Other telling moments are on page 66 when Baynard postulates what a child can accept as true in such incredible situations and on page 95 with his declarations on the universality of war. (Possibly he is an old man now and has lived to see other wars.) Upon realizing the distance between the setting of the story and age of its narrator, the reader is forced to consider how memory and life itself have affected the storytelling.
Being a registered nurse affords one the option of working in many diverse healthcare settings. In any practice setting the climate of health care change is evident. There are diverse entities involved in the implementation and recommendation of these practice changes. These are led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), nursing campaign for action initiatives, as well as individual state-based action coalitions. Nurses need to be prepared and cognizant of the transformations occurring in health care settings as well as the plans that put them at the forefront of the future.
There are those who support corporal punishment in schools and those who do not. The disparity in thought on the matter is reflected in the fact that 19 states allow the corporal punishment in schools and the remaining 29 banning the practice (Nies). No Federal ban on the practice exists and the Supreme Court has upheld the right of individual states to such decisions (Morones). Those who support its use, believe it to be effective. As writer Adam Cohen points out, there is a long held notion from the bible of “spare the rod and spoil the child”, amongst corporal punishment advocates (Cohen).
Whether corporal punishment should be allowed in schools has been long disputed. Advocates reason corporal punishment is necessary to produce well-behaved children (Hicks-Pass 71.) Although these supporters of corporal punishment in schools argue it is a normal, necessary part of child education and a successful way to enforce appropriate behavior, it should not be permitted due to the great potential of long-lasting, harmful effects on students such as damaging their self-esteem and causing the belief that violence is acceptable and as there are alternative disciplinary actions that are far more effective such as providing direction and teaching personal responsibility in ways that are meaningful and logical.
Imagine seeing a student panicking about simply forgetting a pencil in her locker. She nervously walks up to the teacher with her head down and politely asks if she could go back and get it. The teacher grabs her arm. He brings her up to the front of the classroom, grabs his paddle off his desk, and smacks her hardly with the paddle, several times in front of the class. They all laugh and stare at her in a mean way. She was humiliated and later teased. Hopefully no parents would want their children to go through this. Corporal punishment in schools is wrong because students could be emotionally, physically, and mentally harmed, it creates an unsafe learning environment for children, and many students suffer from humiliation and bullying.