“Barn Burning” is a story filled with myth. This coming of age story features a boy stuck in a family with a father who can be thought of as Satan, and can be easily seen as connected to myths of Zeus and Cronus. The connection to Zeus is further elaborated when William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is also considered. These two stories along with a few others provided an amazing view of the south. Many characters or families can be viewed as groups that lived in the south during this time. The story is rich in mythology which includes a boy coming of age facing the challenges of morality, and southern life.
The young boy Called Colonel Sartoris Snopes or Sarty was living with his family which included his father, Abner Snopes, which believed heavily in Blood Loyalty. Abner Snopes thinks of his family as himself and everyone else as “they.” In the Story Abner is blamed with burning down the barn of his landlord. The reader can easily see at the beginning of the story that Sarty is not okay with his father’s actions at the first trial, and he is uneasy about lying for his family. This uneasiness and the judge saying someone with the name Colonel Sartoris Snopes couldn’t be lying foreshadowed that his loyalty was to be tested again.
Then as more of the story is reveled a connection between Abner and Satan is made noticeable. There are many satanic images that can be identified with Abner such as using fire which Edmond Volpe calls “the element of the devil” (892). He also points out Abner’s pride which he says is “so absolute it can accept no order beyond its own” (892). The last comparison that Edmond makes is “like the angels who fall with Lucifer becomes extensions of his will. In the same way, Ab is an o...
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... a good life and even be the mayor because he told the truth and everyone else should to. “Barn Burning” is rich in mythology and provides a well-constructed image of the south during the time period the story was written.
Works Cited
Byrne, Mary Ellen. ""Barn Burning": A Story from the '30s." Southeast Missouri State University. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. .
Padgett, John B. "MWP: William Faulkner (1897-1962)." The University of Mississippi. 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. .
"Themes." Home Page English 112 VCCS Litonline. 22 Mar. 2004. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. .
Volpe, Edmond. "Myth in Faulkner's "Barn Burning"" The Art of the Short Story. By Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 891-92. Print.
No two people are truly the same, therefore creating a mass difference in outlooks when experiencing things. This is seen in the writings of authors Linda Thomas and Joan Didion in their separate essays, Brush Fire and The Santa Ana. Theses essays revolve around the same experience both authors share of the Santa Ana wildfire in southern California, but in different perspective. In Brush Fire, Linda Thomas gives the reader a more beautiful insight on wildfires while Joan Didion has a more serious and disheartening perspective on them, which each author paints in their own way.
...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.
William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" contains a character, Sarty, whose individual maturity ultimately initiates a more positive lifestyle than what is provided by his family. Sarty faces much drama throughout the entire short story which builds his personal maturity and allows him to truly evaluate the negative and positive aspects of his life. The dramatic conflict is between Sarty and his father, Abner Snopes, an older man who can be characterized as a 19th century terrorist who has a keen predilection for burning barns.
William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War.
The figure of fire in the story is used many times throughout the story. The emotion that fire gives in the text is anger. In the story, “Barns Burning” Abner, the father is powerless and out of control. Fire is the one thing in his life he can control. Abner is the boss. This seems like another way of saying that Abner does not hit out of anger, or strong, burning emotion. Rather, his hitting is as calculated as his fire burning and he does it for a reason, to make the person or animal he hits do what he wants. Ironically, fire and hitting, the things that give Abner control over his life, without those around him makes him powerless. The quote “And older still, he might have divined the true reason: that the element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father 's being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion (Faulkner 228)” explains
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
Throughout the story “Barn Burning”, author William Faulkner conveys the moral growth and development of a young boy, as he must make a critical decision between either choosing his family and their teachings or his own morals and values. The reader should realize that the story “Barn Burning” was written in the 1930’s, a time of economic, social, and cultural turmoil. Faulkner carries these themes of despair into the story of the Snopes family.
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. Sarty’s struggle to maintain an understanding of morality while clinging to the fading idolization of a father he fears, sets the tone for a chain of events that results in his liberation from Abner’s destructive defiance-but at a costly price.
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.
Born on September 25th, 1897 in Albany, New York, William Faulkner eventually became known for his “vivid imagination and innovative use of language” in literature (Puchner 371). In his adult life, he moved to Mississippi. It is in early 1930’s that he first introduced a peculiar white family that lived in Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi; they are known as the Snopeses. This fictional town and family are seen multiple times throughout Faulkner’s work, and are said to represent the many flaws of life such as “murders, lynchings, and bestialities” (Puchner 373). One of his short stories in particular, “Spotted Horses”, started the era of the Snopes family. The tall tale is centered around the unbroken horses, but why? What is the relevancy of them?
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.
People around the city went to bed, everything seemed relatively normal. Smoke dwindling into the dark night sky, the faint smell of burning wood. All normal for Chicago. Fires were a daily part of life for this wooden city. Near the time of 2 a.m. the fire didn’t seem so normal and average anymore. A mean flame was being born, it was blazing to life.
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?
In the tale Barn Burning, the author William Faulkner formally known for his short stories with a constant theme of Southern Renaissance, racism and modernism uses these themes as a constant reference throughout the story. Faulkner focuses in depth on the antagonist, Abner Snopes and his actions and how they impact other characters throughout the story. I believe Abner was continuously portrayed as a negative character throughout the short story by Abner’s aggressiveness towards everyone he comes in contact with, Faulkner’s depiction of Abner’s selfishness, and his jealousy for those around him and what he did not have.
Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.