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Analyze the relationship between Sarty and Abner in William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning”
Analyze the relationship between Sarty and Abner in William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning”
Analyze the relationship between Sarty and Abner in William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning”
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Recommended: Analyze the relationship between Sarty and Abner in William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning”
Should I do this? What if I am wrong? Is it the right thing to do? I bet those are questions that pondered on Sarty's mind every time he took a decision. On "Barn Burning", Sarty and Abner, our main characters in the story, seem to have contrasting personalities. The representation between the idea of what Abner and Sarty symbolize two contrasting forces- loyalty and truth- that fight against each other. On the one hand, Abner symbolizes "loyalty", but only to oneself; showing humanity's fatal flaws of jealousness, powerlessness, coldness, stiffness, and harshness. At the beginning of the story we observe how Abner maniputales Sarty into lying or "staying loyal" with the family during the trail for burning Mr. Harrison's barn. As the story
progresses, Abner's internal conflicts of being part of the lower class white man don't allow him to be happy, and if he isn't happy, then no one should be happy either; therefore, he burns and ruins things to harm other people's economic stability. For instance, on pg. 485, Sarty recalls that: "Later, twenty years later, he was to tell himelf, "If I had said they wanted only the truth, justice, he would have hit me again." In this passage we are able to identify that even though Sarty wants to be truthful and honest, Abner controls his actions. Considering the fact that Abner is the father, he seems to have more authority; but he also causes a fear that Sarty can't control. In contrast to Abner, Sarty is a symbolic representation on what's true, just, loyal, and honest. On the excerpt from pg. 486, Sarty says: "They are safe from him. People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond the touch, he no more to them that a buzzing wasp: capable of stinging for a little moment but that's all; the spell of his peace and dignity rendering even the barns and stable and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive...". In this passage, Sarty conveys us into believing that for the first time he was going to be safe and happy; but at the same time, he knew that Abner would take away all the happiness they could ever get. Besides, due to previous experiences, he knew that his father's impulses would lead his family into destruction again. No matter where they went, Sarty knew that his father was going to mess everything up because he was not getting what he wanted: have the same social status as the rest of the people. In conclusion, Sarty's life was a constant war between loyalty and truth, in which sometimes taking the right decision became a struggle. Since the beginning of the story, we saw him strive against his father's actions, and even at the end we noticed that he informed Major De Spain about his father's plan. Therefore, only way he could find peace was to leave his family behind and start a new life where he could show his true colors to humanity.
In “Barn Burning”, Abner enters the house at dusk and “could smell the coffee from the room where they would presently eat the cold food remaining from the afternoon meal.” (14) A warm meal would indicate fulfillment and cohesiveness within the family. The inclusion of the detail that the food was cold represents an inversion of these associations. The cold meal symbolizes the family’s distaste with Abner’s actions. The memory of the dinner lingers with the family as they get ready for bed and appears linked with negative images of “Where they had been were no long, water-cloudy scoriations resembling the sporadic course of a lilliputian moving machine.” (15) In addition, the emphasis that this dinner was in fact a left-over meal symbolizes that the pattern of Abner’s destructive behavior and its effects on his family will not change.
The stories "Barn Burning" written by William Faulkner and "Paul's Case" written by Willa Cather both have two separate characters with very similar troubles. Each has a uniquely sad narrative. "Barn Burning" is a sad story because it not only shows the classical struggle between the underprivileged and the privileged classes, but also the struggle between a father and his son, Sarty. Together, these two boys share comparable lifestyles. Each has conflicts with his father, fantasize of a wealthier existence, and flee from the tribulations in his life.
The antagonist in the story is Abner Snobes. Abner Snobes is a very angry and inconsiderate man who has hate and detestation for almost anybody who is not “blood-kin”, and he portrays that hatred and contempt throughout the story (qtd. In Volpe 163).
Baum’s use of irony expresses his idea quite nicely. The irony, while obvious to the reader, is unbeknownst to the characters, so with the conclusion of the story, readers look for parallels in their own lives, aspirations that are fulfilled but not realized.
of a conscience in the story are the ways that Sarty compliments and admires his
In the beginning, the court put Sarty on the stand speak against his father. “[C]aught in a prolonged instant of mesmerized gravity, weightless in time” (500), Sarty does not know what to do with the newly awakened rebellious itch. Although, he makes an instant decision and acts from there. Faulkner uses action verbs, such as “springing…running…scrabbling” (510). These create chronological motion in the ending, moving away from the interjections of the past and futures interlaced throughout the
Barn Burning 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. Faulkner opens the story, “Barn Burning” in a southern courthouse room of the during the Civil War reconstruction era, also a time of social, cultural, and economic instability.
...t to enter, he tells him to "get out of my way"(Faulkner 166) as he steps into the house and tracks his horse manure all over their very expensive rug. Then when the lady of the house tells him to leave he quickly obeys her after swiveling around on his heel to grind the fecal matter in even further. As he is leaving he once again makes a derogatory remark to the butler. This is probably when Abner's motivation becomes the most clear. He only feels superior to blacks in which case meant everyone else around him was somehow superior and therefore he felt as though every action they took was a threat to him and damaged his pride in himself which forced him to retaliate the only way he knew how, burning barns.
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.
In Barn Burning, Sartys father enjoys setting fires to burn down others properties. Sarty faces the problem of loyalty and honesty. On one hand, he wants to be loyal to his father; on the other hand, he does not endorse his fathers behavior. His father teaches him: Youre getting to be a man. You got to learn to do it.
In “Barn Burning” the setting is a time when people drove horse wagons and the workingmen were generally farmers. The major character in this story is Colonel Sartoris Snopes, called “Sarty” by his family who is a ten-year-old boy. In the beginning, Sarty is portrayed as a confused and frightened young boy. He is in despair over the burden of doing the right thing or sticking by his family, as his father states,” You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.”
In the story “Barns Burning” Abner Snopes, the father is accused of burning a neighbor’s barn. Sarty is faced with a decision that will shape the rest of his life. Sarty is called to the stand, but because the plaintiff is ultimately unwilling to force him to testify against his own father, the case is closed, and the father is advised to leave that part of the country. As the family Sarty,
In the short story Barn Burning, William Faulkner sets the scene in a courtroom located in a corner store market. Protagonist, Abner Snopes, was being accused of burning down Mr. Harris’s barn. Because of this, the Snopes family gpt forced to leave the country and never come back. They then moved to a beautiful new place where Abner worked as a sharecropper for Major De Spain. Not long after working for them, Abner ruined their valuable rug by intentionally tracking horse manure onto it. When told to clean it he used soap that completely destroyed it. Major de Spain fined Abner 20 bushels of corn, which caused Abner dto take Major De Spain to court. The Justice only deducts the punishment from 20 bushels to 10 bushels of corn. Due to Abner's rage he plots to burn Major de Spains house by instructing Sarty to gather kerosene. Meanwhile Sarty cautioned Major De Spain about his father’s motives. And lastly, three gun shots went off, but Sarty had no desire to look back to see who was killed.
...an adult, his articulation of this southern code of morality is coherent and well thought out while Sarty’s reaction to his father’s incendiary behaviour is instinctive and not intellectualized. The image of the violent Southern man is evident in both stories, both boys have fathers who have participated in violence-Abner Snopes has a seething rage which finds satisfaction only through burning the property of people he hates and John Sartoris has been directly involved in the war, has a belligerent disposition and resorts to bloodshed frequently in the novel. But the difference lies in the ultimate response of the central character of each story to the southern ideals of masculinity - Bayard initially abides by but ultimately distances himself from Southern codes of honour while Sarty, being a child, is still far from finding himself at the end of “Barn Burning”.
...eard the gunfire, no longer in terror and fear, "Father. My Father he thought." Sarty tried to think good thoughts about his father thinking, "he was brave!" He served as a solder under Colonel Sartoris in the war! When the morning sun came up, he was finally on his own to be his own man, free to make his own individual decisions without worrying about what his father would do to him. It was from Sarty's dilemma of family loyalty and the desire to please his father that kept him from doing the right things. Was his father so bitter due to experiences he had during the Civil War ? Was it society's fault for what happened to his father? Was Abner just born with his us against them attitude? These are all questions that Faulkner leaves with us after reading the "Barn Burning." and is part of that fire in the back of our minds that we will never be able to put out..