Analyzing Abner Snopes Son

As the fireman, Guy Montag, from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury changes his view on the world, his view on fire changes as well. Throughout the book he encounters many different people who each change him in different ways. Some people convince him that fire is great because of its destruction. It burns away the things that make people unhappy, and changes things. However, as his journey continues, he begins to see fire as an escape. By the end of the book, he realizes that fire does not just take and destroy, but it gives.

William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” takes a lot of real life cultural values and ways of southern life in the late 1800s. Many of those values and ways are expressed by sharecropping and tenant farming.

The short story,”Barn Burning”written by William Faulkner is about a 10 year old boy named Sarty, who gets called to the stand of the court; his father, Abner Snopes, is accused of burning a barn down. Sarty knows that his father is guilty of arson and wants justice to be served, but, his father wants him to stay loyal to his family and blood. The conflict of morals vs. family goes on for the entire story,Sarty’s moral beliefs are embedded in justice and peace, while his father wants him to protect his family no matter the circumstances. Literary devices used in the story are symbolism and diction, the symbols of blood and fire being, family and a chain.and being told from the perspective of a timid ten year old boy. One of the major themes present throughout the story is courage, wanting to tell on his father for arson but, being shot down by his intimidating father. William Faulkner illustrates the theme of courage through the use of symbolism and diction

People are born into families without decision. We cannot choose our family and sometimes that is a bad thing. In some situations, people have a bad home life growing up as a child. Until a person is old enough to make their own decisions they will have to do what their parents tell them. When a person becomes old enough to decide for themselves what their morals are they can begin to live freely. In Everyday Use, Barn Burning, and Those Winter Sundays, the authors Alice Walker, William Faulkner, and Robert Hayden all illustrate significant change in the characters Mama, Sarty, and the man at the end of the stories.

William Faulkner was born in 1897. Growing up in Mississippi inspired Faulkner to incorporate his southern roots into many of his works. Many of his works intertwined when it came to the setting and even some of the characters of his stories. William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” is no different. In “Barn Burning” Faulkner brings in his native south through the setting, family dynamics, and social class.

William Faulkner some would say was one of the great writers of American literature during the twentieth century. His stories many times had a gothic plot and contained odd or supernatural ideas and characters. He had many notable works, two of which were “A Rose for Emily” and “Barn Burning”. “A Rose for Emily” and “Barn Burning” are similar in the way that William Faulkner portrays the characters and the tone he uses in both.

The theme of William Faulkner's Barn Burning is Colonel Sartoris Snope's desire to break away from the oppressive conditions of his family life. He is pulled between his family and his morality. In this essay, I will discuss Sarty's struggle between the two sides of his conflict and the point at which it becomes resolved.

In “Lennie Snopes, A Closer Look,” Sigrid Hanson Fowler takes the reader deeper into the life of Lennie Snopes and her impact in “Barn Burning.” Fowler claims that Lennie is not given enough credit for her role as he states “ ...few spend time on the mother of Sarty Snopes.” He is bringing attention to the fact that Lennie plays such an important role in “Barn Burning,” yet she is rarely spoken about when the topic is brought up. Fowler uses an example from Jane Hiles, he states that “Jane Hiles discusses Sarty's genetic inheritance but focuses entirely upon Abner, as if Sarty, like Athena, has had only one parent--a father.” This shows how Fowler is observing other people’s views as though they are in complete disregard to Lennie. Fowler

Ilan Stavans says that Juan Rulfo’s book, The Plain in Flames, is best represented by the phrase realismo crudo. Stavans defines this phrase as “a type of realism interested in the rawness of life”, meaning that he characterizes Rulfo’s writing as an unfiltered view into the lives of the average Mexican (Stavans, xi). By writing in this style, Rulfo is able to provide “an image—instead of just a description—of our landscape” as stated by Octavio Paz (xv). To create this image, Rulfo broke his story writing the process down into three separate steps. As paraphrased by Ilan Stavans, the first step “is to create a character”, the second step “is to place him in an environment where he might move around” and the third step “is to discover how the character expresses himself” (xiii). Rulfo was able to repeatedly crafted stories that were filled with high levels of realismo crudo by using that special three-step process. By creating his protagonist, crafting an environment for said protagonist, and allowing the character to express themselves within this environment, Rulfo crafted a three-tier image of post-revolutionary life in Mexico that has never been seen before.

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?

Every person reaches a point in their lives when they must define themselves in relation to their parents. We all come through this experience differently, depending on our parents and the situation that we are in. For some people the experience comes very early in their lives, and can be a significant life changing experience. In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” Colonel Sartoris Snopes must decide either to stand with his father and compromise his integrity, or embrace honesty and morality and condemn his family. This is a difficult decision to make, especially for a ten year old boy that has nothing outside of what his father provides. Sarty’s decision to ultimately betray his father is dependent on his observation of Abner’s character

The saying, “blood is thicker than water” is a term used to imply that family relationships are always more important than friends. However, at times it may be hard to choose between family and friends based on right and wrong. In the short story, Barn Burning, written by “William Faulkner, a Nobel Prize winning novelist of the American South”(“William Faulkner”), choosing between family and doing what is right for honor and justice is highly expressed. The main character, Colonel Sartoris Snopes, nicknamed Sarty, battles his thoughts of doing what is right or wrong throughout the story. After following the orders of his father for ten years, Sarty eventually decides to make his own choice and go against the pull of blood.

One of the reasons Sarty does not leave in the beginning is that his father looks frightening. In the quote, “…the stiff and implacable limp of the figure which was not dwarfed by the house…,” Sarty’s father is being described as big compared to Sarty (Faulkner 1959). Since Sarty’s father looks big to Sarty, he fears his father. Abner, Sarty’s father, is being compared to tin in the quote, “…a shape black, flat, and bloodless as though cut from tin in the iron folds of the frockcoat which had not been made for him, the voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin…,” (1958). The quote says that Abner is bloodless, or lifeless, like tin, and his voice is harsh and without heat like tin. Abner talks to Sarty like he is commanding him.

All stories, as all individuals, are embedded in a context or setting: a time, a place, and a culture. In fact, characters and their relationship to others are better understood in a specific context of time, place and atmosphere, as they relate to a proposed theme or central point of a story. Abner is revealed as a sadistic character who confronts his son with the choice of keeping his loyal ties to the family or parting for a life on his own with no familial support. Sarty is Abner's son, a young boy torn by the words of his father and the innate senses of his heart. Sarty is challenged by an internal conflict, he wants to disobey his father, yet he knows that if he leaves he will have nowhere to go and no one to turn to. We will

Summary of central events: Mr. Snopes burns Mr. Harris barn because Mr. Harris charges him, “a dollar pound fee,” (515) for the return of his hog. In court the judge dismisses the charges against Snopes but warns him to leave the town for good and Snopes agrees to comply. The next day the family arrives at their new home. After Snopes tracks horse manure onto the expensive rug, the server instructs him to clean and return it. Snopes ruins the rug from improper cleaning and Major de Spain “charge[s] [him] twenty bushels of corn against [his] crop” (521). At the last court appearance the judge decides that Mr.Snopes has to pay Major de Spain 10 bushels of corn for the ruin of the rug. Because Snopes is upset from having to pay de Spain for