Barn Burning Abner Snopes As A Negative Character Analysis Essay

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

There are many consequences to bad choices in life. Abner Snopes makes many decisions that hurt him, his family, and whoever may have tried to do him wrong. He is jealous of the families that he sharecrops for, and is angry for not being able to be like them “Faulkner’s story tells of the emotional distancing of young Satoris “Sarty” Snopes from his father when he realizes the toll that his father’s penchant for burning the barns of wealthy landowners has on its victims” ( Krstovic 30). Society has basically told him he is lower class due to his resentments of “ Abner’s rootless-ness, his continual wandering from place to place, and his contempt for tradition and order” (Stein 732). His thoughts of them being superior to him bring out feelings of rage and inferiority. As Abner is angry about being accused of burning down a barn, being driven from the last town they lived in, and having total disdain for his new land owner, he chooses to take that anger out on the de Spain family by burning down their barn. Abner’s choice to have no regard for others, gives him bestial like qualities which is evident when he “steps in fresh [horse] droppings” (Faulkner 1960).

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's short story "Barn Burning" describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War. The main character, Abner Snopes, sharecrops to make a living for his family. He despises wealthy people. Out of resentment for wealthy people, he goes and burns their barns to get revenge. Abner's character over the course of the story is unchanging in that he is cold hearted, lawless, and violent.<br><br>First, Abner's unchanging character shows his cold heartedness. After being sentenced to leave the country for burning a man's barn, he shows no emotions to his family. During the story, there was not a time when he apologized or offered a word of encouragement to them. His tone of voice when talking

Fire is the start and end of this story. Abner’s constant envy is the fuel to his personal fire within himself. He travels from job to job picking vendettas with people because they have what he desires, land and money. In these times a person’s barn is their livelihood and Abner, who is just a tenant farmer, wants what others have. So he takes from them, by means of destruction, what he could not claim for himself. He justifies it in his mind with trivial reasons, convincing himself these people had done him harm in some way, and deserved what was coming. Abner provides grand, harty flames for the people he hated while providing his family with “a small fire, neat, niggard almost, a shrewd fire; such fires were his father 's habit and custom always, even in freezing weather” (Faulkner 34). Fires are the only true thing Abner has control over. Abern expects his

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?

This trait is revealed in his military record. The official family report echoed by Sarty at the end of the story is that Abner was a brave member of Colonel Sartoris's cavalry. The true story, however, is that although Snopes might have originally joined the Confederate

The short story “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner takes place sometime around World War II. It is focused on the Snopes family, in particular, Abner Snopes, the father. The story starts off in a courtroom of a small town in which Abner Snopes was being prosecuted for Arson. Abner is described as a terrible man by his own family. His children and wife witness their father's actions and acts of abuse. After the trial ends and the Snopes family get out of town to the next house to work at. Sadly, the cycle continues, and Abner continues to commit arson.

William Faulkner is a writer from Mississippi. Faulkner is a very famous writer with most of his most famous works being short stories. Two of his most popular short stories are “A rose for Emily” along with “Barn Burning”. Faulkner has many other popular works, but “Barn Burning” was one of his well-known stories because of the many different of elements of literature in which Faulkner chose to include. Faulkner was known as a writer who could properly convey many different elements of literature, such as symbolism, conflict, tone, and many other elements of plot within his stories. In “Barn Burning”, William Faulkner most commonly uses symbolism and conflict to emphasize the obstacles that Sarty has to face in his youth years.

To start Boo Radley is a kind person, he cares about everyone, this can be seen throughout the book in a series of events for example, when Boo Radley put a blanket on Scout’s shoulder because it was cold out “ Someday maybe, Scout can thank him for covering her up” (Lee pg 96), another event is when he folded and sewed Jem’s pants “ When I went back for my breeches- they were all in a tangle when I was gettin’ out of’ em, I couldn’t get’ em loose. When I went back they were folded across the fence…. like they were expectin’ me.” (Lee pg 78), or when he took Jem to Atticus’ house after the brawl against Bob Ewell and when Heck Tate asked who had brought Jem home Scout pointed her finger towards Boo Radley and she talked to him like if they were friends “Hey Boo, I said” (Lee pg 362). All of those events show the reader that Boo Radley is a kind person and that no matter the situation he will always do his best to help. Boo Radley is kind and he had always been that way, even when he was young he always treated Miss Maudie in a gentle and kind way, which makes Miss Maudie think that Boo Radley or how she calls him Mr. Arthur still is the same kind gentleman he was in his childhood. “I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did. Spoke as nicely as he knew how” (Lee pg 61), with this quote from Miss Maudie, one may see how it supports my claim about Boo Radley being a kind person, the quote also conveys how Boo Radley was when he was young and how he was treated.

In the story Barn Burning, Faulkner uses the Snopes to display that social classes affect how a person sometimes acts or behave to a certain extent. William Faulkner uses the literary of conflict when he decided to make Sarty choose between morality or blood bonds. This will lead to Sarty telling De Spain what is to come “Barn! Barn!” and in the end, Sarty “sat now, his back to what he had called home for four days now”(Faulkner). This affects the story because it shows the highlight turn of event in which Sarty decided to reason rather than blood ties. It is evident that the actions of the Justice of the Peace, De Spain, Abner Snopes and others that made Sarty decided to do what he did. Before this all happen, Sarty making his own decision, Sarty choosing his path, De Spain rides out with his gun,

     The works of William Faulkner have had positive effects on readers throughout his career. Local legends and gossip trigger the main focus of his stories. Considering that Faulkner grew up in Mississippi, he was very familiar with the ways of the South. This award winning author has been praised by many critics for his ability and unique style of writing. One of Faulkner's most popular works, which also was his first short story nationally published in

The writer and Nobel Prize winner, William Cuthbert Faulkner, was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897. Faulkner was the first of four sons to Murry Cuthbert Falkner and Maud Butler. His family settled in Oxford when he was about five years old, and Faulkner spends most of his life there. Faulkner was successful early in his life, but during the fifth grade he lost interest in school and started missing classes. He did not graduate from high school, and later on he was able to go to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, but dropped out after three semesters. He is known as one of the most famous Southern literature writers, mostly for his novels and poetry. William Faulkner's literary career was influenced by

The story of "Barn Burning" was "first published in the June of 1939 in the Harper's Magazine and later awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award for the best short story of the year." The author, William Faulkner, "was one of America's most innovative novelists". The way he describes the smells, sites and sounds of the rural late 1800's make you feel as if you are there with the characters in this story. Through the use of symbolism, Faulkner tells the story about a relationship of a father and son. Fire was the most vital symbol used and describes the way, Abner, the main character in the story faces all of his challenges. He lived his life like a flaming inferno destroying

In his short story “Barn Burning” William Faulkner shows how hard growing up can be and how there comes a time when you have to make some excruciatingly hard choices that can significantly impact your future. "Barn Burning" is a short story written by the American author William Faulkner, according to what I read in the article “Misplacing "Barn Burning", a Story of the '90s” on the SouthEast Missouri State University website, that I accessed on February 2nd, 2018, “Barn Burning” was published in 1939. Like most of Faulkner’s stories it has received a lot of praise. The main theme is the internal struggles Sarty endures while battling what is right and wrong and his loyalty to his family. I myself have struggled with doing the right thing and what loyalty can mean.