The Charred: A Short Story

had to wear some old shoes that he had at home. Gold did not like this

In the book Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian, Vahan and his untroubled and carefree life is flipped upside down when some Gendarmes kill both of his older brother right in front of him. All of Vahan’s race are being killed and Vahan has to go off and leave his mother with his brother Sisak and start their own new life on the run. Vahan quickly realizes life if much different without everything being given to you. Vahan’s father, Sarkis, and his brother Sisak taught Vahan to push through the hard times, always have hope, and to stay strong. With the advice given to Vahan by his father and brother, Vahan was able to gain strength and courage to push through the hard times, even when everything seemed hopeless and unbearable.

In Fahrenheit 451 the fire is shown to reveal a certain character in the book. Most of the society wants all the books to burn and thinks that everyone should be equal. One certain character that fire has a big impact on symboling is Beatty. Beatty said, “Now, Montag, you’re a burden. And fire will lift you off my shoulders, clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later” (Bradbury 109).

In A World Lit Only By Fire, William Manchester explains why he started to write this book, when he began writing due to an illness, and how he was too weak to move but not to write. Manchester had decided to branch out from his usual american history book, and begun to write about Magellan, a european explorer, inspired by other explorers like columbus and navigational, Vasco da gama. and the ¨portrait of age surrounding him”. Though Manchester only uses secondary sources to complete this book, it reviews the religion, education, exploration, and the philosophy of the 16th century. Manchester also describes the poverty, corruption, and violence of the dark ages. And finally, Manchester tells of how the reform acts as a hero of the time, bringing hope and prosperity to the middle ages.

Beaten, bruised, broken bones and black eyes. Humiliated, discouraged and emotionally damaged. These are just a few of the things that Francine Hughes went through for over 12 years receiving abuse from her husband, James “Mickey” Hughes. Every nine seconds in the U.S. a women is assaulted or beaten (Schneider, 2000). Her story is a unique one in a sense, which she lived in a time where no one spoke publically about spousal abuse at all. Women were told that what happens in the house stays in the house and no one else should know about it. So for

Barn Burning “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner was written in the ebb of the 1930’s in a decade of social, economic, and cultural decline. This story offers insight into the past years for students to learn of the nation and the South. This story shows the racial segregation that took place in these times between the white landowners and white tenant farmers, the blacks and the whites, and the poor white trash class and the blacks. The Snopes’s family was in the social class of the poor, white tenant farmers. The father, Abner Snopes, had to struggle to provide for his family.

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

Even though young Sarty despises his father’s (Abner) crimes, why does he keep these crimes to himself and not expose his father? Throughout the text of “Barn Burning”, Sarty seems to have repetitive feelings of grief and despair, yet he hesitates to out his father for his crimes. Sarty is hesitant to out his father for his crimes because he hopes his father will change, he fears his father will harm him physically or emotionally, and he places a priority on his family’s wellbeing before his own.

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.

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.

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