William Faulkner And Barn Burning Essay

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).

Most father-son relationships revolve around love and protection. These relationships are built on the framework of nurturing, guiding and providing. This is the case in most father son relationships, but in the story “Barn Burning” Colonel Sartoris Snopes and Abner Snopes relationship is quite the contrary. William Faulkner strays far from the typical father son relationship and presents Abner Snopes as an abusive father, both physically and mentally, to his son, Colonel Sartoris Snopes.

Although some have and still may argue that this is an unnecessary confusion created by Faulkner, we must ask ourselves whether or not we would have given this symbolism much importance without Faulkner’s particular way of presenting it. Faulkner effectively draws attention to the differences of the South’s old and new generations and to their particular flaws in “A Rose of Emily” using the switching point of view tactic, which is depicted not only in this short story, but also in “Barn

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

   In William Faulkner's story, "Barn Burning", we find a young man who struggles with the relationship he has with his father and his own conscience.  We see Sarty, the young man, develop into an adult while dealing with the many crude actions and ways of Abner, his father.  We see Sarty as a puzzled youth that faces the questions of faithfulness to his father or faithfulness to himself and the society he lives in.  His struggle dealing with the reactions that are caused by his father's action result in him thinking more for himself as the story progresses.

developing a mind and will of his own. He is no longer unperceptively loyal to his father.

In William Faulkner's, “Barn Burning”, Sarty tries to conform to this life of crime. Sarty is the son of a sharecropper, who is known as the “barn burner”. Sarty is forced to live a continuously hectic life, that is both unhealthy and unstable. The Snopes family constantly travels place to place, and they never have a stable financial situation. Sarty begins to gain hope for his family, at the arrival of Major De Spain's home. The beauty of the home overwhelms Sarty, and gives him the push he needs to keep going. Abner unfortunately has the opposite feeling, which makes Sarty’s life harder. Sarty’s loyalty to his father is strong in the beginning, but soon fades away, due to his moral conscience to do right

William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” symbolizes the destructiveness of the human ego through the character, Abner Snopes. Throughout the story, Snopes functions and communicates based on his own logic. He has no regard for his family, superiors, or the judicial system. His unrelenting effort to live according to what he deems as “right” creates an atmosphere of fear and oppression.

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

“Barn Burning” first appeared in print in Harper’s Magazine in 1939 (Pinion). It is a short story by William Faulkner which depicts a young boy in crisis as he comes to realize the truth about his father’s pyromania. Faulkner takes the reader inside the boy’s life as he struggles to remain loyal to his unstable father. In the end the boy’s courage and sense of justice wins and he not only walks away from his father’s iron clad control over his life, but he is able to warn his father’s next victim. To understand how this boy could make such a courageous, difficult decision we must review the important events in the story and the effect they have on him.

actions to show that no one will own or control him. He has no regard

The theme of Faulkner's "Barn Burning" is Sarty Snopes's desire to break away from the oppressive conditions of his family life. Sarty gains this freedom when he decides to warn the de Spains because his father's violation of his own sort of morality liberates him from what he calls the "pull of blood," or duty to his family.

just doesn’t want to being alone even at the end of her life. In the story, Faulkner uses passive tone to try to let us know both characters carry anger in their life. "Barn Burning" is filled with imagine of destroyed, and Abner is the one who always feel anger to those have power, since he has none. Abner comes from low economic background, and he has no house but only his wife and children. He has to work continuously from day to day, which makes him feel unsatisfied about his life and thinks he should deserve more. When he gets angry, he has a habit of destroying others belongs and property. The scene where he visits the home of the de Spain family is very significant because it shows us that he expresses his anger against the rich people. Abner noticed that an expensive rug inside Major de Spain's house costs one hundred dollar and he feels jealous of what Major de Spain has owned. Thus, he steps in horse manure when he first goes into the house, and then he steps onto the white rug wherever he goes for trying to "leaving a final long and fading smear" (Faulkner 484). His actions reveal that he isn’t satisfied for what he already had so he wants to destroy other's belongs to make himself feel better. Abner's actions are more destructive, and he only consider his own feelings rather than the others. Since his anger

Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi where he remained except for brief trips to New Orleans, some youthful wanderings, and a few years in the Royal Air Force. After a promising start as a student, Faulkner began to lose interest and to do poorly in school when he entered his teens. It was at this time that he began to write poetry and short stories. In high school, he was more interested in sports and extracurricular activities than in his studies. The pattern of his writing’s was based upon what he saw in Oxford or remembered from his childhood; or scraps of family tradition, or in stories told by men in overalls, squatting on their heels while they passed around a fruit jar of corn liquor. All of his stories can be linked together to tell one big story of how he saw his family life, and how time has changed the South. The characters in most of his stories reflect upon real life people whom he shared his love for as a child and as an adult.

“Barn Burning” (1939) by William Faulkner is a short story set during the Dust Bowl, a time of overexploited soil and bad weather conditions caused by the rapid industrialisation that had taken place in the preceding years. It follows a family of farmers in the Southern region of the United States who are going to their new house after the father, Abner, has been accused of burning the barn where they were working, and has been then expelled from the country for doing so. The main issue in the story is faced by the son, Sarty, who is struggling between turning his father in and follow the rules of justice, or stand by his family despite knowing that it means breaking the law. Thus, the action is executed by Abner whilst the mental reflection is realized by Sarty, making it difficult to determine who is the protagonist. The aim of this essay is to study the transformation Sarty experiences, hence establishing him as