...to engage the reader into a story. This is also the case in “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner. Faulkner’s two major characters in “Barn Burning,” could easily fall into the categories dynamic, round, static and flat characters. Although Faulkner has several minor characters that add to the story as well, we will only be taking a look at his two major characters. Colonel Sartoris Snopes, or “Sarty,” would be our dynamic, round character. Abner Snopes, our other main character, would be our flat, static character. Often times a major character will fall into a couple different categories of character types. Sarty can also be classified as both a dynamic character (one that changes throughout the story), and also a round character (one that acts from varied, often conflicting motives, impulses, and desires). Throughout the story Sarty has to struggle with following the teachings of his father, regarding family loyalty vs. his own inner moral judgment. There is a trial going on at the opening of the story, where Sarty’s father is on trial for burning down his employer’s barn. Sarty is called to the stand, but then removed before having a chance to testify against his father. Later his father confronts him, asking “You were fixing to tell them. You would have told him.” To which Sarty replies, that he would have. He later of course, does side with justice and warns Major De Spain that is father is planning to his barn. Arriving at the De Spain home for the first time, is a crucial...
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...1 A Strong Bond The theme in “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner revolved around the strong bond of a family. The main character has to make a decision between what is right and wrong. This drives a wedge between him and his family. The rest of the family believes that blood is thicker than water and that you should stick with your own kin. In the story the strong bond of a family causes conflicts within the main character. Faulkner starts “Barn Burning” with a view of a small courthouse. Sarty sits outside as his father, Abner, argues with the Justice of the Peace. This shows just how little respect Abner has for the law. Abner is being accused of setting someone’s barn on fire. The Justice rules that Abner should pack his belongings and leave the country before dark. Abner and his sons then head out to the wagon where the rest of his family awaits. They ride for a while before camping out in some trees. The next day they arrive at the house and begin unpacking. Then Abner leaves and sets route to the De Spain’s house. Upon arrival he barges through the door and calmly wipes his feet over the expensive white carpet. He has no respect for others or their belongings. A couple hours later a man arrives with the rug and tells Abner to clean it. He does not only clean the rug, but he also sets it on fire to prove that he is above the law. After getting in trouble with the Justice of Peace again Abner prepares to set fire to the De Spain’s barn to show that he is above everyone...
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...Barn Burning Although many political and economic changes took place following the civil war, it was very evident in William Faulkner’s Barn Burning that the impact on the social lives of the people living in the south were the most difficult to overcome. He utilizes the new tension between the social classes to create a compelling short story of a boy and his father, but more important, using the family to represent the change in society, the change between good and evil. The new social order after the civil war was a cause of tension between Abner Snopes and his surrounding communities. In William Faulkner’s Barn Burning Abner is portrayed as a man with much insecurity, which causes him to lash out at the people that were better off than him “‘I aim to. I don’t figure to stay in a country among people who…’ He said something unprintable and vile.” While Abner was not found guilty of arson the family is forced to leave on account of their own safety “’Barn burner!’” shouts one of the other citizens, showing the reader how much Abner and his family are un-liked. However, his choices do not change how his son sees him, yet. Abner and his way of dealing with issues begin to take a toll on the family, and most of all his son Sardy. His excessive anger and violence begin to change how Sardy feels about him, and he starts to question if his father is a good role model. Sensing this, Abner decides to intervene before Sardy sees what kind of a man he really is “’You’re going to...
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...Barn Burning William Faulkner is concerned with the south and its problems with black slavery. The issues in Barn Burning deal with the conflict between father and son. The theme of this story focuses on justice. The boy, Sarty, objects to his father burning barns and wants people to be treated fairly. His father, Abner, believes his son should respect and support kin. Abner thinks family is right no matter what. Faulkner's intent is to show that choosing between one's own family and justice is very difficult to do, and in the end justice must prevail. The theme is best illustrated by its point of view, its characterization, and setting. Faulkner represents his point of view using both first and third person to translate his theme. The story is being told by Sartoris Snopes who is a boy at the time the story takes place. Throughout the story he shifts from first to third person narrative voices. At times in the story he would speak as only a child would, then something would be said by him which was too knowledgeable for a boy his age to know. This gives an impression that he is older and is remembering things of his past. Switching between first and third person shows that the choice he made greatly affected him. The way the characters are portrayed remarkably depicts Faulkner's theme. The two conflicting characters are described in similar ways to show their differences. Abner is described by how people see and think about him. From...
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...Analysis of “Barn Burning” The main issue that arises in this short story is right versus wrong. Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes is a young man who feels the building pressure of his conscience, but extreme loyalty to his father. Sarty possesses a keen sense of right and wrong. The opening seen begins with his father, Abner Snopes, expecting his son to perjure himself. This would allow Abner to not be prosecuted for barn burning. He strongly believes in the kinship bond the “old fierce pull of blood.” He doesn’t focus on the consequences of his actions…nor does he care. Abner Snopes is very poor, paranoid, vengeful and full of rage. He despises those who are more financially stable. Unlike his bitter father, Sarty subconsciously questions his father’s devilish actions. He is unable to fathom the reasoning why his father feels justified to ruin these wealthy properties. His loyalty is demonstrated in the scene which the young boys call out, “Barn burner!” Sarty immediately strikes out and punches the boys. This shows the reader that he does feel personally threatened. It is apparent that he yearns for a normal father…One that he could idolize and learn positive attributes. Abner feels that by burning down these properties it is doing justice. He is exhausted from working as a farm hand, so he preys on those who he feels threatened by. Sarty hopes that his father will stop eventually as he states, “Maybe he’s done satisfied now, now that he has”…then he stopped himself. The...
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...A Literary Analysis of “Barn Burning” In the beginning, “Barn Burning” appears to be a story about an oppressive father and his family, who seems to be caught up in his oppression. As you read further in to the story you find that the story is focused on a young son of a poor sharecropper, who has to struggle with his father’s arsonist tendencies which are destroying his families’ reputation and life style, while coming to terms with his own morality. The young son, whose name is Colonel Sartoris Snopes, is the protagonist in this story. Sarty (the boy’s nickname) disapproves of his father’s destructive actions and soon has to decide whether to be loyal to his family or give in to his own values of morality. Abner Snopes, who is the boy’s father, is the antagonist in the story. Abner Snopes is a very angry man, who despises the aristocracy class of people whom he has to work for and throughout the story constantly displays this hatred. The story is narrated in third person and follows a typical format. In Faulkner’s writing style, he uses descriptive dictation to draw the reader’s in to the story. In the first paragraph Faulkner introduces us to the main character in the story, Sarty. Subsequently, throughout the story we are introduced to the other family members. The setting in which Sarty’s conflict is recognized is at a trial, where his father is being accused of setting a barn on fire. This is also where Faulkner allows us a glimpse of Sarty’s internal moral dilemma in regards...
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...In a cycle of repression, a person may need to do the unexpected. Maybe a courageous act of defiance is needed to get hope back into a life. In “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner, Sartoris, the main character, is a young boy on the path for a dim future because he is in a poverty-stricken family with a father who shows no care for him. After losing his hope, Sartoris must go against the ways of the rest of his family to ensure that he has a brighter future. Faulkner emphasizes that Sartoris has escaped misery and is heading down the path for a better life with the contrast of the family dynamic and the hopeful tone of the last two paragraphs. All of Abner’s emotion is reserved for society and everything except his family, and the small amount...
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...Jaleel Ritchwood Dr. Angela Elliot Introduction to Literary Analysis ENG1005A Breaking Free William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning” seems just to be about an oppressive father and a son who is in the grips of that oppression. I think Faulkner explores at least one important philosophical question in this story where he asks at what point should a person make a choice between what his parent(s) and/or family believes and his own values? The main character and protagonist in this story is a boy named Colonel Sartoris, who is nicknamed Sarty. In this story, Sarty is faced with the decision of both going along with the views and actions of his ethically challenged father or assert his own ethics and independence by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind. In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”, Sarty and his father Abner struggle with internal emotions dealing with their way of life. The antagonist in the story is Abner Snopes. Abner is a very angry and inconsiderate man who has hate and abomination for almost anybody who is not “blood-kin”, and he portrays that hatred and disapproval throughout the story. This story follows the typical format and is narrated in the third person. In the exposition, Faulkner’s skill as a writer is established through the way that he uses details to draw the readers into the story. Also, in the first paragraph we are introduced to the main character and protagonist in the story, Sarty. The setting in which Sarty’s conflict is...
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...In the story “Barn Burning”, the characters and their individual personalities are what drives the plot. Some characteristics that Sarty and Abner have are both positive and negative. Abner, who is a static character throughout the story, shows more negative character traits such as criminality and violence towards Sarty and his wife Lennie. Sarty, on the other hand, displays more positive character traits like honesty and having a strong conscious. In the beginning of the story, Sarty feels belittled, powerless, and trapped, however, he learns what his priorities are. Though some decisions are harder to make than others, Sarty overcomes his fear of losing his family’s trust as the story moves on. The development of the characters in “Barn...
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...In the middle of Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”, events occur that not only alter the way Sarty thinks, but also the way he acts. Upon arrival at Major De Spain’s, Sarty takes in the sights of the new place that he hopes they will call home. Sarty is filled with joy and peace when he realizes that the house of De Spain is “big as a courthouse” (151). The wealth and size of De Spain causes Sarty to be fooled by the thought that “they are safe from him” (151) and the dangers his father possesses. No longer does Sarty view his dad as superior to those he works for. In fact, Sarty hopes that “maybe [his dad] will feel it too” (151) and sees that there is potential that the social and economic security De Spain has can scare his father to the point that...
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...In William Faulkner’s story, “Barn Burning”, a young man, Colonel Sartoris, struggled with the relationship he had with his father and his own conscience. Sarty, the young man, develop into an adult while dealing with the many crude actions and ways of Abner, his tyrannical father. Sarty was a puzzled youth faced with the decision of either going along with the views and actions of his morally challenged father or asserting his own morality and individuality by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind. His struggle dealing with the reactions that were caused by his father’s action resulted in him thinking more for himself throughout the story. Sarty knew he “smelled cheese, and more.” He smelled the “fierce pull of blood,” his father’s blood, the blood of the family name, Snopes. Sarty knew he was also the son of the “barn burner.” A name he heard hissing as they passed by boys in town. Sarty fought to defend his father, but when hurt; he seemed to need the blood to remain for a while as a reminder of why he stayed with his father. Sarty viewed his father at times as “bloodless” and cut from “tin.” Sarty could usually convince himself why his father was this way. The fact that he had to be a horse trader for four years, hiding from the blue and the gray armies to exist by stealing or “capturing” as he called it, horses caused Sarty to view his father the way he did. “Barn Burning” was a sad story because it not only showed the classical struggle between...
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...“Maybe he will feel it too. Maybe it will even change him from what maybe he couldn’t help but be” thinks Sarty (4). Sarty hopes that his father will finally change his ways. Sarty experiences more thoughts like this are William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” which depicts bildungsroman while deals with his father Abner’s pyromania. Sarty shows submission by complying with his father’s will even though he doesn’t want to. Sarty reveals this by thinking “ He aims for me to lie… And I will have to do hit” (1). This shows that Sarty is afraid of disobeying his father. Sarty also displays his compliance to his father by saying: “He won’t git no ten. He won’t git one.” (9). Sarty is trying to defend his father even though his father messed up the rug on purpose. Finally, Sarty displays compliance by thinking, “our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! Mine and hisn both! He’s my father!” (1). All of these reveal Sarty’s submission to his father’s will....
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...From the beginning of the story Barn Burning, Sartoris the son of Snope has witnessed his dad burn barns. Snopes’s physical presence fully reflects the inner corruption and love of revenge that he embodies. His leg, shot in the war when he was stealing Confederate horses for personal profit, drags lamely behind him, a show of his corrupt inner life. Because Snopes is wholly unable to express himself articulately or intelligently, his sole recourses for self-expression are violence and cruelty. Sartoris dad lies in all the courts he has attended with his father Snope and his makes him lie too. He knows his father is doing something wrong yet he just never says anything because he does not want his dad to get in trouble. In this case, the protagonist Sartoris is living a world of guilt knowing what his own father does but cannot put his own family in danger. In addition, the father puts more ideas in Sartoris head that makes him feel even guiltier by stating that if he does not remain loyal to...
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...In William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning,” Sarty, a ten year old boy, struggles to find his own identity due to choosing between his father’s ideals of loyalty to family and justice. Sarty lives and travels with a very poor white family, and they work on farms of rich landowners, but they get paid very little. As the beginning of the story begins, Sarty and his family are in court for Abner’s decisions of burning landowners’ barns. In the process, Sarty is pressured to choose between two paths, in which Faulkner shows “the classic conflicts of good versus evil, son versus father, and individual versus familial identity” (Ford). At the end Sarty’s final resolution develops his identity. Sarty’s conflict with his father is very strong, because Abner Snopes believes family loyalty is everything. Sarty is unable to make his own choices due to Abner’s ideals, because from the beginning Abner enforces Sarty to “stick to your own blood”(Faulkner 175). In the opening scenes, Sarty’s conflict is unveiled. Sarty loves and respects his father, but in court he does not want to lie. This causes Sarty to recognize his father’s enemies as his own enemies, and this puts Sarty in a very uncomfortable position. As Ford states, during the first trial with Mr. Harris’ Barn, the Justice of the peace banishes Abner from town instead of testifying...
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...In William Faulkner’s book, Barn Burning, Abner Snopes is a cold and violent Civil War veteran. Faulkner writes him to be harsh and emotionless. Abner is also describes as a man with shaggy gray eyebrows, and pebble-colored hair; furthermore, he walks with a limp that he obtains while stealing a horse during the war. Abner Snopes would not be considered a family man, because he is stiff and emotionless when it comes to his family. His family often receives the blunt force of his anger and frustration, especially Sarty. There are many explanations that could be used to explain Abner’s cruel behavior such as; Post-traumatic stress from the war that he served in, jealousy of those who has more than him, and his attitude towards others could be a reflection...
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