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Barn Burning by William Faulkner opens in the country during the late 19th century. Immediately the scene is set in a store that is doubling as the Justice of the Peace’s court. Sartoris Snopes son of Abner Snopes is the young protagonist that is introduced in the beginning as a conflicted and hungry boy. Abner is in court being incriminated for burning down Mr. Harris’s barn. When Sartoris is called up to testify against his father, the court recognizes that he was wrongly put in a compromising position against his family member. Sartoris is then let go. The Judge drops the charges and advises Abner to leave the county all together instead. The Snopes family packs their belongings onto their wagon and make their way to their new location.
First impressions of people are often lasting impressions, especially in the minds of children. Many times these impressions, aided by misunderstanding and prejudgment, cause unjust discrimination against an individual. To kill a Mockingbird depicts the themes of misunderstanding and prejudice that portray Arthur (Boo) Radley as a villain. Through the progressive revelation of Radley's character, the children realize that their negative impressions and fear of him were unfounded. Through gradual stages of change, from total misunderstanding of Boo, to a realization of an error in judgment, to a reevaluation followed by a change of heart, to a growing trust and acceptance of Boo, and finally to an appreciation of his true character, Jem's, Scout's, and Dill's impressions of Radley are dramatically altered.
Entry 1: I feel as though the Lord only caters to white people. I’m really shaking and I just keep shaking but I am staying strong. There was an empty cell between me and all of the other prisoners. Ms. Emma came to see me but I was quiet and just starring at the ceiling. I didn’t care about anything, nothing mattered to me. I am going to die soon anyway so what’s the point. (“What it go’n feel like”(pg. 225).
In a young boy’s life, making the morally right choice can be difficult especially when the choice goes against someone that is suppose to be respected, such as a parent. “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is a coming of age story about a son of a poor and evil sharecropper. Showing the difference between good and evil, Faulkner uses character descriptions and plot, revealing Sarty’s struggles’s as he chooses between making the morally right decision or to be loyal to a dishonest father.
Normally in life, you look up to your father to be the care taker and to encourage you to make your own decisions on what is right and what is wrong. You figure your father should have your best interest at heart and to show compassion for you. In William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," Abner is the opposite of the normal father figure you would see. Rather than encouraging his son, Sarty, to make his own decisions on what is right and what is wrong, Abner wants Sarty to lie for him to protect his freedom, so Abner won’t get caught for burning barns. Abner forces fear into Sarty to make sure he will lie for him rather than tell the truth. The relationship between Abner and Sarty is struggling due to Abners abusiveness and criminal ways.
The cruel dominance of a father, can extinguish any flame of hope that builds in the people around him. In William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," Abner is that father. The story portrays a nomadic life of a family driven from one home to another. Abner had a craving hunger to belittle those around him that thought they were "better than him." Although the family accepts the nomadic life, Sarty (the son) dreams of having peace and stability. To have this peace, it only requires a lack of conflict. The Snope family was doomed to struggle due to Abner's constant instigation of conflict, the ongoing domination of his family and his complete lack of respect for the law.
William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" provides an excellent example of how conflicting loyalties can affect decisions. In Faulkner's story, the main character, Sarty, faces such a dilemma. On one hand, Sarty has the morals that society has instilled in him in spite of his father. One the other hand, Sarty has the loyalty to his father because of the blood ties shared between them and the fact that his father raised and provided for him. Ultimately, it is these conflicting ideas that will lead to Sarty's final decision.
The most important binary operation in Faulkner's masterpiece is the projected idea of the rich versus the stark reality of the poor. Throughout the entire work, the scenes of the Snopes family are constantly described in detail and compared to the richness that appears abundant around them. For example, at the very beginning of the story, the young Colonel Sartoris Snopes is described as "small and wiry like his father" wearing "patched and faded jeans" which are later described as too small (Faulkner 1555). This poor child, with his tattered clothing, bare feet, and scared-to-the-bone look is juxtaposed against the wealth of the Justice of the Peace's borrowed courtroom--its "close-packed" shelves filled with cans of food, aromatic cheese, and "the silver curve of fish"--th...
In the beginning of the story, Sartoris (Sarty) is faced with his first major conflict.
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 for a chain of events that results in his liberation from Abner’s destructive defiance-but at a costly price.
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?
At one point or another in life, everyone has to make decisions that change one's life forever. Usually one encounters an event or a thing that propels such a decision. In William Faulkner's short story, "Barn Burning," Sarty, a young boy, is going through a period of initiation into adult life. During this process, he has to make a life altering decision. For Sarty, his father's fires become the element that plays many roles and eventually drives him to decide the path of his life.
Whether the setting of a story is insignificant or important strictly depends on the way the author develops the time, place, atmosphere, and social context. In Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” and “A Rose for Emily” the setting becomes a huge contributor toward the overall mood and timeline of the stories. Faulkner wrote these two short stories in such a way that the audience feels like they’re living in that dusty old house or the farming community in rural Mississippi.
The story takes place years after the Civil War; the main character is Emily an aristocratic woman who has hardships and trouble all throughout her life. Emily’s family believed that they were better than everyone else and he believed that no man was good enough for his daughter. After her father’s death, Emily began to rebel and do things she knew her father would not have allowed. She dates a Northerner day laborer and kills him, so that he could not leave her. Emily is very stuck up and believed she was better than others. The town people put up with Emily out of respect for her family and she got away with more than she should of.
Understanding literary elements such as patterns, reader/writer relationships, and character choice are critical in appreciating William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Some literary elements are small and almost inconsequential while others are large and all-encompassing: the mother's broken clock, a small and seemingly insignificant object, is used so carefully, extracting the maximum effect; the subtle, but more frequent use of dialectal words which contain darker, secondary meanings; the way blood is used throughout the story in many different ways, including several direct references in the familial sense; how Faulkner chooses to write about poor, common people (in fact to the extreme) and how this relates to the opinions of Wordsworth and Aristotle; and finally, the relationship between the reader and writer, Faulkner's choice of narrator and point of view, and how this is works successfully.
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.