The text “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is about a boy named Colonel Sartorius Snopes. His father is accused of committing a crime. The crime he was accused of burning down his neighbor’s barn. He and his family ended up having to move. He and all his family have moved a lot so he was use to moving.…
William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” allows readers to get a glimpse of what two court cases were like for a man named Abner Snopes with the result of the first court course leading him to be exiled and ultimately working for new landowner. As time passes, Abner finds himself in another court case after damaging his new landowner’s valuable rug after putting tracks on it and damaging it once more while attempting to clean it. The landowner, Major de Spain, fines Abner with a hundred dollar replacement fee for the rug along with charging twenty additional bushels of corn. The judge ends up reducing the fine to ten bushels of corn. Because the judge uses rationality for decreasing the punishment based upon how the damages to the rug were made, and…
The readers are introduced to the protagonist and main character, 10-year old Colonel Sartoris at the opening of the story where the setting is a court for the justice of peace and Sarty is to testify against his father the, antagonist, Abner Snopes, who is an angry, destructive, and a morally dysfunctional man who has been accused of burning a barn. In the beginning of the story, Sarty is certain that the man who accused his father of burning his barn is his and his father's enemy. He stands behind his father, his own blood with loyalty instead of supporting the justice of the court. For example, “…our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! Mine and hisn both! He’s my father!” (262). Although, Sarty is convinced that his father’s enemy is his as well, he also is scared because he has a loss of hope and sorrow as he knows his father was wrong for having the “enemy’s” barn burned, but didn’t want to betray his father. Upon, Sarty’s discovery of being called to testify he didn’t want to lie, but knew he would be forced to do it based on his father’s expectations; this bothered Sarty as his heart was full of sorrow and pain. When Mr. Harris calls Sarty to testify before the court, this is where Sarty’s conflict occurs. Sarty states his full name when requested by the justice, Sarty stated his full name, “Colonel Sartoris Snopes”, the justice stated, “I reckon any boy named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth, can they?” (263).…
William Faulkner's “Barn Burning” has many minor characters, some that even have only one line. Colonel Sartoris Snopes or better known as Sarty is one of the more major characters that is defined by the minor characters, mainly being his family. They help define Sarty's character by being his opposite. His mother Lennie Snopes might as well not exist since she does nothing that is really useful in the story. The twins, Sartys sisters do not help out their mother and just sit around talking meanwhile the mother does all of the house work. Sarty's brother is the least mentioned in their family the story, only mentions a couple of facts about him.…
In the story, Faulkner cleverly exposes the problems in the South after the Civil War through the story of the life of Emily Grierson. Faulkner deliberately reverses the order of timeline so that readers easily leave out details of the story; however, this “complicatedly disjunctive time scheme” makes the story more interesting by making the readers string all incidents in the story which seem almost unrelated to each other to find out the content of the story (Dilworth 252). Revolving around the life of Emily, Faulkner’s story reveals the isolation of Emily, her desire to be happy, and the decline of the South. Living in the period of switching from the old to the new, Emily has become a typical victim of that society. Through the tragedy of Emily’s life, Faulkner also highlights the importance of the interaction between the old and the new so that one does not completely brush off the values of the past nor is lost in the new, modern…
figure makes his coldness more threatening and his patriarchal figure puts more force into his coldness. Faulkner portrays him as wolf-like and without heat as well; this description shows us that Abner is not only cunning in his crime, but also emotionless when committing the crime. For example, when burning barns, he dispassionately watches the barns burn down.…
It is later decided in court, by the Justice of the Peace that he will only be required to pay ten bushels of corn. Of course, Abner, being the way he is, will still not stand for it. Inevitably, one night Abner decides he will make his signature statement, the barn burning. Of course, the story doesn't come right out and say this, there is an ambiguous quality to this work by Faulkner. We are clued into Abner's plans for the burning when Sarty is sent to get the oil. Then, when Sarty, says "Ain't you going to even send a nigger?" we can confirm what is planned. It is at this point that the conflict within Sarty arises once more. Sarty had hoped that his father would stop this evil pattern of destruction and disregard for the law and the property of others. However, Sarty at this point is beginning to realize that his father will probably never change. He contemplates running away, something he will soon do. After being detained by his mother for a short time, at his fathers request, Sarty breaks free and heads directly for the land owners…
Faulkner’s deliberate placement of his chapters in this novel is to allow his readers to understand each character and each character relationship in a way that is key in developing main idea of the entire novel. The first chapter is from the perspective of the Compson’s severely retarded son, Benjy. As a result of Benjy’s mental condition, he is incapable of forming clear opinions or emotions in regards to his family members or the events taking place around him. Benjy’s detached view point allows readers to get to know the characters based solely…
For one thing he forces the reader to submerge themselves in the story. Because he has removed himself as a narrator there is no one straight point of view to explain events or ideas and the reader has to compare the different opinions and differing viewpoints from all of the characters and determine for themselves the significance of a particular event. Another thing different about his technique is that it allows us to see the inner thoughts of ALL the characters rather than just one main characters. We see into the mind of each character directly and must analyze what we find there. He does not give any background information on any of his characters; instead the reader must examine characters inner thoughts and on their own determine what type of characters they are. Along with this we are able to see each event from many different perspectives. With multiple narrations the reader can see each event from all of the differing viewpoints and observe how each character saw it and their own opinion on it. Because of this ,we learn more about the character. His unique style lets the reader become a part of the novel by drawing them in more and forcing them to piece together their own idea of what each characters personality is like. Another interesting thing about Faulkner’s style is that he is careful to include outside narrators to remind the reader that the Bundruns are not typical people. For example,…
In “Barn Burning” Colonel Sartoris, the son of Abner Snopes, is questioned by Justice of Peace about accusations that his father burned Harris’ barn. Whether if it’s true or not, William Faulkner, the writer of “Barn Burning” highlights the theme about loyalty with dialogue between Colonel Sartoris and his father. This approach increases tension between Colonel Sartoris and his father because Colonel Sartoris’ loyalty is tested since he knows his father is guilty.…
In William Faulkner's 1939 short story "Barn Burning," a young boy, Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty), is faced with and forced to endure the abusive and destructive tendencies of his father, Abner Snopes. As the story unfolds, several examples can be found to illustrate Faulkner's use of symbolism to allow the reader to sense the disgust for Abner Snopes, the significance in the lack of color usage throughout the story, and finally, Sarty's journey.…
While sitting on the steps Sarty hears his mother crying out to his father saying, “Abner! No! No! Oh, God. Abner!” (Faulkner 9). Sarty noticed that his father was dressed “carefully for shabby and ceremonial violence” and he started to ask his father what he was doing. In this moment Sarty reveals that he was used to this very action of helping his father burn down properties because it was an “old habit” (Faulkner 9). This to him was “the old blood which he had not been permitted to choose for himself” and now was the chance he could prevail and win the battle between being morally righteous and doing the right thing of not helping burn down anything else or he could remain loyal to his family and continue to burn down properties of others (Faulkner 9). Sarty ran and as he was running he debated on running and never stopping just to get away from his problems. Instead of taking the coward way out here is where the reader witnesses the main character start his transformation into adulthood and instead of leaving he decides to tell the De Spain’s what his father is planning to do to their home and all he could yell as he arrived at the De Spain’s home was “Barn!” and this signifies the moment he decided to choose the ethical way rather than owing loyalty to his family. This is a significant moment because it is when Sarty finally stops letting his father think for him and he is thinking for himself and this is him growing…
Reading Question: Describe Sarty Snopes in terms of his personality, his actions, and his moral conflict.…
Setting is one of the literary elements Faulkner used. The way he used the setting and time period in this story is important because it provides meaning behind the words…
In essence, this means that for most of Faulkner's short story, the information the reader collects is from Sarty's point of view. We see things colored by his perspective. In the beginning, we know he is illiterate: only by recognizing pictures of food stores does he know what is inside each can. When Mr. Harris accuses his father, at first Sarty thinks of him as the "enemy," however, we quickly learn that Sarty is not happy with the things his father does, specifically situations that require Sarty to lie for his father. Surprisingly, this apple has fallen quite a distance from the tree: Sarty is not like his dad. Whereas Abner Snopes is a vindictive man who believes pay-backs come in the form of barn…