Faulkner\'s \"Barn Burning\" Annotated Bibliography William Faulkner\'s

¶ … Faulkner's "Barn Burning"

Annotated Bibliography William Faulkner's "Barn Burning"

Ford discusses the narrative aging of the main character in "Barn Burning." Through the eyes of the brutalized child there is no real sense of his father's (Abner's) motivations and/or the son's characteristic numbness created by the self-preservation associated with the tragedy of abuse a cultural and personal phenomena. The work details by describing several passages in the work, and especially interactions between the father and son the aging of the young character in the historical context of post-civil war south, reflecting on what he might deduce about his father's character with maturity. The work provides a significant insight into a challenging aspect of the narrative, as the very brief recollection of the abused child, i.e. The few days of childhood that serve as the setting for the story, would not if told as a simple narrative have offered much insight into the character of the father. The work details the scene in the story where Sarty is struck by his father for having the desire to testify against him at the opening trial scene. When the father strikes the boy, the narrator ages him mentally, to conjecture regarding how an older person or even a man might perceive the situation, seeing his father through older eyes and conjecturing that had he defended the honor and truth being sought by the justice of the peace and his father's "enemy" (good) over his duty to family (evil) he would simply have been struck a second time. Another insightful passage details the same narrative technique with regard to the "niggardly" fire Abner builds to warm his family while camping between homes. The character of Sarty simply accepts that these are the types of restrained fires that his father builds, while the aged character speculates as to why the arsonist (Abner) would choose such a small fire when he has the compulsion to burning other people's things, through a brief retelling of his war history. The literary analysis serves as an insightful interpretation of the narrative technique

Ford, M. (1998). Narrative legerdemain: Evoking Sarty's future in 'Barn Burning'. Mississippi Quarterly, 51(3), 527.

In Loges literary criticism he discusses the importance of names in the "Barn Burning" demonstrating that Sarty's name was derived from Colonel John Sartoris, who "represents those ideals of truth and integrity," which are clearly part of Sarty's character and often the source of his challenges of good over evil and honor over family, a historically interesting chapter in the history of America after the civil war. Then he contrasts Sarty's brother's name Flem as being derived from "flimflam," a slang expression meaning "to swindle." The juxtaposition of these two characters is clear in the work, yet Loges points out that the name of the father, Abner rarely receives attention even though there is a likely connection between the name and the biblical character of the same name. "The Abner of the Bible was the commander in chief of the armies of Israel during the reign of King Saul. Early on, there are suggestions that Abner may not have been intensely dedicated to protecting the life of the king." The work then goes on to detail this character development using more examples from the biblical and ant Faulkner text. Loges provides an insightful depiction of the deeper meanings held in names in Faulkner's work.

Loges, M.L. (1998). Faulkner's BARN BURNING. Explicator, 57(1), 43.