Barn Burning by William Faulkner and Where

¶ … Barn Burning" by William Faulkner and "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" By Joyce Carol Oates are coming of age stories that detail the lives of their adolescent protagonists. These stories reveal the strained relationships that adolescents have with their parents at the juncture of critical identity formation. Both Faulkner and Oates exhibit what Zender calls a "self-consciously ambiguous approach to motive" that creates "a pleasing sense of heightened tension, of thickness of texture, and of multiplicity of perspective" that makes their respective short stories pop and shine. It is the central external conflicts in "Where are you Going, Where Have You Been?" that help drive rich character development in these short stories. These stories show how adolescents, whose mind and identity remain malleable and not completely clarified, react to their primary role models: their parents. It is the conflict between dysfunctional adult and curious child that creates character development in "Barn Burning" and in "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" William Faulkner in "Barn Burning" and Joyce Carol Oates in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," both convey that loitering in the adult world comes with life-changing consequences. This idea is evident when the conflict and characters of each story are examined.

The central characters in Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" include Connie, a curious, imaginative adolescent and her pedophiliac pursuer, Arnold Friend. Connie dreams of a world beyond the confines of her parents' house. Her conflicts with her mother form the basis of Connie's rebellion. Yet as Wegs points out, Connie is more complex than just being a rebellious teenager who gets herself into trouble after loitering too long in the world of grown-ups. Rather, Oates "reaches beyond the surface of realism to evoke the simultaneous mystery and reality of the contraditions of the human heart," (66). Connie has a budding adult heart. Her desire to grow up is contrasted sharply with the relative naivete of her sister June, and of the emotional neglect exhibited by Connie's parents. Thus, it is no small wonder that Connie's predator finds her easily. She has been left alone at home while her family barbeques without her, which is clearly a symbol of her parents viewing Connie as an outsider. Arnold Friend preys on Connie's outsider status, taking full advantage of the teen's flowering sexuality. The result is "full of puzzling and perverse longings…mixing lust and love, life and death, good and evil," (Wegs 66).

The central characters in Faulkner's "Barn Burning" include Sartoris "Sarty," Abner Snopes, and Major de Spain. As with "Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?" The central character is an adolescent. Sarty's identity is forming in direct conflict from that of his father, Snopes. Unlike Connie, Sarty does not rebel until the final scene of the narrative. However, it is clear that Sarty's loitering in the world of adults leads him to a life-changing situation that forever alters his outlook on himself, on life, and on his father. Snopes represents the ultimate dysfunctional response to class conflict. It is understandable that Snopes is resentful of his lowly social status, having to serve others in order to make a living. Yet his "barn burning" approach to conflict resolution is ineffective. He takes his anger out on his son, abusing him physically and emotionally. This poorly prepares Sarty for healthy identity development. Finally, Major de Spain serves as the catalyst for Sarty's awakening. Until the final barn-burning incident, Sarty obeyed whatever his father said. Sarty finally awoke to the sheer evil that is his father's destructive behavior and warned Major de Spain. Unfortunately, the latter used violence to resolve the central conflict and Sarty is left without a father. Faulker's characters are like Oates' in that they are larger than life. Faulkner "deliberately juxtaposes incommensurate artistic registers, forcing…readers to view character as simultaneously realistic, expressionistic, and symbolic in nature," (Zender 48).

Conflict in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is between Connie's childhood and the realities of adult life. Her sexual awakening becomes the crucible in which this conflict takes place. Oates uses imagery and symbolism of the grotesque, embodied in Arnold Friend as the "big bad wolf" character in the short story. At first, Connie is intrigued with the man because her body is opening up to the potential for sexual intimacy. Yet "Connie discovers that her dream love-god also wears the face of lust, evil, and death," (Wegs 66).