Disillusionment and Negativity in Flowering Judas

Digging Deeper: Flowering Judas and Barn Burning Proposal

In the stories \\\"Flowering Judas\\\" by Katherine Anne Porter and \\\"Barn Burning\\\" by William Faulkner, the characters are portrayed with a distinctive negative style that strongly influences the narratives and themes. These negative traits can be seen as personal flaws but they are also important in understanding the characters’ lives, natures, identities, and decision-making, along with the conflicts within each story. In a sense, their negative styles define them and also define the world around them. Digging deeper into them can explain much about them and their conflict.

\\\"Flowering Judas\\\" - Laura and Braggioni

In \\\"Flowering Judas,\\\" Laura is portrayed with an intriguing blend of commitment and profound detachment. While she is involved in the revolutionary activities in Mexico, her interaction with others is characterized by a lack of genuine emotional engagement. An example of this is her interaction with the young revolutionary, Eugenio. Even though she brings him flowers, there is a symbolic coldness in her actions, as she dreams of betraying him by giving him a flower that would hasten his death. This dream reflects her subconscious awareness of her own disconnection and possible betrayal of her revolutionary ideals.

Braggioni, the leader of the revolution in the story, embodies hypocrisy and corruption. Despite his revolutionary rhetoric, he is fundamentally self-serving and manipulative. He uses his power to dominate others, including Laura, whom he tries to seduce to show a display of power and control. His love for singing serenades, which should symbolize passion and rebellion, instead comes off as another tool for manipulation, revealing only his deep-seated vanity and moral corruption.

\\\"Barn Burning\\\" - Abner Snopes

In \\\"Barn Burning,\\\" Abner Snopes is depicted with a negative style characterized by defiance and resentment towards his society, which he perceives as cruel and oppressive and the real reason for his failure. His method of dealing with grievances is through arson, specifically burning barns belonging to his landlords. This destructive action is a literal expression of his anger; however, it also symbolizes his refusal to place responsibility for his own actions on himself. He refuses to conform to social norms and laws. He is hostile and emotional, and after a conflict with his landlord, Mr. Harris, Abner deliberately soils a rug and then worsens the situation by using a harsh cleaning method that ruins it. Ultimately, all of his poor decisions lead to worse ones, culminating in another act of burning Mr. Harris’s barn in revenge.

Abner\\\'s interactions with his family also illustrate his negative style. He rules his family with an iron fist, demanding absolute loyalty and using violence and intimidation to get compliance. His son, Sarty, is caught in a moral dilemma, because he has personal integrity. He is torn between his loyalty to his family and his growing sense of justice. Thus, he contrasts sharply with his father. Sarty’s struggle culminates in his decision to break away from his father’s destructive path.

These examples from both stories show how the negative styles of the characters are integral to understanding their personal conflicts, the stories they are in, and the broader thematic elements of betrayal, moral struggle, and social discord. The characters’ actions and motivations, rooted in their darker traits, show who they are and why.

Research Aim

The primary goal of this research is to dissect the negative traits of the central characters in the selected stories, understanding how these traits influence their decisions and relationships. Additionally, the study will look at how these negative elements serve the narrative themes and explain their identities.

Influence on Decisions and Interpersonal Relationships

In \\\"Flowering Judas,\\\" Laura\\\'s emotional detachment and her recurring dreams of betrayal influence her reluctance to fully commit to the revolutionary cause, affecting her relationships with other characters, such as the young prisoner Eugenio and the leader Braggioni. Her interactions are tinged with a sense of disconnection and foreboding, suggesting a deeper internal conflict between her ideological commitments and personal feelings. This research will analyze how her disillusionment impacts her actions and decisions within the narrative and explain who she is and why.

Similarly, in \\\"Barn Burning,\\\" Abner Snopes\\\'s resentment and defiance against authority lead him to make drastic decisions such as burning barns, which serve as his form of justice against perceived slights and injustices. His authoritarian and vengeful personality heavily influences his family, especially his son Sarty, who is torn between familial loyalty and ethical integrity. This study will explore how Abner’s traits dictate his own course of action, shape the lives of his family members, and explain who he is and why.

Connection to Broader Narrative Themes

These negative traits are integrally linked to the themes of betrayal, corruption, and moral dilemmas within each story. The research will look into how these traits treat discourse on these themes, and what they mean in the analysis of the characters. In a sense, the characters bring the themes to the surface, but the themes are also implanted in the society around them and reflect themselves in the characters’ angst and detachment. Negativity flows through them from society and back again. They are a conduit of negativity, and there is no circuit breaker within that allows them to disconnect from the negativity. They have no answer for it. Why that is, is one of the main research questions this study proposes to address.

In \\\"Flowering Judas,\\\" for example, the theme of betrayal is a personal dilemma and a metaphor for the larger disillusionment with revolutionary ideals. This theme is mirrored in Laura\\\'s psychological struggle and her symbolic dreams. In \\\"Barn Burning,\\\" Faulkner uses Abner’s defiance and corruption to reflect the socioeconomic disparities and the struggles of the sharecropper system in the post-Civil War South. The negative styles of these characters, however, are not universal—so the question is why are they more influenced by negativity and reflective of negativity than might be the case with others, such as Sarty, for example.

Through analysis of how these negative traits influence both the characters’ decisions and the thematic development of the stories, this research can contribute to the literary discourse surrounding American literature. It will provide insights into how authors like Porter and Faulkner use character development to engage with concepts of identity, responsibility, personality, decision-making, accountability, judgment, and society.

Rationale

Examining the negative style of characters in literature is an important aspect of literary analysis that provides deeper insight into the complexities of human nature and the intricacies of narrative storytelling. In exploring characters like those in \\\"Flowering Judas\\\" and \\\"Barn Burning,\\\" and focusing on their darker traits, one can begin to understand who these characters are, why they act in certain ways, and how their personal conflicts drive the narratives and simultaneously are driven by external factors as well.

Revealing Character Depth and Complexity

Characters in literature often embody a blend of traits, both positive and negative. However, it is frequently through their negative traits—such as deceit, selfishness, manipulation, or cruelty—that characters become fully realized as complex individuals. These traits make characters relatable and human, reflecting the moral and ethical ambiguities that real people navigate. In examining these darker aspects, one can uncover layers of character motivation that might not be evident from a surface reading. For instance, Abner Snopes\\\' propensity for burning barns and his manipulative control over his family in \\\"Barn Burning\\\" can be interpreted as an outward expression of his inner turmoil and resentment towards his own perceived situation in life.