Barn Burning Essays (Examples)

Barn Burning

William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" was published in 1939. The setting and mood of the story reflect the Great Depression, and class conflict is at the heart of the "Barn Burning." "Barn Burning" is about a family of poor farm workers, and the interpersonal conflicts that arise due to their lowly station in life. The Snopes family consists of Colonel Sartoris (Sarty) who is the protagonist of "Barn Burning." His father Abner Snopes can be described as the antagonist. Abner Snopes has a habit of taking out his frustration and anger on his landlords by burning down their barns. The story opens in a courtroom in which Snopes is on trial, and he expects his son to lie about the barn burning in order to protect him. In "Barn Burning," the central conflict is between father and son; the central complication happens when Satry deliberately ruins the…

Barn Burning

In Faulkner's "Barn Burning," the reader is presented with the inner experiences of a ten-year-old boy struggling to overcome the amoral and violent family culture into which he has been born. The boy's relationships with most of his family seem to be entirely overshadows, if not made non-existent, in comparison to his relationship with his father. In a rather Freudian sense, young Sarty must seek to come to terms with his mixed love and hatred for his sociopathic father, and learn to separate his own identity from that of his sire. In many ways, Sarty is indeed his father son and has a lot in common with him, yet on the other hand he is morally distinct and very much his own person.

Both Sarty and his father seem to have very passionate and uncontrolled natures. Sarty's passion is evident both in his chaotic and occasionally melodramatic thoughts…

It is important to notice the fact that despite the pressures from his father he decides to make his own choice and confront him. Therefore, the short story closes as a perfect circle with a somewhat similar action, this time the outcome differing. Thus, while in the beginning, Sarty would have lied for his parent, under the obligation of the Court, this time it was his own unquestionable choice to take a stand against the actions of his father. It is here that the transformation is obvious. He decides to choose the abstract morality of social institutions at the price of the alienation from his family. The final sentence, "He did not look back" seals his choice and opens up the path for his new quest.

Sarty's change in attitude and perception are resented to the reader with the help of two important elements: the narrator and the general setting…

boy afraid? Why is the father able to escape punishment?

At the beginning of the story, Abner Snopes is being tried for the burning of a barn that belongs to the man on whose land he is a sharecropper. The boy, Abner's son Sarty, is afraid because he is the lone eyewitness who could potentially testify against his father. In some sense, Sarty's fear is the tipoff to the court that Abner did commit the arson, even though there is no incrimination -- without incrimination Abner is able to escape punishment for the felony of arson, but is nonetheless ordered to leave the county.

Why is the father, Abner Snopes, so angry with all of his employers? Why does he burn barns? Why is fire his weapon?

Snopes's rage seems to relate to his status as a sharecropper: a man who owns no land or property, but who is permitted…

Barn Burning" by illiam Faulkner and "here are You Going, here 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 "here are you Going, here 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…

Barn Burning

William Faulkner's story "BARN BURNING"

"Barn Burning": Annotated Biliography

Brown, Calvin S. (1962). Faulkner's geography and topography. PMLA, 77 (5):

Retrieved: http://www.jstor.org/stale/460414

Topography and spacial relations have a uniquely important role in William Faulkner's literary works. Faulkner's works are often interpreted as literal depictions of his life growing up in Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner's stories such as "Barn Burning" are located in the American South and derive much of their character and atmosphere from the social dynamics of that region. "Barn Burning" could not take place anywhere else ut the South, given the importance of southern mores in the plot and motivation of the story. Space within Faulkner's novels is also important, as manifested in the physical distance and differences etween the home of the plantation owner and his sharecroppers.

Gold, Joseph & Faulkner Fox. (1962). The "normality" of Snopesism: Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature, 3 (1): 25-34 Retrieved:…

Barn Burning

illiam Faulkner's "Barn Burning" is a story of family loyalty verses social morality. The protagonist of Faulkner's story is a young boy named Sartoris Snopes, the son of a dirt-poor share-cropper who has spent the better part of his life moving from town to town and from shack to shack. Set in the Deep South, "Barn Burning" is essentially a coming of age tale amid a violent family life that Faulkner uses to express that although family loyalty is an admirable quality, it does not justify silence against social crimes.

There are several elements of symbolism in Faulkner's story. One that is repeated throughout his work is that of the description of the father, always "stiff and black" to symbolize the man's dark and sinister character and his unyielding personality. The first description comes near the beginning of the tale when Faulkner writes, "His father, stiff in his…

For the others, leaving the family is literally unthinkable.

In many ways, Abner is also symbolic. His anger comes from perceived injustices committed against him. In the first instance of arson encountered during the time of the story, his hog had broken loose and done some damage to another's property, and that man held the hog until he received a dollar in payment. Later that night, Abner burnt his barn down, not out of spite but because he felt he was persecuted in the manner of the hog. The same is truly later at Majr de Spain's, when he first burns the rug he feels he shouldn't have to clean, and then plans on burning down the whole plantation because of the judgment against him in the rug business. In this way, Abner Scnopes is a symbol of the frustrations of the poor itinerant farmer. Though there might not be…

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…

Shakespeare's Othello, one of the major themes deals with the way individuals struggle to restore their honor and certainty about life. This is particularly reflected in the prime theme of betrayal -- Iago knows that Othello has an innate need to remain loyal and honorable to Venice, and that he can easily be consumed by jealousy if he believes Desdemona has betrayed him. The entire good/evil struggle revolves around Othello trying to appear and act in an honorable way; from Desdemona who has been honorable in keeping that honor, and in Iago's certainty that the only way he can bring Othello to his knees is by playing on his need for honor. "If I do prove her haggard, Through that her jesses were my dear heart-strings, I'd whistle her off and let her down the wind, To prey at fortune."

B2 -- Individuals often balance their lives somewhere in between…

"

"hat does that have to do with your daddy?"

"Heh, one of them even had cow dung on his left shoe. Did you know my dad enterted one of them great plantations and rubbed dung all over one of their rugs?"

"No Sarty, you ain't tell me anything like that."

"That's cause the day he died I never looked back. I decided that my momma, my aunt, my brothers, my dad, they were all part of the past and I was headed towards the future."

"eren't you scared of being on your own? You were only ten."

"ell, the owner of the plantation, De Spain, felt bad for killin my dad for startin the fire, and decided to pay for me to go stay at one of his servant's quarters. It was there I spent the next couple years learnin to read and write and became obsessed wth trains."…

This feeling of anger and resentment is effectively illustrated through the conflict between Abner and the Negro, De Spain's helper.

In this conflict, Abner is seen resisting the Negro's attempt to stop him from trespassing De Spain's home. Evidently, the Negro's status in life is much better than Abner, who has to toil very hard in order for him and his family to survive everyday. This fact infuriates Abner, and his resentment against the Negro's condition in life is reflected in his hateful statement about his poverty and De Spain's seemingly unfair status as a wealthy man: "Pretty and white, ain't it?...That's sweat. Nigger sweat. Maybe it ain't white enough yet to suit him. Maybe he wants to mix some white sweat in it" (175). This statement is Abner's own way of protesting against his condition in life, a bitterness that reflects not only class conflict between the wealthy and…

' But now he said nothing" (Faulkner). In contrast, the Younger family members also grow and change. Most notably, Walter Lee takes on the role of leader in the family, and makes the right decision for the rest of his family members. Critic Domina notes, "He must become the acknowledged head of his family, and he must also interact with other adult males as an equal" (Domina 113). These two characters gain personal growth and awareness, and the two stories' conclusions depend on this growth and awareness. The young boy will probably never see his dysfunctional family again, while the Youngers will probably face more discrimination and hatred. However, they have both attained their own measure of happiness, and both stories end on a somewhat hopeful note. Critic Ford continues, "Sarty will survive 'the terrible handicap of being young,' will surpass his beleaguered childhood and mature into a worthy human…

maturation process, but it comes easily only to a few. Of course there are choices that usually generate little anguish such as what to have for breakfast or which route to take when going home, but when a person is a diabetic or inclement weather makes every road hazardous, even these choices become difficult. This paper discusses a poem and a short story by two of the greatest American authors of the twentieth century. Both Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and illiam Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" are about the difficult choices people are often confronted with. The stories reflect both real and intangible choices that the protagonists had to make (in Frosts poem the main character is assumed to be the author himself) and what the outcome of the choices were. This paper will begin with a literal summary of the two works, the real choices that…

Money:

The adolescent perspective as depicted in the short stories of Joyce, Faulkner, and Cather

The search for higher social status as a form of personal fulfillment and self-definition all mark the coming-of-age stories of James Joyce, illiam, Faulkner, and illa Cather, despite the distinct differences between the three male protagonists created by the authors in their seminal short stories "Araby," "Barn Burning," and "Paul's Case." All three short stories feature a young protagonist whose illusions of finery and higher class status are shattered. Because these aspirations are also often connected to sexual desires, this fall from grace is particularly difficult for the young men to tolerate.

In "Araby," the young male protagonist becomes enamored with a young woman who seems innocent, above his own class, and charming. hen she professes to wish to go to the Araby bazaar but cannot because she must go on a retreat with her…

In "The Secret Life of alter Mitty," Mitty escapes the reality of his manhood with daydreaming. He does this because his wife emasculates him. For Mitty, daydreams are better than dealing with a bothersome wife. Mitty is a real man in his mind as he fantasizes about saving the Navy hydroplane. Mitty is not happy and he argues with his wife over such things as overshoes. He is no doubt a curmudgeon, as we see when he calls the parking lot attendant "damn cocky" (Thurber 1361). Mitty is unlucky in life but we have to wonder how much of this is his fault. Many would look at him and see nothing that resembles a real man. His imagination is his escape, which makes Mitty happy, as he declares himself "undefeated" and "inscrutable" (1364). Mitty might know how to escape his awful world but he is taking a chicken's way out.…

Poe and Faulkner

Despite the gap in a century or more between the periods when both Edgar Allan Poe and illiam Faulker were writing, both Poe and Faulkner have been loosely considered representatives of the "Southern Gothic" style of fiction in America. Indeed, pioneering Faulkner critic Cleanth Brooks of Yale University has noted that the connections with Poe's style would limit the way in which Faulkner has been received critically: Brooks is at pains to demonstrate that Faulkner's stories represent "more than an attempt to outdo Edgar Allan Poe, more than the prime example of what has come to be called modern Southern Gothic" (Brooks 15). ith an emphasis on grotesquerie and on the spiritual journey of its characters -- often a dark spiritual journey into consciousness of damnation, as in the heavily religious Gothic fiction of the late eighteenth century, or else some form of the supernatural -- "Southern…

Another grotesque character in the story is the never-seen Mrs. Pike, an individual who fascinates both women in different ways and who is present in the beauty shop in the form of her son Billy Boy, himself fascinated by beauty shops and also challenge to the two women in different ways. Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant and already wary of having a child, though she begins to warm to the idea even though Billy is the example in front of her. Leota indulges the boy in some degree because of her regard for his mother, though her patience wears thin. For most of the conversation, these two women show their need to dominate men and each other, and the story thus depicts the usual battle of the sexes in a grotesque way, with the image of the petrified man in the carnival standing in both for the threat men pose (he…

Cultues in Conflict & Change

William Faulkne leaves us in suspense at the end of a tubulent sequence of events titled "Ban Buning." Who killed whom? We could speculate fom othe books pehaps but those wods ae outside this stoy. Given that stict constaint, we don't eally know. Saty watches De Spain and his hose vanish in the distance and heas thee shots, which he assumes kill his fathe at least, and pehaps olde bothe. This is the widest possible assumption but a fulle analysis would have to exploe othe possibilities. The esult fo Saty is the same: He uns away fom fathe, bothe and the women's cultue egadless who pulled which tigge(s) at the De Spain ban. Abne Snopes will appea hee as 'AS,' De Spain as 'DS' and 'Saty' as 'CSS' fo bevity, but also abstaction, because Faulkne ('WF') sets up abstactions, though symbolic equations that pemeate the…

Thus, these two stories point out a variety of plights for the working person of the modernist time. First, they both suggest that socioeconomic status and occupational status is very closely tied to respect within the community. ithout a good job, both stories imply, it is easy for one to be looked down upon in addition to being chastised. Second, the stories point out that working conditions can be so deplorable that they affect a person's mental and emotional functioning and characteristics. This certainly occurs in Abner's case, as he is driven to a violence that eventually kills him because of the work that he must do, toiling daily for those who have more wealth and power. For Krebs, too, the conditions of fighting as a soldier have so impaired his emotional and psychological faculties that he finds it difficult to assimilate into the society and the family that he…

O rother, Where Art Thou?

Homer in Hollywood: The Coen rothers' O rother, Where Art Thou?

Could a Hollywood filmmaker adapt Homer's Odyssey for the screen in the same way that James Joyce did for the Modernist novel? The idea of a high-art film adaptation of the Odyssey is actually at the center of the plot of Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Contempt, and the Alberto Moravia novel on which Godard's film is based. In Contempt, Prokosch, a rich American dilettante film producer played by Jack Palance, hires Fritz Lang to film a version of Homer's Odyssey, then hires a screenwriter to write it and promptly ruins his marriage to rigitte ardot. Fritz Lang gamely plays himself -- joining the ranks of fellow "arty" German-born directors who had earlier deigned to act before the camera (like Erich von Stroheim in Wilder's Sunset oulevard, playing a former director not unlike himself, or…

Caedmon," too, contains some of this sense of contradictory juxtaposition, especially in the line towards the end of the poem where the speaker reflects that she "was at home and lonely, / both in good measure" (23-4). In the poem, the speaker (presumably a child, as she learned early to do what she describes doing) quietly leaves a dance for which she feels inadequate and goes to sit amongst the cows and other livestock in the barn, who "munched or stirred or were still" (22). She stays here peacefully until an angel of fire awakes her and draws her back into the dance. It is unclear exactly what this angel is supposed to represent, or even if it is to be taken symbolically. What is clear, however, is the equal measures of the speaker's -- and Levertov's -- passion and placidity. Though not at home in the dance at first,…

Based on the foregoing considerations, it is suggested that the DCMP restructure their existing training programs and administration so that a more unified and centralized plan is in place, as well as providing for better instructor qualifications, evaluation, learning retention and more efficient and effective use of resources which are by definition scarce.

These broad general issues were refined for the purposes of this study into the research questions stated below.

esearch Questions

What is the background of the District of Columbia area policy and community relations since World War II?

What are some major problems preventing positive relations between communities and the District of Columbia Metropolitan area police?

Can training programs of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department enhance community relations?

What training modules can be used to enhance relations between surrounding communities in the District of Columbia Metropolitan area law enforcement?

Significance of the Study

esearch Design…

O Brother Where Art Thou? And the Odyssey

In the film "O Brother Where Art Thou?" The filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen loosely paralleled the epic found in the Odyssey. Though there are some obvious parallels between the story and the movie, there are numerous similarities which are much subtler. These can be found in scenes, settings, characters, and plot. A close examination of the movie reveals the multiple layers of the film's similarity to the epic work.

Of course, the most obvious comparisons are Odysseus and Ulysses, Penelope and Penny, and the Sirens and the "Sireens." But, there are also additional character similarities. The foot stomping politician Menelaus 'Pappy O'Daniel has the same first name as the King of Sparta, who fought beside Odysseus at Troy. Furthermore, it is no mistake that Homer, the author of the Odyssey, shares the same name as Homer Stokes, the man who was…

Colonial Resistance in Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, and his father was a teacher in a missionary school. His parents were devout evangelical Protestants and christened him Albert after Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, although they installed in him many of the values of their traditional Igbo culture. He attended University College in Ibadan, where he studied English, history and theology. At the university Achebe rejected his ritish name and took his indigenous name Chinua. In 1953 he graduated with a A, and later studied broadcasting at the C where, in 1961, he became the first Director of External roadcasting at the Nigerian roadcasting Corporation. In 1944 Achebe attended Government College in Umuahia. He was also educated at the University College of Ibadan, like other major Nigerian writers including John Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Elechi Amadi, and Cole Omotso. There he studied…

Free grazers were the ones that utilized this land in order to feed their cattle throughout the way to the cattle markets which were located in Kansas. Many of the settlers were inspired to bring some kind of settlement to this area by the government which in no time started making aggressions among the grazers and settlers. The grazers were not fond of them at all due to them taking away the grasslands and then putting up fences made of barbwire which in return restricted where the cattle would be able to roam. Therefore, the grazers would cut graze and fence upon the terrestrial of the colonist. These actions would then guide to a person shooting another individual for some crime they did. Since there was no state to rule, the ruling was taken up by local vigilante crowds.

Section 3

At the set of the revolutionary ar the Army…

Pissarro took a special interest in his attempts at painting, emphasizing that he should 'look for the nature that suits your temperament', and in 1876 Gauguin had a landscape in the style of Pissarro accepted at the Salon. In the meantime Pissarro had introduced him to Cezanne, for whose works he conceived a great respect-so much so that the older man began to fear that he would steal his 'sensations'. All three worked together for some time at Pontoise, where Pissarro and Gauguin drew pencil sketches of each other (Cabinet des Dessins, Louvre).

Gauguin settled for a while in ouen, painting every day after the bank he worked at closed.

Ultimately, he returned to Paris, painting in Pont-Aven, a well-known resort for artists.

X...for pic

Le Christ Jaune (the Yellow Christ) (Pioch, 2002) Still Life with Three Puppies 1888 (Pioch, 2002)

In "Sunny side down; Van Gogh and Gauguin," Martin…

When pushed too far, when too greatly damaged, when the soul has been taken away, when the resilience is gone, all that is left is the act of birth, the cold and empty soul, and a generalized feeling of resentment and anger coming from mother and directed at life and history and the self. Faulkner's Addie's rotting body is an act of revenge, Eva's burning of her son is an act of insanity, both seek the harm of those closest to them, because their disappointment in life is so profound, and they are so utterly trapped in their surroundings, that being a good and wholesome person, being a healthy, nurturing mother, is simply no longer possible. This, then, is the nature of the South for both authors, and it is that nature which tells us that until the bodies are buried, and the souls put to rest, and the corrupted…

Hero's Journey in O, Brother! here Art Thou? And The Lion King

The journey home may, at times, be complicated and met with obstacles that must be overcome. O, Brother! here Art Thou?, the 2000 film directed by Joel Cohen, depicts one man's journey to get back to his family after being made part of a chain gang in rural Mississippi during the 1930s . Similarly, the animated Disney picture, The Lion King, released in 1994, depicts a young Simba's quest to return to his home and restore order, eventually regaining his rightful place as king. O, Brother! here Art Thou? And The Lion King explore the protagonist's journey home and the obstacles that must be overcome in order for them to achieve their goals.

The hero's journey is often characterized by a series of steps that must be completed in order to attain a goal and aid the transformation…

Neutralizing the Valley

The Valley Campaigns of 1864 were operations and battles during the American Civil War, which occurred in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia from May to October 1864 (Wikipedia 2005). The opposing forces in these battles were the Union and the Confederates. The Union was led by then Lt General Ulysses S. Grant, Commander George G. Meade, and enjamin utler, while the Confederate was led by Robert Lee and his Lt General Jubal Early. The outcome of the campaigns shows that appropriate tactics and quality leadership determined victory in the particular terrain and physical conditions. Grant established a strategy that focused at the heart of the Confederacy from different directions according to the concept, which he shared with Abraham Lincoln and William Sherman, that only the utter defeat of the Confederate forces and their economic supply would win the War for the Union (Wikipedia).

The strategy pitted Grant,…

Jesus' Teachings, Prayer, & Christian Life

"He (Jesus) Took the Bread. Giving Thanks Broke it. And gave it to his Disciples, saying, 'This is my Body, which is given to you.'" At Elevation time, during Catholic Mass, the priest establishes a mandate for Christian Living. Historically, at the Last Supper, Christ used bread and wine as a supreme metaphor for the rest of our lives. Jesus was in turmoil. He was aware of what was about to befall him -- namely, suffering and death. This was the last major lesson he would teach before his arrest following Judas' betrayal. Eschatologically speaking, the above set the stage for the Christian ministry of the apostles, evangelists and priests. Indeed, every Christian is called to give of him or herself for the Glory of God and the Glory of Mankind. The message at the Last Supper was powerful. People have put themselves through…

Gilbert Grape

Otto ank's conflict theory posits that the experience of birth is the root cause of all human anxiety. The state of being in the womb is theoretically blissful, and birth is a deeply traumatic experience (Wolverton, 2011). From this premise, ank suggests that several core conflicts characterize the human experience and can lead to neurosis. One conflict is between the life instinct and the death instinct. The life instinct encourages the person to be an independent, competent individual; whereas the death instinct stimulates interest and action in community and family (Boeree, 1998). A second core conflict, related to the first, is between the fear of death and the fear of life. Fear of death leads to dependency, codependency, unhealthy union, and a loss of self. Fear of life leads to isolation, separation, alienation, and too much individualization. esolving the central conflicts between life and death becomes the goal…

illiam allace's Insurgency

Factors Driving illiam allace's Insurgency

illiam allace was born somewhere around 1272-1276. His childhood years were peacefully spent, without a doubt, in a large house rather than a tiny crofter's shack. illiam was exceptionally large and boisterous -- traits that didn't go well with the future his family had planned for him. Being the younger son, and without any lands of his own, illiam was bound to end up as a priest. However, the death of his father, Sir Malcolm allace, and his eldest brother, in a clash with the English at Irvine, marked a permanent change in his life and the beginning of his personal bitterness towards the English -- a feeling that subsequently intensified to extreme hatred (Reese).

The historic 1296 Ragman Roll, through which the English King Edward I aimed to make the whole of Scotland bow down to him, set off the events…

Dupin becomes the "individual as the creature of history" (187) and the orangutan represents the "terror of a history secularized and devoid of design" (187). This pot was to usher in a new genre of plots that looked at the universe in a new way. The detective story, as a result, "responds to a new era of world history" (187). The crimes against the women can also be seen as symbols from Poe's own past as he lived through the deaths of the women he loved the most. Tragedy, of course, must make its way into Poe's fiction but the grisly murders of thee two women could easily be representations of the death of Poe's mother and cousin.

Society was all the inspiration Poe needed. Terrance halen maintains that Poe's tales "arose from within the specific conditions of capitalist development which were then emerging in antebellum America" (halen 386). Poe's…