Critical Analysis Of William Faulkner

’s Barn Burni Essay, Research Paper

Critical Review of William Faulkner’s”Barn Burning” William Faulkner’s short story, “Barn Burning,” portrays the problems (an extreme case) of a sharecropping family in the late nineteenth century South. This story concerns itself primarily with a rupturing relationship between a father and son, presenting itself through stunning and sometimes very difficult to understand use of symbolism. “Barn Burning” is a sad story because it clearly shows the classical struggle between the “privileged” and the “underprivileged” classes. The story, “Barn Burning” intimately characterizes, by means of a third person narrative the emotions of a developing character, Colonel Sartoris Snopes (”Sarty”). “Burning Barn” involves a sharecropper, Abner Snopes (”Ab”) who is sickened by the society he is forced to make a living in and as a result of this intense exasperation he results to a, but by a no means condoned form of protest of vandalism by burning the property of those who he feels has wronged him. On the other hand, his son Colonel Sartoris Snopes (”Sarty”) is rather idealistic in the fact that he does not conform with his father’s bleak philosophy on life. The story begins with Abner Snopes being sued by his landlord for the destruction of his barn. Like the many times before, the Abner family is forced to move on. This situation is so commonplace to the Snopes’ that they are unmoved by their present plight unfolding in the story. However, the idealistic “Sarty” is deeply affected by the constant migrations, including the last one in particular which we get to observe firsthand through the narrator. Shortly after the Snopes’ reach their destination, “Ab” along with his son Sarty goes to introduce himself to his new landlord, Major de Spain. Before Ab enters the wealthy landlord’s mansion, he steps into a pile of manure and purposely wipes his foot on an expensive French rug within his home. When the Major becomes aware of the rug incident, he orders Ab to mend the rug. Out of spite, Ab removes the stain but knowingly damages the rug again by scrubbing it to harshly and causing a hole to appear. The Major, after noticing the new damages immediately arranges for Ab to compensate him for the damages by paying him twenty bushels of corn in addition to the corn he may have to pay to cover the expenses accumulated for that seasons harvest. Consequently, this infuriates Ab, but does not force him to vandalize the landlord’s property. Instead, Ab takes the matter into a tribunal. Nevertheless, the Justice of the Peace rules against Ab and orders him to compensate Major de Spain. Ab is enraged even further and prepares to burn the de Spain’s barn. Just as Ab begins to burn the landlord’s property, Sarty flees to inform the Major what his father is planning to do. While trying to return home to warn his father that Major de Spain was coming, Sarty hears gunfire and presumes his father to be dead. He then runs off into the woods, never to return home. Before an analysis of the “Barn Burning” a brief historiographical comment is warranted here. As the “Barn Burning” first appeared in the 1930’s a new generation of writers and intellectuals were coming of age. Gertrude Stein, famous author of this period referred to these young Americans maturing in this period as the “Lost Generation” (Brinkley 663). The Lost Generation’s argued that America as a result of modernization had transformed itself into a nation “utterly devoid of idealism or vision, steeped in outmoded and priggish morality, obsessed with materialism and consumerism, [resulting in] alienating and dehumanizing [the American people]” (Brinkley 664). To illustrate: Ernest Hemingway’s, A Farewell to Arms (1929) portrays an American officer in Europe decreeing that there is no justification for his participation in the war and deserts. Or even F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby (1925) which shows a man striving to achieve wealth and prestige only for it to destroy him. In the same way, a group of white southern intellectuals engaged in a literary debunking effort of current American society. They were first known as the “Fugitives” and then later as the “Agrarians” (Brinkley 664). They resented the effects industrialization had on society and preached for a return to the attitudes and ideas of the antebellum South. Accordingly, this is the framework from which William Faulkner appears. Most of his writings suggest this very idea. As Cleanth Brooks points out: Faulkner writes, and often very sympathetically, of the older order of the antebellum plantation society. It was a society that valued honor, was capable of heroic action, and believed in courtesy and good manners. (4) Even though “Barn Burning” was a story portrayed in the late 19th century South, it easily could have been the 1930s South. Primarily, because the many rural settings in the south went unchanged, as if modernization did not occur. Through Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” we get a glimpse into the injustices of the rural southern society for poor black and white alike. Specifically, the southern institution of “sharecropping” is introduced which is a form of tenant farming. The “sharecropping” system differs from other forms of tenantry in that “sharecroppers have no money or equipment. For this purpose, the landlords supplied the farmer with land, a house, a few tools, seed, and sometimes a mule. In return, farmers would promise the landlord a larg