Symbolism In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

Literary Analysis of “Barn Burning” Many times the decisions we need to make in life can be difficult to make. This is evident in William Faulkner's “Barn Burning”. The main character can either let his father burn down a barn or betray him and alert the authorities of his criminal actions. There are many possible reasons as to why he made this choice. He could have been afraid of his father, or he could have wanted to stop his father’s wrongdoings.

His father worked as a Nurturer, and the sight of his father killing someone made Jonas not want to go home. This moment was the final straw for Jonas. He and Giver started plotting to send Jonas away to Elsewhere, despite how it will affect the people in Jonas’s community. Giver volunteers to stay and help those in the community. Jonas’s new memories make him a real person, with different emotions and he knows the differences between right and wrong.

Fire is a constant threat in “Barn Burning,” and it represents both Snopes’s inherent powerlessness and his quest for power and self-expression. After the family has been run out of town, because Snopes burned a barn, and Snopes steals a split rail from a fence and makes a small fire by the roadside, barely functional and hardly suited to the large family’s needs on a cold evening. He’d committed his fiery crime in a desperate hold at power, but now he reveals how utterly powerless he is to adequately care for his family. When Snopes turns the fire on the others property, however, his power increases, although, criminally. Snopes has grown adept at committing crimes and escaping undetected, and his entire family is drawn into this pattern of lying and evasion.

The blood dried on his face during the ride out of town (966). This was a sense of pride for Sartoris, weird huh that he got beat up but still prideful, but Sartoris had defended the family name. A little later in the story Snopes plans to burn down a barn and it being De Spain’s barn, Sartoris feels that it is morally wrong and decided to tell De Spain that it was going to happen. De Spain then goes out and kills Snopes. As I said early in the paragraph before this that Sartoris has a hard time deciding between being loyal to his family or the law and in this case he was loyal to the law but the rest of the family was loyal and they still wind up alone, “… no blood to stick to...” This is that non-literal sense of blood if you didn’t catch

The Justice and Mr. Harris had realized it was an unfair position to put him in so he didn't have to lie after all. After the jury had ended, his father hit him because he didn't think he was going to lie to protect him. “His father struck him with the flat go his hand on the side of the head, hard but without heat…” shows how he was disciplined when he had done nothing wrong. Soon enough, his father tried to burn another barn down after trying to sue the owner in court. In the end of both of the stories, the children’s attitude caused them to lose their parents one way or another.

The novel begins with Effia Otcher being born during a village fire. Effia’s father states “... the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued” (3). By saying this, Cobbe is making a connection to fire and slavery. Slavery, similar to fire, is also a force that leaves wreckage behind without any concern for those it hurts. The imagery of fire in this example is used as a metaphor for slavery and the lasting impact it has on the world.

One of the main themes that appear throughout the story is courage. Barn Burning is a story about Sarty Snopes. Sartys father likes to burn down other barns on his spare time. Sarty gets no respect and is overworked but underfed. However, he has a great sense of justice, and is moral.

The American Civil War is glorified by Stephen Crane in The Red Badge of Courage by revealing how soldiers are brainwashed about how they will all die a heroic death. “He had of course dreamed of battles all his life, nevertheless the next morning he had gone to town that was near his mother’s farm and enlisted in a company that was forming there(Crane 9)”. This proves how Henry Fleming who is the main character in the novel, is taught that by enlisting in the war one will become a man and die a war hero which is why he has dreamed of going into battle his whole life but as shown in the novel this is not the case for everyone. On the battlefield Henry is surrounded by people dying and getting hurt. “One was swearing that he had been shot in

Author William Faulkner seeks to demonstrate that one’s own moral values are of paramount importance when compared to family loyalty through Abner’s hostile dialogue, indirectly characterizing Abner’s immature and violent nature, contrasting such characteristics against Lennie’s moral positions, Sartoris’s dynamic development, and Sartoris’s actions in the climax of the piece. The Snopes family’s lowly social position leads to Abner Snope, the father, to resent power and burn various establishments, barns in particular, out of frustration and utter hatred for those who have power over him, immediately identifying him as the antagonist. Such a position powers his immoral actions, which influences the message of the work the most. Abner’s bitterness towards more powerful individuals is evident as soon as he wanders into a

Throughout Lord of the Flies, more characters start to gradually lose these qualities which make us human. “The fire's the most important thing. Without the fire we can't be rescued. (Ralph would) like to put on war-paint and be a savage…(but) we must stay by the fire and make smoke.” (pg.142) The smoke also is a way of saving the boys from dieing on the island when they created a huge fire that was destroying the whole island and a navy officer saw the smoke in the distance. It is also is a signal that some the boys at least remain partially humanized and need to saved from becoming fully savages.