04. "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner – Flashcards

"Barn Burning" (set in about 1895) opens in a country store, which is doubling as a Justice of the Peace Court. A hungry boy named Sarty craves the meat and cheese in the store. He's afraid. His father, Abner Snopes, is in court, accused of burning down Mr. Harris's barn. Sarty is called up to testify against his father, and he knows he's going to have to lie and say his father didn't burn the barn. The Justice and Mr. Harris realize they are putting the young boy in a bad position, and they let him off the hook. The Judge tells Mr. Snopes to leave the county and never come back. On the way out of the courthouse a kid calls Sarty "Barn Burner!" and knocks him down, twice (16). Sarty tries to chase the kid but his father stops him. Sarty, his older brother, and his father get into the family wagon, where his mother, aunt, and two sisters are waiting. The wagon is already loaded with their broken possessions. That night, the family camps. After Sarty falls asleep, his father wakes him up and tells Sarty to follow him. Sarty does. His father accuses him of being on the verge of betraying him in court. He hits Sarty. Then he tells him that the most important thing is to stand by your family. The next day the Snopes arrive at their new home, a shack on the farm where they will be working as tenant farmers. Abner wants to talk to the owner and he takes Sarty with him. When Sarty sees the owner's fancy, white mansion he feels like everything just might be all right after all. He thinks his father can't possibly hurt people who live in a house like that. In the yard, Abner deliberately steps in some fresh horse poop, forces his way into the mansion, and tracks the poop all over the white rug in the front room. Later that day, the owner of the rug and mansion, Mr. de Spain, has the rug dropped off at Abner's shack. Abner sets his two daughters to cleaning it, and then dries it in front of the fire. Early the next morning, Abner wakes Sarty and the two of them return the rug to de Spain. De Spain shows up shortly after, insulting Abner and complaining that the rug is "ruined" (62). He tells Abner he's going to charge him twenty extra bushels of corn to pay for the hundred-dollar rug. When he leaves, Sarty tells Abner that they shouldn't give de Spain any corn at all. After working hard all week, Sarty goes with his family to town that Saturday. He goes with his father into a store, and sees that a Justice of the Peace Court is in session. De Spain is there. Sarty doesn't realize that Abner is suing de Spain to have the fee of twenty bushels reduced. Sarty blurts out that his father isn't guilty of burning any barns. Abner sends him back to the wagon, but he stays in the store to see what happens. The Justice decides that Abner is responsible for the damage to the rug, but he reduces the fee to ten bushels. Sarty, his father, and his brother spend some time in town and don't go home until the sun has almost set. After dinner Sarty hears his mother trying to stop his father from doing something. He realizes his father is planning to burn the de Spain barn. His father and brother realize that Sarty is planning on alerting de Spain, and they leave him behind, held tight in his mother's arms. Sarty breaks free and runs to the de Spain house. He's only able to say "Barn!" a few times, and then he's on the run again. De Spain is right behind him, about to run him over. Sarty jumps into a ditch and then returns to the road. He hears three gunshots and soon after, behind him, sees the red glow of the de Spain barn on fire. At midnight Sarty is on top of a hill. He's come a long way. Everything is behind him. He mourns the loss of his father (who he seems to assume is dead), but is no longer afraid. He falls asleep and feels better when he wakes up. The whippoorwills (birds) are singing and it's almost morning. He starts walking toward the woods in front of him. He doesn't turn around.

Since the hero of "Barn Burning" is Sarty Snopes, a ten-year-old boy, it's no surprise that youth is a major theme. The story gets lots of mileage out of the contrast between Sarty's youthful vision of the events and the disturbing adult life he is forced to lead. As a coming-of-age story, this one is rather unique. Though Sarty doesn't come of age in a literal sense, he willingly takes on a host of adult roles. This extends to a feeling of responsibility for his neighbors - and their barns. He can't sit back and watch needless destruction (i.e., barn burning) without trying to stop it. At times, Sarty seems so mature that it's easy to forget he's only a kid.

"Barn Burning" is the story of a brave ten-year-old, Sarty Snopes. His life is scary, mostly because his father is a domineering man who burns down wealthy landowners' barns in his spare time. Sarty is overworked, underfed, and underpaid. Plus he gets no respect. However, he has an intense sense of justice, and know the difference between right and wrong. When this sense of justice becomes stronger than the pull of his father, Sarty makes the courageous decision to act against his father. Throughout the story, Sarty must deal with the question of his father's bravery - or lack thereof. Even though he leaves his father he still wants to see him as a brave man.

Unfortunately, the family situation in "Barn Burning" is atrocious. Think extreme poverty, a tyrannical barn-burning father, constant moving, and zero respect in the community. What's more, all the relationships between members of the Snopes family seems so shallow, dysfunctional, and lacking in tenderness. By focusing on a complicated and painful relationship between a father and son who have different belief systems, this story explores the tricky problem of what to do when the needs of the individual are at odds with the demands of the family.

"Barn Burning" is about choices, and the freedom and responsibility that comes with making them. This story also highlights how the choices people make affect others. In different ways, Sarty and his father both question authority and choose to act against the commonly accepted norms. Because Sarty's ideas of justice and honor are so different from his father's, and because his father uses him as a tool in his game, his father's choices often rob Sarty of the ability to choose for himself. His struggle to do what he thinks is right drives the plot to its conclusion.

We see several different economic classes in "Barn Burning." The extremely poor class of tenant farmers to which Sarty and his family belong presents a stark contrast to the privileged class of their wealthy landlord, Major de Spain. While Sarty's father seems to be engaged in a personal class war against all those wealthier than he is, he also seems to be pushing his family further into poverty. As his father moves further away from society, Sarty is drawn closer to it. Sarty knows he wants to be of benefit to his community, and that he wants out of the mess of poverty. Since he's only ten, we only see the first steps he takes in obtaining these goals.

The fact that there are two courtroom scenes in this rather short story, quickly alerts us to its theme of justice and judgment. "Barn Burning" features a variety of perspectives on justice, and shows how the process of legal justice isn't always just. For Sarty Snopes justice has to do with not lying and not hurting others. His father, on the other hand seems out to punish the whole world for the massive injustices it has practiced upon him. Like young Sarty, the reader is called on to judge father Snopes.

Ten-year-old Sarty is the extraordinary hero of "Barn Burning." Sarty's father forces him to help burn barns, and lie about it afterwards. Yet this boy has a distinct sense of justice. When we first meet Sarty, we can assume that this wasn't the first time Abner was called to court, though we don't know if Sarty has testified before. This sense of justice functions as a moral code that tells him: 1) barn burning isn't nice, and 2) it's wrong for his father to make him lie about it and participate in it. He knows that if he helps his father burn barns, or lies about it, he is also guilty. (His sense of guilt is compounded by the fact that he inherently knows that barn burning is inherently wrong.) We aren't talking about legally or religiously wrong, because Sarty doesn't necessarily see things in those terms. Sarty does seem, however, to have a strong sense of civic duty, or duty to his community. For example, think of the scene where Abner tells Lennie to hold Sarty. He threatens to hit her if she doesn't let him go. We can assume Sarty knows that hitting his mother is wrong. But, in his mind, not doing everything he can to save the de Spain barn is even worse. Likewise, he would prefer not to have to betray his father and break his mother's heart, but he also knows he can make his own decisions. We also have to remember that Sarty is ten, and that he is in a position no child should have to be in.

Abner is a terrifying figure. He controls his family with physical and psychological violence, and makes them accomplices in his favorite pastime: burning barns. "Barn Burning" focuses on the impact Abner's behavior has on his ten-year-old son, Sarty. But Abner is a formidable character in his own right. Although Sarty isn't able to find a way to live with his dad, he has moments of empathy and admiration for the man that help transform Abner from a one-dimensional bad guy into a complex and mysterious character.

Major de Spain is Abner's arch-nemesis in the story. He is Abner's employer and landlord after the family leaves the first county. Abner tracks poop on de Spain's rug, takes him to court, and burns down his barn, all in a matter of four days.

Fire is an important symbol in "Barn Burning," as you might expect. Here we want to focus on the fire Abner builds the night the family camps out before arriving at the de Spain place. The narrator describes the fire Abner builds that night, and the fires he always builds when camping, as "neat, niggard almost, shrewd" (27). We want to make a note here that "niggard" means "stingy." "Shrewd," in this case, probably means that the fire was built to burn as long as possible on as little wood as possible. This is an odd moment because the narrator tells us that if Sarty were older, he might have wondered why his father built small campfires. We then hear about the different conclusions Sarty might have come to, again, if he were older. Finally, the narrator reveals the "true reason" for the small fires: "[T]he element of fire spoke to the mainspring of his father's being [...] as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity [...], and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion." (127) This suggests strongly that without fire, Abner would feel completely powerless and out of control. Fire is the one thing in his life he can control. From the small fires made at camp to the larger ones that burn down barns, Abner is the boss. This is interesting when taken with the phrase "without heat" used to describe the way Abner hits his mules, and his son (21, 29). This seems like another way of saying that Abner doesn't hit out of anger, or strong, burning emotion. Rather, his hitting is as calculated as his fire burning - he does it for a reason, to make the person or animal he hits do what he wants. Ironically, fire and hitting, the things that give Abner control over his life, render those around him powerless.

Stories that have a spring setting tend to be hopeful. Spring is a powerful symbol of rebirth and renewal. Before the final two paragraphs of "Barn Burning" we might not even realize it's springtime. Everything seems to be so grim and bleak. For Sarty that moment on the hill is probably the first he's had peace and quite and calm in a very long time. No wonder spring is revealed to him, finally. This sudden awareness of spring coincides with freedom, the freedom to make his own choices. Because that freedom comes at great cost - the loss of his family and childhood - spring symbolizes for Sarty both the sadness of loss and the joy of finally being free from his father's tyranny. The whippoorwill, whose song is beautiful but also mournful is the perfect symbol of the blend of emotions inside Sarty as he takes in the spring morning on the first day of his new life. The description of spring is also soothing imagery to the reader. After the harshness of six days with Abner, we, like Sarty can gain relief from imagining the cool, dark woods, and the singing birds within them.

Notice that Faulkner never comes right out and tells us that Sarty is hungry. When we learn that Sarty's "stomach read" the cans of meat, we understand that he's hungry, and that he can't read the words, but only the symbols, the pictures of fish and the logo for deviled meat. The cans are also sealed. Sarty is hungry and he's surrounded by food. The problem is, the food is sealed off from him. It's a symbol of his general plight. He's constantly reaching for the joys of the world, but in large part due to his father's activities, these joys are sealed off from him.

Blood comes up a lot in "Barn Burning" though usually in terms of the blood shared by relatives. At the beginning of the story Sarty smells something besides food in the store. He smells "the old fierce pull of blood" (2). Since this line is followed by the story's first mention of Abner, we realize that this pull Sarty is talking about is the blood bond he feels exists between him and his father. At this point Sarty seems to think this familial bond is important. But, something changes when his father tells him this: "You've got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain't going to have any blood to stick to you" (29). Abner is both threatening Sarty with abandonment and suggesting that Sarty is responsible for keeping his father alive. As we see in the barn-burning scene, Sarty's not sticking by his father's blood could threaten his father's life. Ultimately, and perhaps even in this moment, Sarty realizes that he doesn't want "to have any blood to stick to [him]." For Sarty this "old fierce pull of blood" symbolizes the one-sidedness of his father's idea of blood ties, and the relative ease with which these ties can be broken. Still, we know Sarty travels back in his memory to the moment discussed here twenty years later. Sarty is still tied by blood and by memory to his father.

Here are the stated contents of the Snopes's wagon on moving day: [...] the battered stove, the broken beds and chairs, the clock inlaid with mother of pearl, which would not run, stopped at some fourteen minutes past two o'clock of a dead and forgotten day and time, which had been his mother's dowry. (18) Everything in the wagon is broken. This sad array provides a vivid image of the Snopes family's existence, and of their poverty. The clock is particularly intriguing. It tells us that at one time somebody cared enough for Lennie to buy her something of beauty, that at one time, her marriage to Abner might have been considered a cause for celebration. It also shows how time seems to have stopped for the family. They are trapped in a cycle that never lets them move forward. It's the same time everywhere they go. The Snopes family operates on Abner time. Under his clock, nobody in the family could hope to have their own time. Think of how Abner rouses Sarty from sleep at odd hours according to his own whims. The time when Lennie and the kids owned their own time is "dead and forgotten." When Sarty runs away, he takes back his time but the broken clock will live on in his mind, reminding him of a when his time belonged to someone else.

The American South around 1895; one week in late February or early March The first part of "Barn Burning" takes place in an unknown county somewhere in the southern United States. The second part of the story is set in rural Yoknapatawpha County in the state of Mississippi. Yoknapatawpha is Faulkner's fictional creation and serves as the setting for a great number of his stories. We know the second part of the story is set in Yoknapatawpha because de Spain is a recurring character in Faulkner's work, and from other stories involving de Spain we know that his farm is in that county. The narrator says that thirty years ago Sarty's father hid in the woods for four years during the Civil War, which ended in 1865. So, 1865 + 30 = 1895. The story also projects at least twenty years in the future, in the following moment: Later, twenty years later, he was to tell himself, "If I had told him they only wanted truth, justice, he would have hit me again." (29) As we learn when Sarty's sitting on the hill at midnight, only four days have passed since his family arrived at the de Spain farm, plus one day of travel time. We have about a five-day story that goes back thirty years in the past and twenty years in the future. "Barn Burning" seems concerned with contrasts, like the difference between Sarty's daytime life and his nighttime life. At night, unlawful activities are performed. Barn burning is our case in point. Sarty is always woken in the dark by Abner, either to act as his accomplice on some dark errand, or to get smacked around and lectured. After Sarty leaves it all behind, the dark becomes, at least for the moment, a place to sleep until he wakes naturally, and a place where birds sing in the arrival of morning. The daytime scenes in "Barn Burning" seem to revolve around work and court. So long as Sarty is working, he's fine. It's when he's being forced to lie and otherwise act outside the law that he freaks out. Part of what makes Sarty run is the realization that no matter how hard he works, so long as he stays with his father, neither his days nor his nights are his own. Both are controlled by his father. Before he runs, night and day threaten to blend into a seamless nightmare that he must escape or lose himself completely. Another interesting setting contrast is between the "unpainted two-room house" the Snopes family lives in and the de Spain mansion. The narrator tells us that the family has lived in twelve other homes just like the two-room house. But, the de Spain mansion is something different from homes of previous landlords. The contrast between that house and the one Sarty's family lives in so great it takes on almost divine proportion in Sarty's eyes. The de Spain mansion is also a source of comfort to Sarty. He thinks that people who live in a fancy house like de Spain's are out of Abner's reach. What he doesn't understand is that Abner's poverty and de Spain's wealth are opposite extremes of the same system. Without men like Abner to work his farm for the skimpiest wages, de Spain wouldn't have a mansion in the first place. Far from being safe from Abner, the de Spains (or at least their barn) are the most likely target of the wrath.

"Momentous" means "a moment of great importance." In large part due to Faulkner's poetic style, every moment in "Barn Burning" seems important. This helps us feel the fragile nature of Sarty's perilous existence. If he doesn't do something big, and fast, he could easily become a casualty in his father's class war. The momentous tone also puts us in the moment. As we learn in paragraph 29, Sarty is still in that moment twenty years later. As such, the tone of "Barn Burning" is also memorial. Although "Barn Burning" isn't presented as a memory, the brief glimpse into the future, shows that a constant memorial to his father and his lost family is playing out in Sarty's mind. Likewise, that moment on the hill, with his back to his old life, and his face to the woods is a good case in point. The narrator constantly describes Sarty's emotions and his sensory experiences. The story's highly emotional and sensory tone is established in the very first paragraph when the hunger induced by the smell of cheese and the sight of the cans of meat in the store/courtroom, combine with the "fear," "despair" and "grief" (1). Notice also that Sarty if often described as being so emotionally panicked that he can't see, hear, or feel anything, not even physical pain. By calling on the readers' senses, and contrasting dulled sensory experiences with acute one atone of emotional and sensory intensity helps move the story to its final momentous moment. In the final paragraph, Sarty's senses are alive with the fresh spring air, the sound of birds, and the "dark woods" he seems about to enter (109).

The first barn has already burned before the story even starts. All we get to see is the court part. As for the second barn, the only thing we get for description is the word "glare" (107, 108). Faulkner gives his readers credit for being able to imagine what a barn on fire looks like. Besides that, barn burning is more than just barns on fire. It's a concept, an idea, and it has different meanings for different characters and for different readers.

The ending of "Barn Burning" is intriguing. To keep things tidy, we'll focus on the last three paragraphs here. First we should briefly discuss the third to the last paragraph, where perfectly excellent readers get tangled up in Faulkner's massive sentence, the one that ends with "Father! My Father!" (107). The main points of that paragraph are: Sarty hears three gunshots. Sarty is running away, "looking backward over his shoulder at the glare." The barn is on fire. Now, in the second to the last paragraph, we learn some interesting things about Abner Snopes, Sarty's father." The thing to note is that Sarty is mourning his father. Sarty certainly seems to believe his dad's dead. He speaks about him in the past tense: "He was brave!" (108). The narrator doesn't give us a clue either way, so we need to speculate. As far as we can see, there is no mention of a gun in the story at all, meaning the shots could have been fired by Abner, de Spain, the brother, or someone else. They could have hit anyone, anything, or nothing. Even though all we get is the word "glare" - we can be reasonably sure that Abner succeeded in burning down the de Spain barn. He has the last word, so to speak, at least from Sarty's point of view. In terms of Sarty's reality, it doesn't matter whether Abner is physically dead. For Sarty, his dad is dead. This rugged ten-year-old boy is leaving the whole mess behind him to try to find a better life. Although Abner is dead to Sarty in every practical sense, he'll live in Sarty's memory for some time. A man like Abner Snopes is not easily forgotten. Though Sarty wanted to get away from his father during the four days at the de Spains, he also developed more sympathy and admiration for the man. Sarty's exclamation of "He was brave!" suggests he sees his father as a hero (108). The narrator wonders if Sarty would still think so if he knew the truth about his father's activities during the war. For the time being, it's probably best Sarty thinks his dad is brave. Even the son of Abner Snopes wants to find something in his father to admire. Sarty is going into a tough world with a certain amount of toughness. As terrible as it sounds, Abner helped prepare him for that word. Of course, if Abner didn't act the way he did, Sarty wouldn't need to face the tough world alone at age ten. Interestingly, as the final paragraph reveals, Sarty is following in his father's footsteps, but by his own rules. Where did Abner hide for four years during the Civil War? The woods. Though Sarty doesn't know it, as he's also following in some literary footsteps. We must reproduce the final lines to show you what we mean: He went on down the hill, toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasingly—the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night. He did not look back. (109) The obscure word "quiring" is good to know. According to the OED, it means the same as "choiring," singing in a choir. The birds are both the choir for Abner's (literal or figurative) funeral and the "beating [...] of the heart of the late spring night." Though Sarty can't know it, the ending draws on a movement in pre-Civil War American literature called Transcendentalism. But our real point is that the ending is hopeful. Sarty is sad, but he is in control. At least for now he can make his own choices, and make his own life, not that it will be easy.

Abner Snopes is accused of burning down his landlord's barn. The landlord, Mr. Harris, tells the Justice of the Peace that Sarty, Abner's ten-year-old son knows the truth. Sarty's knows his father wants him to lie, and is terrified. Before he has to testify, the Justice and the landlord take pity on him. This initial tension between what Sarty wants and what his father wants drives the rest of the story.

We know Sarty planned to lie in court even though he didn't want to. Abner knows that Sarty wanted to tell the truth and assumes his son planned to betray him. Abner hits him and tells him that the most important thing in life is to "stick to your own blood" (29). Sarty feels powerless, and trapped. The scene with his father makes him realize just how much he wants to make his own choices. This stage extends the tension between father and son into a more distinct conflict.

When Sarty sees the de Spain mansion, he thinks it stands for "peace and dignity" (41). The mansion is hope for Sarty and he thinks its whiteness and opulence will soften his father and make him forget all about burning barns. The house means something entirely different to Abner. He knows that all such mansions were built, as he tells Sarty, from the "sweat" of black people, probably slaves. He shows exactly what he thinks of the de Spain fortune by deliberately tracking horse poop on the white carpet in the front room. The rug complicates things for Sarty. When de Spain isn't satisfied with the way the rug is cleaned, he belittles Abner in front of his son, adding extreme empathy for his father to the complicated emotions Sarty is feeling.

For all his empathy, Sarty has no intention of being an accomplice in the burning of another barn. After he alerts de Spain that the barn is about to be burned his life can never be the same again.

When Sarty is running, we aren't sure what will happen. We don't know if after warning de Spain he will try to warn his father that he warned de Spain, or what. In part because he's so young, we are very worried for him. The fact that he is a child and therefore vulnerable increases the suspense meter.

After all that running and frantic action, Sarty finally takes a breather. There is a definite sense that Sarty is at a middle point in his life. It's midnight, and he's on top of a hill, with his back to the past and his face to the future. The nightmare is behind him, and the unknown is before him. In this stage the action is inside Sarty's head and body, as he mourns his father, and sleeps to rejuvenate himself.

The story's last line makes it clear that Sarty is moving forward, away from his old life. In this sense, the story's conclusion is final. We don't know what will happen to him, but there is something exhilarating about the fact that even at ten years old, Sarty is determined to do things his way, to make his own choices, and live by his own code of honor.

... his interest in new forms of storytelling, in the characters' psychological processes, and in the depitction of the American South as an extreme and decadent territory.

The reinvigoration of American Southern literature that began in the 20s and the 30s: - class, race and gender - time as history and tradition - agrarian south vs modernization

An anticipated narration or evocation of an event to take place later.

Is characterized by his long, meandering sentences, and his complex syntax. His relish for the vernacular of he South is heightened in this story. It expresses the flavour of the land from which he is writing, as well as it conveys the southern traditions so connected to oral transmission.

Third person, limited viewpoint (Sarty's consciousness). Anonymous omniscient.

- visual, olfatory (when he smells the cheese and meat) - auditory (hears a wasp buzzing when he sees the new house, birds at the end) - gustatory

Sarty stands for the traditional hero (courage and honesty) . He goes through rites of passage and an archetypal quest. He has to eliminate his father to continue his quest (high cost).

Because is a learning into adulthood. Sarty abandons his father's moral code in favor of a new one.

... PROLEPSIS. "Later, 20 years later, he was to tell himself..." "It was exactly that some quality which is later years would cause his descendants to over-run the engine..."

Faulkner doesn't divide line between present/past.

It is the presentation of a scene or an object through the subjective perception or a character. Along the lines of the stress on perspective, FOCALIZATION bears an extremely important role. The difference between focalization and narration arises from the difference between the observing agent (who sees?) and the linguistic agent (who speaks?).