William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”
How is “Barn Burning” a story about social class, drawing from DeMott’s argument?
According to Barn Burning, Faulkner describes a man known as Abner who develops the theme concerning social class, and his son, Sarty who is obligated to live a life with moral dilemma. These characters have a significant role in the development of the theme of social class in the entire narrative. The story has more emphasis on the life of Sarty. After the analysis of the narrative, Sarty is depicted to have inconsistencies, which develop due to his father’s acts. It is evident that throughout the story, Abner commits illegal acts. Through the introduction of the story there are rhetorical questions asked to illustrate acts of justice and peace, “Do I understand why the rug was burned too?”(Faulkner 425). Abner commits uncountable crimes and it appears that there is something propelling his actions. He depends on himself in the crop-sharing program in which he takes the initiative of farming a land belonging to his neighbor, eventually he shares the crops to compensate the man’s debt. This is evident whereby when in court the judge declares that Abner must repay the debt, “the amount of ten bushels of corn over and above your contract with him” (426). Abner realizes that there is a difference among the social classes and on the diverse economic situations where the characters in the story generate a theme based on the social class aspects. The presence of Abner portrays the important theme of social classes.
Sarty also contributes to this theme through the character faces internal conflicts that can be termed as immoral although he supports his father’s actions. This is depicted best in the internal conflicts on when his father plots to demolish his employer’s storage place. Sarty has knowledge of this plan and he keeps calm without taking any actions on the issue. After it dawns on him that his father was serious about burning the barn, he is instructed to go and take the corn lamp in the barn (Falkner 427). The act of hesitation of Sarty explains the moral aspects encountered by the characters. The devotion of Sarty is proof that he is tested on his moral aspects hence developing the theme in the narrative. Abner and Sarty both add up to the advance of several themes in the story and none of the character can be termed as the main character.
How is “Barn Burning” a story about human development and psychology?
According to William Faulkner “Barn Burning”, there are various psychological concepts portrayed. William implicates the incidents of the narrative in a stream of consciousness and makes it continuous in a way that makes the human mind to work in a perceiving situation.”Barn Burning” is a psychologically oriented narrative. The story is depicted in the South immediately after the Civil War about the story of a young boy, Sarty who grows up with his father’s brutal and oppressing character. Abner’s family moves to various places because his father is disowned from the community due to his character. For example, there was a case where he left work because he was accused of burning a barn that belonged to his employer. When Sartys family relocates to their new farm where his father had managed to get a job, they begin a brand new life. However, Abner gets into disagreements with his new employee over a rag that he destroyed. This resulted to the employer docking the Abner’s wages. Eventually he decides to ruin the employer’s barn. Sarty has a conscience that does not allow him to stay passively, he takes the initiative of informing the employer about his father’s intentions. Eventually his father is shot dead by his employer, and the guilt that comes with the brutal action and the passion to escape motivates Sarty to run away from his family. In these turbulent experiences, Faulkner illustrates a stream of consciousness that elaborates the glimpse of Sartys life. The style used by William implicates the theory of partitioning in various experiences and the way human mind processes information from the incoming signals. This reveals the work of a human mind and the perceptions, emotions and images estranged through the implications of functional theories.
The occurrence of the events in the narratives cannot be scrutinized as they elaborate various themes. This is because Faulkner uses effectual illustration to emphasize on the psychological emotions that Sarty experiences during the life and after the death of his father. He describes these reactions with the following phrase “stumbling and tripping over something that scrabbles up again without stopping to run among the invisible trees” (Faulkner 1642). This technique portrays the events that happen to the life of Sarty. In his work, William Faulkner replicates the functioning of the human mind in critical thinking and effective decision-making.
