Jackie Bohbenek
Kathleen Brown
Summary
Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” by Max L. Loges
In this article, Loges discusses the significance of the names presented in Faulkner’s
“Barn Burning.” Sarty, he explains, is named after Colonel John Sartoris, who is a symbol of
justice and integrity. Abner is named after a biblical figure who escapes the army of Israel and
does not pledge allegiance to either side of the war. In “Barn Burning,” Abner is only loyal to
himself, which is explained when we find that he deserted the Confederate army and stole and
sold horses to those who would pay him. The descriptions of these names gives a reader insight
into the overall themes in the book.
In “An overview of Barn Burning” Thomas Bertonneau analyzes the “tormented” character of
Abner Snopes. He states that Abner “is everyone’s double, and that is the source of the misery in which
he immerses his family and all of those whom he comes into contact.” He claims that Snope’s cynical
attitude was due to the fact that he felt challenged by the mere existence of others. Bertonneau
exclaims that Abner is not only at odds with other people, but also with social order. When they leave
town for the de Spain plantation, Abner’s son Sarty hopes Abner is satisfied and will stop the destructive
lifestyle. However, as it turns out, “Abner, wounded by the perceived superiority of everyone to
himself, can not be satisfied; he remains trapped in a cycle of rivalry of which his fire-setting is the
perfect symbol.” This insight into the thoughts and intensions of Abner aims to help the reader
understand his actions in the story.
Themes/Issues:
Loyalty to family: Loyalty to family is a major theme throughout Faulkner’s story and is clearly
shown when Sarty stands behind and defends his father, even though he knows he is guilty of
barn burning. “You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going
to have any blood to stick to you” (8). “Speaking, whispering up at the harsh, calm face beneath
the weathered hat: ‘He won't git no ten bushels neither. He won't git one’” (19). “He could not
see the table where the Justice sat and before which his father and his father's enemy (our enemy
he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He's my father!)” (3). When the boys
outside the court call Sarty’s father a “barn burner,” he fights them to defend his father (5).
Morality: Sarty struggles with the need to stay loyal to his father while also wanting to do the
right thing. “Later, twenty years later, he was to tell himself, ‘If I had said they wanted only
truth, justice, he would have hit me again’” (8). “Maybe he even won't collect the twenty
bushels. Maybe it will all add up and balance and vanish - corn, rug, fire; the terror and grief, the
being pulled two ways like between two teams of horses - gone, done with for ever and ever”
(17). "You'll hold him better than that. If he gets loose don't you know what he is going to do?
He will go up yonder" (22). “‘I reckon anybody named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can't
help but tell the truth, can they?’” (4).
Discussion question: Which do you think is more important, Sarty’s loyalty to his family or
desire to keep to his morals?
Society and Class: There is a constant struggle between upper and lower class shown through
Snopes’s rebellion against his “owners.” “I rode down to his house and saw the wire I gave him
still rolled on to the spool in his yard” (3) “He said, 'He say to tell you wood and hay kin burn’”
(4). “Then with the same deliberation he turned; the boy watched him pivot on the good leg and
saw the stiff foot drag round the arc of the turning, leaving a final long and fading smear. His
father never looked at it, he never once looked down at the rug” (12). “‘But you never had a
hundred dollars. You never will. So I'm going to charge you twenty bushels of corn against your
crop’” (16).
Alienation: Abner’s destructive nature causes a rift between him and his son, which eventually
causes the alienation of Sarty from the rest of his family. ‘Hold him,’ the father said. The aunt
made a startled movement. ‘ Not you,’ the father said. ‘Lennie.’ ‘Take hold of him I want to
see you do it.’ His mother took him by the wrist” (22). “ But there was no glare behind him now
and he sat now, his back towards what he had called home for four days anyhow, his face
towards the dark woods which he would enter when breath was strong again, small, shaking
steadiliy in the chill darkness, hugging himself into the remainder of his thin, rotten shirt, the
grief and despair now no longer terror and fear but just grief and despair.
Why do you think Abner felt a strong desire to defy his superiors?
Literary Elements:
Symbolism: fire: “And older still, he might have divined the true reason: that the element of fire
spoke to some deep mainspring of his father's being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke
to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the
breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion” (7). Fire symbolizes
Abner’s weapon against authority. Whenever a person in a superior position at Abner
disrespects him, he retaliates by burning their barn. It is also his comfort because it is what he
used to pass nights during the war, and that is why he uses it against figures of authority.
Irony: Abner always perceives himself as a powerful white man, yet he is always described a
wearing black, the one color he has been fighting against his whole life not to be. “Stiff black
coat” (5). “Black, flat, and bloodless” (8). “A small fire, neat, niggard almost” (7). (the word
niggard means “stingy” but used in this context sounds like a racial slur)
Repetition: stiff, black: “His father turned, and he followed the stiff black coat, the wiry figure
walking a little stiffly from where a Confederate provost's man's musket ball had taken him in
the heel” (5). “And once more he followed the stiff back, the stiff and ruthless limp, up the slope
and on to the starlit road” (8).
Cold, harsh: “His father spoke for the first time, his voice cold and harsh, level, without
emphasis (5). His father's hand jerked him back, the harsh, cold voice speaking above him”(6).
“the voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin” (8).
Silhouette: “He could see his father against the stars but without face or depth-a shape black, flat,
and bloodless” (8). The last thing the boy remembered was the depthless, harsh silhouette of the
hat and coat bending over the rug and it seemed to him that he had not even closed his eyes when
the silhouette was standing over him” (14).
Discussion question: Why do you think Abner was always described as a silhouette?
Similie: “The voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin” (8).
Discussion questions:
Why are the sisters always described as large and bovine?