College Prep Composition
Literary Analysis
Mrs. Schmidt
February 23, 2010
Name ________________________________
Period ______
William Faulkner: “Barn Burning”
Arts & Humanities: Literature: Literary Criticism
Literary Analysis: Faulkner's “Barn Burning”
by Randy Pinion
William Faulkner's seminal work, "Barn Burning," presents a deep, multifaceted
character in Abner Snopes and leaves him up to the reader to interpret and judge. A
number of essays and articles have been written about "Barn Burning" since its first
publication in Harper's Magazine in 1939. Some focus on the inner struggles and
perspective of protagonist Sarty Snopes, Ab's youngest son. Others spotlight and analyze
Ab, and they do so in many ways. For instance, in some, he is portrayed as a nearly evil
obstacle to Sarty's character development; others choose to examine the nature of his
character and Faulkner's descriptions of him; yet others, normally the most recent,
analyze his behavior on a social and economic level. Whatever the focus, a great deal can
be written about Mr. Snopes, for his is a character very open to discussion.
Many early works about Snopes took him at face value. According to Zender, he
is a dark, imposing obstacle to his son's development into his own man. He has moved
from being a simple freebooter and thief to existing as a dark, vengeful individual. This
change has made him into a tough old man against whom Sarty's developing personality
begins to rail. He is not characterized much beyond this simple role as an impenetrable
wall of near evil to stand in his son's path to manhood (28). Sarty's final, climactic
decision to break away from his father's rule is seen as proof of his own ultimate moral
correctness against the demonic qualities of Ab (Zender 28-9). A young Sarty sees many
devilish elements in his father. Ab's hand is characterized as claw-like in one passage,
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while in another, he is referred to as not seeming to cast a shadow, and in yet another, his
foot seems to break into a pile of manure much as a cloven hoof would (Volpe 164).
However, Sarty, speaking through the narrator’s voice in the story, sees even more of this
demon of a man's dark side: his mother's utter subjugation by Ab's indomitable will is
suggestive of Lucifer's success in making other angels into extensions of his own will and
bringing them down with him when he is cast into Hell (164). Of course, Ab's barn
burning itself is a testament to his satanic image as fire is commonly associated with the
devil (164). According to Volpe, Sarty's refusal to obey his father, to break away from his
blood ties, is viewed as good, and his father is seen as the antithesis of such morality
(163).
Past such satanic trappings, more is written on Faulkner's description of Snopes.
Throughout the story, Abner is constantly referred to as "stiff." This is an example of
what many scholars call Faulkner's leitmotif, a highly repetitive description of a
character by a single trait (Ferguson 137). This stiffness not only seems to characterize
Ab's gait and stance, but he as a character as well. His stiffness is reminiscent of his total
dedication to his own integrity and sense of self; his unbending will is much like his tinlike body (138). It seems to suggest Ab is some kind of living force with a great,
unbreakable will which proudly stands tall, firm, and dark (Volpe 163). Faulkner's
eventual turning of the "stiff" descriptor on Sarty at the story's end, suggesting
unshakable family traits that tie the boy to his father, is viewed as one of the most
poignant moments in any of Faulkner's work (Ferguson 138). Another point in
Faulkner's description of Abner comes in his admission that there are admirable qualities
to Mr. Snopes; though he can be animalistic, vengeful, and terrifying, he also embodies
many characteristics Faulkner often praised, such as courage and endurance (Social
Themes). Faulkner even spoke of the value of such traits in his Nobel Prize speech
(Social Themes). This second side to Abner is an interesting companion to the often
harsh words Faulkner normally used to describe him.
Another, newer view of Abner Snopes sees him as a way of expressing the social
and economic problems of the Deep South in the 1930s (Social Themes). In these
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readings, society is blamed for Ab's barn-burning, rebellious personality (Zender 28). He
is struggling against the oppressive economic restraints placed on him, and at the same
time represents the new face of the South, rising against the old aristocratic order
(Johnston 199). According to Pierce, Abner uses fire as a great equalizer of affairs, to
bring the rich down to his level after they have so long sat above him. DeSpain is Ab's
ultimate foil in this viewpoint -- rich, mighty, and comfortable in his constant, large
home (861). Racial themes are even explored. Though Snopes feels a racial superiority to
the black servant in the DeSpain mansion, the scene in the doorway shows the servant to
be higher on the social ladder of the South than the poor white tenant farmer, infuriating
Abner even further (Social Themes). These readings do not seek to make Snopes seem
unresponsible for his crimes, but rather to explain them in light of the myriad problems
history has revealed in the era and geographical area.
Through all of these conflicting views on Snopes, an image begins to at last emerge for
the reader of "Barn Burning." He is a tortured man, plagued by a thousand cares, worries,
and memories of a troubled past. This combines with the socioeconomic pressures
crushing down on him, a poor wandering farmer, to create in him the intense, burning
need to find some sort of justice in a world seemingly out to get him. He feels he must
overcome it, for it is a direct challenge to his manhood, and its efforts to beat him down
are a slap to his face. He gathers his family close about him, for they are the only truth he
knows, and he attempts to make them see the world as he does. If they cannot come to
serve him and, in a way, be him, then they are useless. His wife and daughters quickly
succumb to his deep-rooted rage, but his youngest son, Sarty, cannot stand by as his
father commits crimes against those above him to bring justice to a world gone mad. He
breaks away from his father's unbending control, ever fearful of the imposing figure
attempting to rule him, and becomes the first true separate entity in the story. All others
had simply been extensions of Abner or were downplayed by Snopes. This rageful man is
many things and has many faces, but the sum total of them is a precisely developed
character in one of Faulkner's most well-known short stories.
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Works Cited
Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing.
Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992. 17889.
Ferguson, James. Faulkner's Short Fiction. University of Tennessee Press, 1991.
Johnston, Kenneth G. "Time of Decline: Pickett's Charge and the Broken Clock in
Faulkner's Barn Burning'." Studies in Short Fiction (1974): 434-6. Rpt. in
Contemporary Literary Criticism 11. Eds. Laurie Lawson Harris and Sheila
Fitzgerald. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. 1999.
Pierce, Constance. "Barn Burning." Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Ed. May, Charles E.
Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc., 2001. 861-2.
"The Southern Social Themes of Barn Burning'." 123-HelpMe.
http://www.123helpme.com/view. asp?id=
Volpe, Edmund L. "Barn Burning: A Definition of Evil." Faulkner, The Unwrapped
Imagination: A Collection of Critical Essays (1988): 75-81. Rpt. in Short Story
Criticism. Eds. Laurie Lawson Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Detroit: Gale
Research Company, 1988. 163-4.
Zender, Karl F. "Barn Burning." A William Faulkner Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert W.
Hamblin and Charles A Peek. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. 28-9).
http://www.helium.com/items/103300-literary-analysis-faulkners-barn-burning?
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