Table of Contents
- 1 What person is Barn Burning in?
- 2 What is the central thematic conflict of Barn Burning?
- 3 Why did Abner burn the barn?
- 4 What does the main character in Barn Burning do at the end of the story?
- 5 What does the rug symbolize in Barn Burning?
- 6 How would you describe Abner Snopes from Barn Burning?
- 7 Why does Abner burn barns and not houses?
- 8 How does sarty change in Barn Burning?
What person is Barn Burning in?
Only I can’t. This is a great example of a story with a great narrative choice. The point of view is third person limited, which means that the story is written in the third person, but that the narrative is focused on one character alone: Sarty Snopes.
What is the central thematic conflict of Barn Burning?
The central thematic conflict on William Faulkner’s Barn Burning is family loyalty versus social appropriateness, and the pressures of blood ties versus the chastising of behaviors within one’s own family.
What does Barn Burning say about justice?
“Barn Burning” features a variety of perspectives on justice, and shows how the process of legal justice isn’t always just. For Sarty Snopes, the ten-year-old star of this show, justice has to do with not lying and not hurting others. Like young Sarty, the reader is called on to judge father Snopes.
Why did Abner burn the barn?
Abner has thus immediately picked a fight with Major de Spain, a conflict which he exacerbates by ruining the rug further when de Spain bids him (reasonably) to clean it up. Abner’s resentment, pumped up by his own provocative misbehavior, now incites him to the usual climax, setting fire to his rival’s barn.
What does the main character in Barn Burning do at the end of the story?
Sarty is the ten-year-old hero of the story. By the end of the story he steals Abner’s role as principal actor by alerting de Spain, and then turning his back on the scene.
What does the fire symbolize in Barn Burning?
Fire is a constant threat in “Barn Burning,” and it represents both Snopes’s inherent powerlessness and his quest for power and self-expression. For Snopes, fire is a means of preserving his integrity and avenging the slights he believes have been ceaselessly meted out to him throughout his life.
What does the rug symbolize in Barn Burning?
The expensive rug represents for Snopes every comfort, opportunity, and privilege he feels he has been unfairly denied, and in destroying it, he renounces all regard for his life and family’s future.
How would you describe Abner Snopes from Barn Burning?
Snopes is an influential, towering presence in Sartoris’s eyes, but he himself is simply a primitive, thoughtless force of violence and destruction. With his family he is stiff, without depth, emotion, or complexity.
What happens to Abner at the end of Barn Burning?
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. Now that we’ve hashed that out, we can tell you that Abner doesn’t die that night. He lives on to burn more barns and feature in more stories.
Why does Abner burn barns and not houses?
Ab Snopes burn barns primarily as a means of getting back at those who’ve slighted him. As a man with virtually nothing—due largely to his own laziness and drunkenness—his campaign of serial arson is his way of exacting revenge on those much wealthier than himself.
How does sarty change in Barn Burning?
Sarty shows change when he asks his father if he “… want[s] to ride now?”(149) when they are leaving deSpain’s house. He seems to have the courage to ask his dad certain things, not fearing the consequences. At the end of the story, the language Sarty uses becomes clearer and more independent.