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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that analyzes William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning." In this story, Sarty, a young boy, has to choose between family loyalty and stopping his father from yet another barn burning. The behavior of his father, Abner Snopes, seems inexplicable, at first glance, to the modern reader, as Abner sabotages his chances of earning a living for himself and his family as a sharecropper by intentionally and maliciously ruining an expensive rug in the home of his new employer. The explanation for this bizarre behavior lies in Faulkner's careful characterization of Abner and the way in which he situates Abner within the context of the rural Southern culture of the time. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khfaabbb.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
to the modern reader, as Abner sabotages his chances of earning a living for himself and his family as a sharecropper by intentionally and maliciously ruining an expensive rug in
the home of his new employer. The explanation for this bizarre behavior lies in Faulkners careful characterization of Abner and the way in which he situates Abner within the context
of the rural Southern culture of the time. From the beginning of the story, Faulkner uses dialect to indicate the "rural or hillbilly origins of characters such as Sarty
or Ab Snopes" (McDonald 46). As this suggests, Abner not only does the same work as black sharecroppers, but he is also connected to them via other social class signifiers,
such as his use of language. Abner is very much "aware of his interchangeability as a white sharecropper" with black laborers (Watson 3). When Abner and Sarty visit Major De
Spain, the landowner who has hired Abner to sharecrop his land, the elderly black servant who admits them immediately recognizes Abners social status and that Abner "clearly falls beneath the
necessity of addressing him as sir or mister" (Duvall 106). While Abner is Caucasian, he "falls short of whiteness" (Duvall 106). Faced with white wealth and privilege, which is a
social factor to which he is excluded, Abners anger is compounded by the fact that the Negro servant does not acknowledge his whiteness, but rather treats him as a social
equal telling him, "Wipe yo foots, white man, fo you come in here" (Faulkner 2054). As this indicates, Abner is given a direct order by a black man, if
he had obeyed, Abner would have been acknowledging the fact that he stands no higher in the social hierarchy than does this black man. This is something that his white
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