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Barn Burning Literary Analysis

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Submitted By jaleelrj
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Jaleel Ritchwood
Dr. Angela Elliot
Introduction to Literary Analysis ENG1005A

Breaking Free

William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning” seems just to be about an oppressive father and a son who is in the grips of that oppression. I think Faulkner explores at least one important philosophical question in this story where he asks at what point should a person make a choice between what his parent(s) and/or family believes and his own values? The main character and protagonist in this story is a boy named Colonel Sartoris, who is nicknamed Sarty. In this story, Sarty is faced with the decision of both going along with the views and actions of his ethically challenged father or assert his own ethics and independence by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind. In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”, Sarty and his father Abner struggle with internal emotions dealing with their way of life.

The antagonist in the story is Abner Snopes. Abner is a very angry and inconsiderate man who has hate and abomination for almost anybody who is not “blood-kin”, and he portrays that hatred and disapproval throughout the story. This story follows the typical format and is narrated in the third person. In the exposition, Faulkner’s skill as a writer is established through the way that he uses details to draw the readers into the story. Also, in the first paragraph we are introduced to the main character and protagonist in the story, Sarty. The setting in which Sarty’s conflict is established is at trial. In the trial, the justice asks Sarty, “I reckon any boy named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth, can they” (Doby 254)? This is the part of the story in which the reader can first get a sense of the moral predicament that Faulkner is trying to portray in this story. Next, we are introduced to the antagonist, Abner Snopes, when he talks

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