Barn Burning

3 Pages 769 Words

William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a steadfast type of relationship between the poor and wealthy people of the Civil War Era. The Snope’s Family, sharecrops to make a living. Abner Snopes, the main character of the story has hatred towards wealthy people. He lashes out at them in resentment and burns their barns. Through the story he shows a blatant disregard for the law and respect for his family. Abner’s character does not change throughout the story showing and proving that he is a heartless, vindictive, and violent man.
The beginning of the story starts with Abner and his family being sentenced to leave the country. He shows no remorse for his actions to his family, never once apologizing. Once the family has relocated due to his disregard to the law, he begins to order around his wife, his sister and two daughters to start to unload the wagon as soon as they arrive at their new home. Abner enters De Spain’s house without permission and then ruins his rug by wiping his horse manure covered feet. Once Abner was told to clean the rug he made his daughters clean the rug and then to hang it dry. Abner then ruines the rug further by taking a rock to it. When he returned the rug he threw it on the porch instead of properly handing it to him. Once the damages were evident he was charged to repay the damages. The result of his sentence to repay for damages infuriated Abner causing him to retaliate by attempting to burn Major De Spain’s barn.
Abner’s character is unchanged even when he is caught breaking the law. His first experience of breaking the law comes about when he was in the Civil War, not fighting in the war but stealing horses from both sides of the lines. The story began with Abner in court over
Hyatt 2

the burning of Mr. Harris’s barn. However the was not enough evidence to rule against him. He was told by the judge to leave the country. Abner was not in his new hou...