William Faulkner’s short story, “The Barn Burning,” discusses the problems of the sharecropper, in the late nineteenth century South; Primarily a story about the relationship between father and son, the story presents itself through the use of symbolism. The most vital symbol in the story is fire. The fire symbolizes the father’s anger and, his lack of respect for other people’s property. The story begins and ends with the burning down of a barn. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses symbolism in his struggle between morality and ethics. Is blood truly thicker than water?
Fire is used to represent anger. Abner always just walked away without much reaction, but inside he was always raging,. Because Abner would not vent or let out his anger it just kept growing and growing like a fire. The more injustice he was given the more the fire grew within himself. Abner would let the fire grow until he finally destroyed what seemed to have shown him the injustice. When Abner becomes angry,
Abner isa reasonable approach to adversity and letdowns is necessary, to avoid allowing one’s problem to get so bad that they engulf a person. Everyone is treated poorly at onetime, but how one reacts is what is important. If every person that felt mistreated reacted like Abner, the world would be an atrocious place. The fire was symbolic by representing the anger and power that Abner had. He had so much built-up anger and by burning down barns were his way of feeling empowerment over others. Sarty was just a victim in this story. He loved his father very much, but decided that his morals were more important than blood. He felt very betrayed by his father. Maybe blood isn’t always thicker than water.
Abner’s son Sarty was the character with the most internal conflict throughout the story. He was faced with many different situations that required him to choose between his conscious and his family what he did was right. In the beginning of the story, Sarty lies for his father in court to protec
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