Barn Burning Themes

Family is one of the most important bonds that we all need. These bonds are formed at birth, and our families are meant to stay united through every possible situation. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Sometimes family bonds lessen due to a variety of factors, but in Faulkner’s Barn Burning and in Diaz’s Fiesta, family bonds are put to the test because of each of the fathers’ poor decisions. In Barn Burning, the father’s pyromania forces the family to have to leave town and start a new life somewhere else, and their new life goes up in flames shortly after moving. On the other hand, in Fiesta, Junior seems to be the only one who knows and cares about his father’s mistress, and this knowledge sickens Junior, and it is also the leading factor in his confusion in life. Both of these stories use the characterization of the fathers and symbolism to help display the theme. Fiesta also uses setting to show the theme, but Barn Burning uses the setting as evidence towards the father’s …show more content…
As they are leaving the town, the father hits the young boy, and the father scolds and yells at his children throughout the story (505). Everyone in this family fears the father because they know he will hurt any of them. However, none of them speak out about it to anyone else, not even each other, because they feel that keeping silent is what is best to keep the family together, just like Junior does in Fiesta. However, in Barn Burning, the entire family has another burden from their father that they had to decide to keep private. The family never turns in their father, even though they know he is an arsonist (512). They know that if he goes to prison that no one in their family will be able to earn enough money for the family, so they do not talk about it. In Faulkner’s story, everyone in the family holds the burden of the father’s secret, whereas in Diaz’s story only a few of the family members know of the