Symbolism In Barn Burning

Figure 1 is a picture of a barn burning. This is what occurs first in the story and it has a great impact on the story. The father burning the barn sets up the entire story, hence the name of the story “Barn Burning.” The father is characterized as having a short temper. This is shown with the barn burning, in which it took a little bit of a push and he burned down a man’s barn. This is also shown in the story when he slaps Sartoris. I think the barn burning also symbolizes Sartoris’ relationship with his father. I think of a barn as a dirty, smelly place on the inside and having walls and a roof that is constantly needing to being repaired. I think this is the Sartoris’ and his father’s relationship because it is broken and Sartoris …show more content…
After Snopes gets the rug dirty he is told to clean it by de Spain’s servant. Snopes has his daughters clean the rug. Snopes does not want to put in the work to actually clean the rug well himself. Having his daughters clean the rug demonstrations how he does not want to work for anything. The family also does not clean the rug properly. Snopes never wanted to put in hard work or doing anything the right way. The story discusses how he stole horses in the civil war to make money. This reinforces that he did not ever do anything the right way. Snopes is also somebody that always blames things on someone else, he says, “If I thought enough of a rug to have to git hit all the way from France I wouldn’t keep hit where folks coming in would have to tromp on hit.” Snopes feels as though they should not have to go to the trouble of cleaning the rug because it was really de Spain’s fault for leaving it somewhere where it could get dirty. The cleaning of the rug also shows how Snopes is always trying to clean up after himself. Snopes has had to clean up after his mistakes his entire life. The story begins with him trying to get out legal trouble for the barn he burned. When this happened I think cleaning up after himself is a reoccurring theme in his