Plotting this particular story was challenging and tedious. In addition to this, “Barn Burning” left me with many unresolved questions. Granted, I am not sure if I overlooked clues which may have answered them, or if this individual story was meant to have unresolved issues. Furthermore, the central theme, though I understand we were not working on the theme, is still a mystery to me. I cannot seem to determine what the author was trying to convey with his contrasting images of fire, metal, and nature. However, without slowly analyzing the fiction line by line, I feel I would not have, at the very least, gained insight into the author’s use of irony and hidden imagery. Albeit, I need to read other short fiction stories, perhaps shorter
