“Barn Burning” Formalist Approach “Barn Burning” is a short story about a young boy who struggles between his loyalty to his family and the moral obligation he feels to tell on his father for burning barns. William Faulkner used many literary elements along with organization of events in the story to convey the theme of doing right from wrong to the reader. These elements work together to form a plot that enables the reader to grasp the meaning of “Barn Burning”. Faulkner used imagery, symbolism, irony, a child and adult relationship, and point of view to get the theme across to the reader that choosing right from wrong can be a struggle, but it will pay off in the end. The use of imagery contributed to the theme in “Barn Burning” through
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Gale Edward Wilson discussed in her article how the use of Sarty’s age, ignorance, and lack of knowledge was ironic while telling the story during certain times in the day to symbolize things figuratively and physically (Wilson 279-228). Irony was used by Faulkner when the hour of midnight is the start of a new day chronologically and spiritually as Sarty gets to start over fresh with a new day even though he does not notice it after he told on his father for burning the last barn and walks off into the night (Wilson 279-228). Faulkner was also clever in this piece by choosing Sarty’s name to be Sarty because it is ironic that his name means father of light. Sarty come from “chaos to cosmos”, “death to life”, and “darkness to light” (Wilson 279-228). All of Sarty’s pressures were relieved after he finally stood up to his father doing wrong things. Irony contributed to the theme of this story because everything that went wrong felt like darkness and then when things got better it was like a sense of light just like the meaning of Sarty’s name “father of …show more content…
Hans H. Skei suggested in his article over Faulkner’s use of point of view in “Barn Burning” that any other point of view would have limited “Barn Burning’s” potential so third person point of view along with rhythmic interruptions was an excellent choice by Faulkner to enhance the story to its fullest potential.(Skei 55-68). The use of third person allowed the reader to experience all of the character’s feelings because if the reader did not get to know there thoughts the reader could interpret something differently. An example of this is when Sarty was on the stand and he though to himself, “he aims for me to lie” as if it bothered to lie so if the reader did not know he thought that then the reader would not know if Sarty wanted to lie or not. The choice of using all knowing third-person point of view was wise because it kept the reader entertained by knowing all the information, and it also allowed the reader to know each character’s perspective of things to get a more in depth understanding of the theme. It is important to know all the angles from which the story is told, and also as the characters see things in the story so the reader can interpret things more precisely. If the story was told in a different point of view, it could have changed the entire theme of the story and every element of
Gale Edward Wilson discussed in her article how the use of Sarty’s age, ignorance, and lack of knowledge was ironic while telling the story during certain times in the day to symbolize things figuratively and physically (Wilson 279-228). Irony was used by Faulkner when the hour of midnight is the start of a new day chronologically and spiritually as Sarty gets to start over fresh with a new day even though he does not notice it after he told on his father for burning the last barn and walks off into the night (Wilson 279-228). Faulkner was also clever in this piece by choosing Sarty’s name to be Sarty because it is ironic that his name means father of light. Sarty come from “chaos to cosmos”, “death to life”, and “darkness to light” (Wilson 279-228). All of Sarty’s pressures were relieved after he finally stood up to his father doing wrong things. Irony contributed to the theme of this story because everything that went wrong felt like darkness and then when things got better it was like a sense of light just like the meaning of Sarty’s name “father of …show more content…
Hans H. Skei suggested in his article over Faulkner’s use of point of view in “Barn Burning” that any other point of view would have limited “Barn Burning’s” potential so third person point of view along with rhythmic interruptions was an excellent choice by Faulkner to enhance the story to its fullest potential.(Skei 55-68). The use of third person allowed the reader to experience all of the character’s feelings because if the reader did not get to know there thoughts the reader could interpret something differently. An example of this is when Sarty was on the stand and he though to himself, “he aims for me to lie” as if it bothered to lie so if the reader did not know he thought that then the reader would not know if Sarty wanted to lie or not. The choice of using all knowing third-person point of view was wise because it kept the reader entertained by knowing all the information, and it also allowed the reader to know each character’s perspective of things to get a more in depth understanding of the theme. It is important to know all the angles from which the story is told, and also as the characters see things in the story so the reader can interpret things more precisely. If the story was told in a different point of view, it could have changed the entire theme of the story and every element of