Essay On Southern Social Classes In William Faulkner's Literature

The characters in William Faulkner’s writings were affected by the Southern social classes. “Faulkner’s story, the one story he has to tell, is the his-story of the South into which he was born and which, in turn, has lived in his bones and words.” (Friedman) Old, new and reconstructed South; if it had anything to do about the South, Faulkner would write about it. Not many other writers understood the Southern social class like Faulkner did. When reading William Faulkner’s writings you most always find a Southern theme. You can see the theme of the South in individuals, social classes, groups and in families. The classic struggle of the privileged and the underprivileged.
A person’s life in the South could be heavily affected by their …show more content…
The house has nice rugs, chandeliers’ and more than only two rooms. The black servant has better dress attire than the white tenant farmer and his family. Sarty’s clothes were faded patched jeans with shirts that were falling apart. Snopes feels “He belongs to neither the white landholding class nor the black servant class.” (Murphy) The black servant had more authority over the white tenant farmer when the servant was not going to allow Snopes and Sarty to enter into Major de Spain’s home, “Wipe yo foots, white man, fo you come in here.” (Faulkner 195)
In a “Barn Burning”, Snopes disobedience was his understanding that the man in the big house “aims to begin to-morrow owning me body and soul for the next eight months.” (Faulkner 191) Snopes is so irate about his own short comings and that he has to continuously have to work on someone else’s land. The tenant farmers of that time have very little chance of being able of being able to get out of their repressive class since the landowners have constant monetary and legal power of the lands. So, he rebels against the upper class landowner and tries to burn down the landowner’s