William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” is a story filled with myth. This story that features a coming of age present a boy born to a family with a father who can be thought of as Satan and have a relationship similar to the one of Zeus and Cronus. These stories provide a significant view of the south in the 1800’s. The characters and families of both William Faulkner’s stories are viewed as groups that live in the south. The stories strongly display the characters facing challenges of morality within themselves. The character of Abner and the relationships he and Sarty have in Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” are better understood and related to those in Homer’s “The Odyssey” and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”. “Barn Burning” is set in the
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Emily and Abner’s most significant difference is that they are on complete separate sides of society economically. It is clear that they are on separate sides of the social ladder by the way Faulkner describes Emily’s house: “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street” (Faulkner 794). The description created by Faulkner describing Emily’s house reveals a typical southern home which happens to be the same setting in “Barn Burning”. Abner, however, is a sharecropper and is very poor with no house or land. In fact, Abner isn’t even on the social ladder at all. Miss Emily’s personality is that like Abner’s. She’s rude and inconsiderate of others. When the new mayor of the town wrote her a letter asking her to call the town office she didn 't even reply. When Emily did not reply to the letter the mayor sent some members of the town office to go speak with her at her house. When the servant let them in, Emily walked over to where they were standing and did not bother to ask them to have a seat. When they began to explain why she needed to pay her taxes she replied, “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me” (Faulkner 795). When the men told Miss Emily that they were the city authorities and they had no record of any document stating her information, she had her servant show them to the door. Through her actions it is evident that she is prideful in the same way Abner is with authorities, and come up with every excuse to work their way around the law. Both Abner Snopes and Emily Grierson are isolated from
Emily and Abner’s most significant difference is that they are on complete separate sides of society economically. It is clear that they are on separate sides of the social ladder by the way Faulkner describes Emily’s house: “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street” (Faulkner 794). The description created by Faulkner describing Emily’s house reveals a typical southern home which happens to be the same setting in “Barn Burning”. Abner, however, is a sharecropper and is very poor with no house or land. In fact, Abner isn’t even on the social ladder at all. Miss Emily’s personality is that like Abner’s. She’s rude and inconsiderate of others. When the new mayor of the town wrote her a letter asking her to call the town office she didn 't even reply. When Emily did not reply to the letter the mayor sent some members of the town office to go speak with her at her house. When the servant let them in, Emily walked over to where they were standing and did not bother to ask them to have a seat. When they began to explain why she needed to pay her taxes she replied, “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me” (Faulkner 795). When the men told Miss Emily that they were the city authorities and they had no record of any document stating her information, she had her servant show them to the door. Through her actions it is evident that she is prideful in the same way Abner is with authorities, and come up with every excuse to work their way around the law. Both Abner Snopes and Emily Grierson are isolated from