William Faulkner's Barn Burning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

William Faulkner's Barn Burning - Essay Example Faulkner has used the plot, and the interactions between the characters, to explain the concept of mental and emotional slavery in man. However, what strikes most in Faulkner’s story is the use of symbolism. Through different symbols in the story, the author has described the internal conflict that a human being experiences before he succeeds in getting freedom. Hence, it is a story of spirit of freedom in human beings. In the short story, Faulkner has also explained how slavery is not just situational in nature, but also psychological. The author has made an excellent use of symbolism to explain the nature of freedom in people’s lives. According to Faulkner, the strongest obstacles in achieving freedom in life is not the external circumstances, but the internal demons of emotional and psychological attachment to destructive and negative people in life, and hence, the only way for human beings to get freedom in life is to win over the internal demons, because they are m ore dangerous than the external circumstances of slavery. Symbolism The story ‘Barn Burning’ is an excellent work by William Faulkner, where he has used symbolism to explain the purpose of his story. Symbolism is a method of describing the essence of a story ‘indirectly’ through objects, events and actions of the characters in the story. In case of the short story ‘Barn Burning’, the author William Faulkner has used interesting symbols to describe the conflict, spirit of freedom, rebellion, and courage in human beings. Right from the first paragraph of the story, the readers sense the use of symbols in the story. The author has used symbolism not only through objects but also through the actions of the characters. The symbols that he has used are blood, Sartoris’s actions and peculiar behavior patterns of characters in the story. Blood Right from the beginning of the story, the author grips the attention of the reader by introducing him to the complex idea of smell and its associations in life. Human beings have a tendency of developing mental associations with things related to sensory objects. For example, if a person listens to a song that was his favorite in the childhood, then the memories of childhood floods to his mind and he relives the good and bad experiences associated with that song. Faulkner has used the ‘sense of smell’ as a symbol of conflict in the mind of Sartoris Snopes, a ten year old protagonist of the story. The story begins with the description of the court proceedings against Sartoris’s father, who is accused of burning the barn of his owner. The proceedings take place in a store where the tins of cheese are kept. The boy is shown going through an internal conflict through the sensation of smells. Sarty (Sartoris) is found torn between the smell of cheese and the smell of ‘blood’. Sarty is sure that he smelt cheese even though he is unable to read the letters on the tin cans. The smell is pleasant and he likes it. However, he is unable to enjoy the smell of cheese as it is polluted with the smell of ‘blood’. Here, the author has used ‘blood’ as symbol of ‘loyalty and duty towards the family’. The smell of blood is not ‘real’ but is a psychological symbol of ‘family’. Interestingly, the smell of blood that Sarty senses is also joined by the sense of fear. It reminds Sarty of the despair and grief that he has experienced. Sadly, the smell of cheese that he senses is momentary and comes intermittently. However, the smell of blood is permanent and consistent in his mind. The words ‘fierce pull of blood’ shows that Sarty is somehow being forced to be loyal to his family, and particularly, towards his father. The word ‘