Barn Burning by William Faulkner was written in the ebb of the 1930s in a decade of social, economic, and This story offers insight into the pastyears for students to learn of the nation and the South. This story shows the racial segregation that took place inthese times between the white landowners and white tenantfarmers, the blacks and the whites, and the poor white trashclass and the blacks. The Snopess family was in the social class of thepoor, white tenant farmers. The father, Abner Snopes, hadto struggle to provide for his family. In the family therewere the mother and her sister, two daughters, and two sons.The older son, Flem, worked with Abner, and the younger son,Sarty, helped with the chores. Sarty, along with others, hadtrouble understanding his fathers way of life and hisattitude towards society. Abner was a harsh man. His crusade as a sharecropper exploited his inner feelings of resentment towards the landowners. Having little or no patience with each new situation, he resorted to the onlything that he was diligently, effectively good at, burningbarns. His insensitivity to his family, landowners, theirfamilies, and especially the blacks depicted him as a menaceto society. Pictured as poor, white trash, Abnersstruggle to be better than the nigger race was a never-ending battle, always ending in defeat. He invariablyresorted to retrieving some sort of satisfaction bydestroying wealthy landowners property, barns. Abnersinability to rise above the label of poor, white trash ledto his demise as a functional part of society. He used thebarn burnings as a way of getting back at society forsuppressing him. He felt that people owed him and when hedid not receive, he resorted to destructive measures. Hefelt that the tactics he employed were the only real way todeal with the problem at hand. Another side of Abner tendsto go deeper than what appears on the surface. Although weare not told in the story precisely why he ...
