Essay --

The Strategies of Victims Faulkner’s short story â€Å"Barn Burning,† captures the intensity and dynamics of a father and son relationship. The story is set in the Old South, where the dry farming grounds of the plantations are the only places that promise hardworking men a means to support their families. Though Faulkner presents these two man characters as vastly different, the father, Abner, and the son, Sarty, share a striking similarity. They both see themselves as victims and display the traits of a victim’s status. The father is a victim of social injustice and poverty. The son, on the other hand, is a victim of child abuse at the hand of his controlling and impulsive father. Faulkner sets the tone of the story by displaying the strategies of the victims and the complexity of their abuse through the narrator’s voice. In "Barn Burning," Faulkner portrays a boy, very nearly moral awareness, who ends up cut off from the modern world of which he is beginning to understand. The boy, Sarty begins to feel his alienation take root in connection with his father, who ought to be his moral compass and lead Sarty into this new modern society. On account of his father's criminal impulsiveness and a knack for starting fires, Sarty ends up, in the beginning of the story victimized and insulted by a kid, who he attacks back. His father has taught him to see others as the "enemy" (X.J. Kennedy). When Sarty’s father is charged with arson by Mr. Harris, he consequently labels him as "our enemy . . . hisn and ourn† (X.J. Kennedy pg. 147). The story closes with Sarty alone on at night on a hill viewing the stars. Faulkner depicts the Sarty’s loneliness, learned through his years of abuse and neglect. Yet on this hill, he has a moment of clarity and... ...nd a source and cause for his family’s poverty, and unhappiness. Abner is in denial that his circumstances are mostly a direct result of his decisions. Instead, he hates society and the educated man. Therefore, Abner directs his anger towards them, fighting to regain his pride and idea of justice. Through the support of the narrator’s tone, these two diversely different characters are brought together because they go through the same strategies and expressions of pain, unhappiness, injustice and abuse. Faulkner’s brilliant writing style and tone through the voice of the narrator creates a dynamic story that discusses several critical points, such as the struggles of victims and their strategies. Through two characters the author was able to describe the different reactions of victims, as well as, allow the audience to form and label the antagonist and protagonist.