William Faulkners Barn Burning - Essay Example

?Short Story and Play William Faulkner’s Barn Burning is a short story that details the life of a child who moves from town to town because his father constantly burns the barns of the people with whom they are staying. The story functions as an investigation into social class and moral responsibility. Throughout Barn Burning, Faulkner makes use of a series of literary devices to achieve a chilling emotional effect. Another powerful work of literature is John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt. This play explores the complex interaction between a number of priests and nuns in an educational institute, considering the controversial sexual interaction the priest has with a young boy. While both works demonstrate strikingly different narrative presentations, in considering the works’ literary qualities, it’s clear that they demonstrate a number of comparative and contrasting elements. This essay compares and contrasts both William Faulkner Barn Burning and John Patrick Stanley’s Doubt through an exploration of the ways that authors use style, symbolism, theme, and the cursory elements of characterization, setting and irony in developing these works of exemplary literary merit. Throughout Barn Burning, William Faulkner makes excellent use of a number of stylistic voices as a literary voice to achieve a higher level of psychological complexity. Sartoris Snopes perspective is at times restricted to the immediate occurrence of what is going on in the story and at other times the omniscient narrator makes reference to insight Sartoris gains many years into the future. In Obscurity's myriad components: the theory and practice of William Faulkner, author R. Rio-Jelliffe discusses the ways that Faulkner implements this literary device: The best point of view and voice in the great works tend to be plural. Embedded in one distinct points of view, and voices fuse time...in the story Barn Burning…the fusion delineates the boy’s moral dilemma, to remain loyal to his erring father, or to assert his growing sense of right and wrong (p. 38). Faulkner uses this literary strategy to great effect by showing how later in life the boy reflects on the size of the fire’s his father constructs offers insight to his motivation for starting them. Faulkner writes: a small fire…such fires were his father's habit…Older, the boy might have remarked this and wondered why not a big one; why should not a man who had not only seen the waste and extravagance of war, but who had in his blood an inherent voracious prodigality with material not his own, have burned everything in sight? Obviously, the implication being that the reason his father is starting these fires is related to his experience in war. In Doubt John Patrick Stanley develops a number of stylistic elements. When considering these in relation to Faulkner’s style in Barn Burning there are a number of points worth noting. The most overarching such stylistic difference is in the choice of medium. While Faulkner implements the short story form, Stanley’s work as a play is told strictly through dialogue. While there are monologs that give the play a sort of overarching feel, much like the omniscient narrator in Faulkner’s work, for the most part Stanley’s stylistic implementation of dialogue functions to give the play a more direct and personal feel than does Faulkner’s work. Still, in other aspects both works demonstrate a similar concern with issues of personal struggle and salvation. While the essay has previously indicated Faulkner’s implementation of such methods, consider Stanley when he writes, “"It was a public experience, shared by everyone in our society. It was awful, but we were in it together" (Stanley 5). Here Stanley is demonstrating Father Flynn’s concern with similar elements of internal doubt and struggle as the country has faced despair after the Kennedy assassination. It’s worth noting that while the omniscient narrator in Faulkner it large part relays information, through the sole implementation of dialogue in Doubt, Stanley is able to intertwine his style is subtle ironic elements. This is witnessed, as it large part Father Stanley’s perspective is underlined by the reader’s general doubt in his message because of his actions of molestation during the play. Another interesting literary element that Faulkner incorporates into Barn Burning is through the symbolic implementation of a leitmotif. That is, an element of the story that is repeated in an attempt to display a symbolic truth. Ferguson identifies one of the crucial leitmotifs as Faulkner’s incorporation of the term “stiff” when describing the father. According to Ferguson, by consistently using this term to refer to the father’s physical position, Faulkner is symbolically extending the description as an indictment of the father’s character. Faulkner writes, “His father, stiff in his black Sunday” and “He was a little stiff”. Ultimately, this demonstrates that the father is actually stiff and rigid in his understanding of reality and personal conduct. When one considers symbols in Doubt a striking comparative element is revealed. While the play is replete with symbols and symbolic elements, one of the most notable such uses of symbolism occurs in the characterization of Sister Aloysius. In this regards, Sister Aloysius is constantly referred to as disdaining open windows and ballpoint pens. In some regards, it appears that these elements are symbolic of the disdain of the contemporary world or modern order. An argument can be made here that the father’s characterization as stiff and Sister Aloysius characterization as resisting modernization places these characters on a similar level of anxiety or neurotic attachment. For the father this is witnessed in his inability to cope with reality after the war, and in Sister Aloysius this occurs in her sexual frigidity and inability to cope with modernization. Throughout Barn Burning the reader sees the thematic moral dilemmas off Sartoris and in large part the story functions as an illustration of his maturation and decision making process. Towards the beginning of the story Sartoris is a somewhat reluctant, but ultimately willing participant in his father’s actions. He is called before the judge to testify and while he ultimately isn’t forced to speak to the judge, Sartoris is committed to helping his father and concealing the truth of his actions. The story shows his internal dilemma about his father’s action, and by the end of it Sartoris turns his father in because he disagrees with his actions. Zender characterizes his actions as such, “Sarty's final, climactic decision to break away from his father’s rule is seen as proof of his own ultimate moral correctness against the demonic qualities of Ab (pg. 28).” In these regards, one of the primary considerations of the story is this thematic investigation of intellectual and moral development through the ultimate rejecting of one’s fathers actions. When one considers the thematic elements in Doubt, it’s clear there are a number of similar and contrasting elements to Faulkner’s Barn Burning. In Shanley’s text one of the prevailing thematic investigations is conflicting perspective. The conflict of perspective is not only a thematic element as it exists between Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius, but also an element of these two individual’s resistance of the rest of the world. Throughout much the story these competing worlds become a prevalent theme; consider Sister Aloysius when she states, “"I will step outside the Church if that's what needs to be done, though the door should shut behind me! I will do what needs to be done, Father, if it means I'm damned to Hell! You should understand that, or you will mistake me" (Shanley 54). This quote is powerful as it demonstrates the thematic conflict of perspective between both Father Flynn and Sister Aloysisus, as well as demonstrating Sister Aloysisus’ conflicting perspective with the outside world, as she threatens to ‘step outside the Church’ and join this world if it needs to be done. While the elements of setting are entirely different, it’s clear that there is a similar thematic preoccupation with perspective in Faulkner’s story. In this work, the major conflicts of perspective are first the conflict between the father and son and the outside world, as they must constantly move because of barn burning. The second conflict of perspective emerges between the father and Colonel Sartoris over this illegal act. It’s clear in these regards, that there is a direct comparison of perspective in Doubt as in Barn Burning. In conclusion, it’s clear that Barn Burning and Doubt share a number of similar and dissimilar elements. In terms of style, the main differentiating elements are the texts different explications of the narrative. In these regards, Barn Burning, through its omniscient narrator, makes more use of overarching perspective than Doubt, which is entirely dialogue based. In terms of symbolic elements, the essay demonstrates that the use of ‘stiff’ is a symbol that adds insight into the father’s personal character and his role as standing outside social norms. Similarly, Doubt implements Sister Aloysius disdain of ballpoint pens and open windows as demonstrative of the modern world. Finally, the essay has demonstrated that while the setting and characterization is different, both works demonstrate a similar thematic concern with clashing perspectives. Ultimately, both works present powerful explorations at odds with their contemporary world, as well as between other. Works Cited Ferguson, James. Faulkner's Barn Burning. Southern Literary Journal. 20(1), 119- 1121. Retrieved December 31st, 2009, from Project MUSE database Jelliffe, R. Rio. Obscurity's myriad components: the theory and practice of William Faulkner. University of Tennessee Press, 1991. Shanley, John Patrick. (2008) Doubt. New York: Theatre Communications Group. Zender, Karl F. "Barn Burning." A William Faulkner Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert W. Hamblin and Charles A Peek. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. Read More