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The Importance of the Setting to Barn Burning

The county where the first part of “Barn Burning” is set is not known but its is located somewhere in the southern United States. The second part is of this story is set in rural Mississippi in a county called Yoknapatawpha. This county is, however, a fictional creation of Faulkner and he uses it in several other of his stories. A reader familiar with other pieces of work by Faulkner knows that de Spain is recurring character whose farm is in that county. The story is also set in 1895 or thereabouts. This is because the narrator says Sarty’s father stayed in the woods during the Civil War for four years. The civil war ended in 1865, which means since the story is projected 20 or so years in the future, it should be about 1895. Later, twenty years later, he was to tell himself, “If I had told him they only wanted truth, justice, he would have hit me again.” (29). The significance of these settings will be discussed alongside others in this paper.

The court house where people are sentenced before they are sent out of the town also doubles as the general store. This setting makes the reader understand that Albner feels his treatment is not fair. The setting then shifts to the road slightly while they are on their way home. When they reach here, their focus remains on de Spain’s house. The estate is a clear indication of the status each individual around them hold. Albner’s rage is triggered by the fact that these people are richer than he is. He calls his house the courthouse suggesting that he has not seen one before pushing the idea of how detached from reality he is. The difference in class is important to the reader because it makes them understand the reason behind Albner’s anger and why he is the way, he is throughout the story.

For Sarty, however, de Spain’s mansion is his comfort. He feels that people that live like de Spain does is out of reach of lunatics like Abner. What he does not know is that, the classes of this two individuals are just opposite extremes of the same system. Without Albner to work on his farm for the scantiest wages, de Spain would not be able to afford the mansion. De Spain is not safe from Abner, instead he is his most likely target, or at least his barn.

The story in itself is about five days and goes back 30 years in the past and 20 years in the future. Faulkner seems concerned with the contrasts, like the difference in Sarty’s life at night and during the day. At night is when the law is being broken, case in point the story itself. Sarty is always woken up by his father at night in the dark either to be his accomplice or his punching bag as he gets smacked and lectured. After Sarty moves away and leaves it all behind, the dark shifts to a place of rest until he wakes up naturally and a place where the birds welcome the sun with songs.

The daytime is meant for toiling and as long as Sarty is working he is fine. It is when he is asked to be an accomplice in a lie and an illegal act that he becomes unsettled. So he runs away because partly no matter how hard he works, as long as his father is around , his days or his nights will not be how own. Before he decides to move, the day and night almost join into a seamless nightmare that he must avoid or lose himself entirely.

Works Cited

Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 8th ed.