1. Barn Burning
William Faulkner

2. William Faulkner

3. William Faulkner’s life
Born near Oxford, Mississippi in 1897
Great-grand father: a local legend - colonel in the Civil War, lawyer, railroad builder, financier, politician, writer, public figure shot and killed by a business and political rival in 1889.
Father loved to hunt, drink and swap stories with his hunting friends; mother, ambitious, sensitive and literary, loved him the most of her four sons, died in 1907.
Dropped out of high school in 1915.
Enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps in 1918
Published a collection of poems in 1924, first novel Soldier’s Pay in 1926, the first significant novel Sartoris in 1929.
Married his high school love Estelle Oldham in 1929, now divorced and returned to Oxford with two children.
Awarded Nobel Prize in 1950

4. William Faulkner’s major works
Novels
The Sound and the Fury (1929)
As I Lay Dying (1930)
Light in August (1930)
Absalom, Absalom (1936)
Short fiction (short stories)
“A Rose for Emily” (1930)
“Dry September” (1931)
“That Evening Sun” (1931)
“Barn Burning” (1938)

5. Which William Faulkner?
Regionalist: ‘the postage stamp of my little native soil’ (我那片像邮票一样大小的故乡).
Traditionalist: conventional themes
- themes of morality, of the relationships between individuals & community, ancient myths & modern decay, traditional value & historical change, of the conflict between South and North, and of the relationship between past and present, or most essentially as Faulkner said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, of “the human heart in conflict with itself”.
Modernist: experimentalist in art; radical views of art, his new concept of narration and his readiness for stream-of-consciousness

6. William Faulkner’s South
Yoknapatawpha county
The Southern aristocrat
- decline of the Compson, Sartoris, Benbow, McCaslin families
The illiterate poor white
- rise of the unscrupulous（无耻） Snopes family
The Negro
The Indians
* The sin of pride dooms the ambitious families while lowly blacks and poor whites endure.

7. Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by William Faulkner 1
“the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself … alone can make good writing” and “only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.”
单写人类内心冲突的问题就能创作出好作品，而且这也是唯一值得写、值得为之呕心沥血去写的题材。

8. Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by William Faulkner 2
“love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice” are “the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed.”
不反映爱、荣誉、怜悯、自尊、同情与牺牲这些古老的普遍真理，任何小说都只能昙花一现，不会成功。

9. Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by William Faulkner 3
Man is immortal “because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.” “The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”

10. Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by William Faulkner 4
人之不朽 “是因为他有灵魂，有同情心、有牺牲和忍耐精神。”
“诗人和作家的责任就是把这些写出来。诗人和作家的特殊光荣就是去鼓舞人的斗志，使人记住过去曾经有过的光荣——人类曾有过的勇气、荣誉、希望、自尊、同情、怜悯与牺牲精神——以达到不朽。诗人的声音不应只是人类的记录，而应是使人类永存并得到胜利的支柱和栋梁。”

11. Background Union / Confederate states
Sharecropping / sharecropper / cropper
White trash

14. sharecropping White landowners Sharecroppers: - Ex-slaves (blacks)
- Poor whites
Half-half share of the harvest
70-30 share
High interest charges of the loaned tools, animals, and money tied croppers to the land
30-70 share

15. white trash
poor whites outcast from respectable society living on the fringes of the social order
who are seen as dangerous because they may be criminal, unpredictable, and without respect for authority whether it be political, legal, or moral.

16. Barn Burning Introduction
The story won the O. Henry prize the year it was published (1938), and has been adapted for the screen in It is a prequel to The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion. These three novels make up the "Snopes" trilogy.
Setting:
- southern small towns about 30 years after the Civil War (1895)
Characters:
- Abner Snopes is a sharecropper
- Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty) is a ten-year-old boy
- landowners: Mr. Harris, Major de Spain

17. Discussion Questions
What is the nature of the story's conflict? How does each of the story's six scenes serve to reveal, clarify, and intensify the conflict?
What seems to motivate Abner's violent, antisocial behavior? Why does he try to make his son Sarty an accomplice to the burning of Major de Spain's barn? Why does Sarty fianally defy him and try to warn Major de Spain?
The character of Abner Snopes
The character of Sarty
What comments does the story offer about the social, moral, and economic values of the old and the new South?

18. nature of the story's conflict
Conflict within Sarty’s mind

19. Scene I (pp.166-168) Setting - an afternoon in the store Characters
- Sarty
- Abner
- Mr. Harris
- Justice of the Peace
- audience (townspeople, half-grown boys)
- Sarty’s brother, sisters , mother, aunt
Event
- Mr. Harris sues Abner for burning his barn
- fight between Sarty and another boy

20. Scene I (pp.166-168) Questions
From whose point of view is the scene described?
What do the following phrases reveal about Sarty’s feelings?
- the smell and sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood (para. 1, p. 166)
- the smell of cheese and sealed meat, the fear and despair and the old grief of blood (middle para., p. 167)
- grim faces (p. 167)
- feeling no floor, weightless, no blow, … (p. 167)

21. Scene II (pp )
Setting
- early next afternoon at Major de Spain’s house
Characters
- Abner
- Sarty
- the old Negro watchman
- Miss Lula (wife of Major de Spain)
Event
- Abner stains the rug with fresh horse droppings

22. Scene II (pp.170-171) Questions
What is Sarty’s impression of Major de Spain’s house?
How is his mood changed?
- a surge of peace and joy (p.170)
- the spell of the house

23. Scene III (pp.171-173) Setting
- late that afternoon in the rent house of the Snopes
Characters
- Sarty, mother, aunt
- Major de Spain and his Negro youth servant
- brother
- father, two sisters
Event
- rug washing

24. Scene III (pp.171-173) Questions
How does Sarty react to the appearance of Major de Spain?
How does Sarty react in the whole process of rug washing?

25. Scene IV (p.173)
Setting
- early next morning (Wednesday) in Major de Spain’s lot
Characters
- father, brother, Sarty
- Major de Spain
Event
- Major de Spain tells Abner that he will charge Abner a compensation of 20 bushels for the ruined rug.

26. Scene IV (p.173)
Questions
1. How does Sarty react to Major de Spain’s claim for a compensation?
2. What is his intention in offering to help his father hide the harvested corn? (p.173)
3. What has Sarty been doing after that?
- working hard
- dreaming (p.174)

27. Scene V (pp.174-75) Setting - Saturday morning in a store Characters
- Sarty, Abner, brother
- Justice of the Peace
- Major de Spain
- audience
Event
- Abner sues Major de Spain for charging him too high a price for the damaged rug.

28. Scene V (pp.174-75) Question What is Sarty’s reaction?
- similar to the last scene, trying to appease his father (p.175)

29. Scene VI (pp )
Setting
- Saturday night from the Snopes’ house to Major de Spain’s house to a hill top
Characters
- Sarty
- father, brother, mother, aunt
- Major de Spain and his men
Event
- Sarty tries to stop his father from burning Major de Spain’s barn by reporting to Major de Spain of his father’s intention.

30. Scene VI (pp.176-78) Questions
When is the most intense moment of conflict within Sarty’s mind?
- in the whole process of his running to Major de Spain and to his father
2. The word “run” is repeated many times in the description of Sarty in this scene. What does it indicate about Sarty?

31. Conflict within Sarty Despair and Grief due to the conflict between
- Loyalty to blood, family and father
“the old fierce pull of blood” (p.166, 167, 170, 174, 176, 178)
- Sense of honor, justice and responsibility for the community; dream of good and comfortable life
“the smell of cheese and hermetic meat” (p.166-7)
“a lane of grim faces”, “the palpable weight of grim turning faces” “two lines of grim-faced men” (p.167)
“peace and dignity” of Major de Spain’s house (p.170)

32. What motivates Abner’s violent, antisocial behavior?
Abner’s imbalanced state of mind, “ravening and jealous rage” at the great gap between his poverty and the landowners’ richness
Why barn burning instead of other ways?

33. Abner vs. landowner
“Pretty and white, ain’t it? … That’s sweat. Nigger sweat. Maybe it ain’t white enough yet to suit him. Maybe he wants to mix some white sweat with it” (陶洁171)
- a comment on Major de Spain’s house
- indicating Abner’s despise of and hostility toward the landowner

34. Characters – Abner Snopes
mercenary Civil War veteran / former horse thief
Abusive and violent
Tough – unyielding, stubborn; hardened; rough (“stiff foot” “stood stiffly” “planted stiffly on the stiff foot”, ; “hard” arm and hand,p.173)
Wolflike ravening ferocity (p.168)
Full of jealousy and resentment against landowners

35. Symbol of fire and related images
Small campfires made by father
- "neat, niggard almost, shrewd“ (p. 168)
- “the one weapon for the preservation of integrity” (p. 169)
With fire, Ab feels powerful and feels that he can control his fate.
- strike mules and Sarty, shout at the niggar “without heat” (p. 168, 169, 171)
- saving energy to fight against landowners
- a man of action, not of words or feelings

36. Characters - Sarty Impassioned & sensitive Love for his family
Love and admiration for his father
Sense of justice and responsibility for the community
Brave
Naïve (father’s bravery, world’s wealth distribution and concept of justice)

37. The old and the new South
Social, moral and economic values of the old South
- plantation economy / hierarchy (aristocracy, slavery) / honor
Social, moral and economic values of the new South
- agriculture / sharecropping system / money-oriented (capitalism) / pragmatism

38. Assignments for Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”
Read the story and write a short review about one aspect of the story, such as
a. the theme
b. the character(s)
c. the style
d. the artistic device (image, symbol…)
e. topics on the textbook (p185).