Responses to Barn Burning Questions

1. I think the number one way American teenagers find their own individualiy is to expirement with it. Who are they? Teenagers go through many phases, all in the form of rebellion from their parents, which tests their limits as well as their own selves as to who they are and what they really stand for: Some go through a 'gothic' stage, in which they refuse to conform to society's views of 'normal.' Some go through the drug stage, in which they try to tap nto their rebellious and higher conscious to find the truth in what is right and wrong morally. Some go through the sexually intense 'slut' phase, where they attempt to prove that their bodies are in fact their own possessions and not to be ruled by their parents--the same with piercings and possibly tattoos. I went through a lot of things as a teenager, and I think that if I were to try to rule it down to one particular thing I did to find my own values as a teen, it would be really hard, because I had both my mother's values and my father's values, which were totally different things (they were divorced when I was 12). I went through the 'Goth' thing, which was totally against my mother's values, but not beyond her understanding, and then I went through a bi-curious/bisexual period (I was with a girl for 3 years in highschool) to my father's horror, but my mother's ____<--I'm not sure what word goes there.

2. As someone with 2 other sisters, we destructed a LOT of eachother's things to get back at eachother, but we all felt terrible afterwards. I could never destroy purposefully somebody else's hard earned possession and feel justified. Never. I don't think it's really possible.

3. I don't think the story would have much of an impact if it weren't through Sarty's consciousness. The father's consciousness would have left much less of an imprint on anybody's mind I think, and I believe that his only other option if he watned to make this tory a good one, would have been to write it from his wife''s perspective in trying to deal with her husband's compulsive childlike behavior. Captivating her having to pick up the pieces each time he went on one of his rampades would have been good, and maybe even equally as epic, but he didn't do that--Sarty's perspective was a good choice on behalf of Faulkner.

4. I think the number one symbol in the story is the destructive power of fire, which destructs everything in it's path, including the childhood of Sarty. The initial court hearing of Mr. Snopes drove Sarty crazy. He didn't know whether he should lie, or tell the truth or lie...it was complete chaos in his mind, which is exactly what fire is--chaos. You can not predict the path fire is going to take, who it is going to kill, and what it is going to destroy. All you know is that it is dangerous in many different ways. The father tore apart the family by burning things down. His son was dirty and hungry; it is doubtless because his father couldn't keep a steady job for thef act that he took personal matters into his own hands and grudges led him to destruction of property. When it got to the point when Sarty knew he could no longer either look up to or defend his father, it was too late and everything was ruined.

5. Do the class issues ahve any parallels today...good question...I'll have to think about that one. I think that those who destruct property are those who don't understand the value behind that property. Does that make sense? The father in this story doesn't have any worldly possessions--he has a wagon and a family. Burning barns is easy for him, because he never had to earn the money to build a barn. The money he earns goes to feeding his family, and maybe burning others' possessions helps him feel better because he is hurting someone who, in his eyes has all the money in the world to build another one. On the other hand, because he has never experienced that money, maybe he is hoping to devastate that family as much as he is devastated on a day to day basis so that they see that what they ask of him is far too steep. In today's day and age, it seems like the ones to destrcut others' property are teenagers, who have been given every penny they've ever spent and don't know the value of a dollar. Furthermore, upper class teens don't tend to cause that sort of trouble (surely, they cause trouble, but of different kinds) and it is the lower class teens who seem to devalue possessions--possibly because they see them as unattainable, and also that they will be not be held accountable for those actions because they lack the necessary funds to make up for the loss they've caused somebody else.

6. This is one of those questions I will have to answer after I read it again, because, to be honest, it took me three days to read this story because it started off so...unreadable.