Wednesday, December 8, 2010

How do the actions of aggression and oppression affect "Barn Burning"?

Abner Snopes is a very aggressive person. He is a bully who beats and terrorizes his family along with anyone else who doesn't agree with him. The family is poor, sharecroppers who live and work on a farm in order to pay their rent. In the begining of the story, Abner is ordered to leave one town for burning down a barn in an argument over a pig. In the next town, Abner gains work at the de Spain farm where he visits the main house of the de Spain farm. He refuses to clean off his boots after he had stepped in  cow manure. The de Spain's expensive carpet had been ruined by the cow manure. An argument pursues, where Mr. de Spain brings the carpet over to the Snopes' for the women to clean. Abner ruins the carpet. He returns it, the two men have words, and again Abner sets fire to the barn.

What happens here is that Abner's son, Sarty, knows that dad is setting fire to all the barns. He is tired of this. He wants to tell the truth. However, dad, being the bully he is, slaps Sarty. Sarty decides he has had enough. He decides to leave the family and live on his own. Sarty feels he can live honeslty on his own than continue living with his bully, mean, and fire maniac dad. It is a believable ending because back in those days, boys did run off at a young age to live and take care of themselves because there families didn't have a lot of money to take care of all the kids in the family.

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