Veronica Flores
“Barn Burning” (496), and Light in August were written between 1928 and 1936, considered “a period of extraordinarily sustained creative activity” (Millgate 1) in William Faulkner’s career. In Faulkner’s choice of setting, tone, character and writing style, the similarities between both works become apparent.
In “Barn Burning” and Light In August, the settings are in a rural Southern part of the United States. “Barn Burning” is set around the late 1800’s, while in Light in August the period is set closer to the year it was written, 1932. This become apparent from the references to the automobile in both works. For example, in “Barn Burning” the narrator states how roughly the father struck the mules, but “…without heat. It was not even sadistic; it was exactly that same quality which in later years would cause his descendants to overrun the engine before putting a motor car in motion…” (498). This shows that animals were still the choice of transportation, and it wouldn’t be until “later years” that a “motor car” would be used. In Light in August , the men Joe used to work with mentioned that he “‘got rich’” (37) and that he was “‘…riding in a new car’” (37).
Briefly, the situation in “Barn Burning” is about a share cropping family who is constantly moving due to the father’s appetite for burning the barns they’re supposed to be working in. Obviously, there must be a psychological reason for the father’s behavior, but it’s the youngest son’s reaction to it which is emphasized. The young boy, Sartoris Snopes, is haunted by his father’s behavior and becomes the center of the story’s theme. Light in August has a more complicated and involved plot. It contains a series of characters and situations which are later loosely tied together at the ending. The main characters in Light in August , like Sartoris, are running away from or seeking something in their lives.
The most important of these characters, as far as how they relate to Sartoris, are Joe Christmas and Lena Grove. The two never actually meet, but their lives are connected from the people they both come in contact with. These supporting characters assist in the development of the main characters. Like Sartoris, Joe is running away from his life. However, Joe also runs from a haunting past, which he knows very little about. He is biracial, and therefore was placed in an orphanage shortly after birth. He goes through life without being able to fit anywhere in this racially divided society. Lena Grove, however is searching for the man who got her pregnant and left her.
The tone in both stories is quite similar. Since they are both set in a similar backward world of the South, both stories evoke a tragic and fantastical view of the world. In “Barn Burning”, most of the folks are poor and lead a somewhat futile life.
In Light in August , there exists the same lifestyle of basic survival. Both represent a world divided between the haves and have nots, whites and non-whites. The stories also contain references and attitudes about blacks which demonstrate the racism in Yoknapatawpha. One example in “Barn Burning” occurs in the beginning of the story, when Sartoris’ father is in court over his latest barn burning incident. His father had been arguing with a man whose hog has been getting in to his corn. After the latest incident, his father keeps the hog. He claims that a black man who was sent over to pick up the hog told him that the other man had said “‘wood and hay kin burn’” (496). The next day the barn the Snopes were using was burned down.
During the court hearing the judge asks about the black man, using a derogatory word to describe him, by asking “‘Where is the n—–? Have you got him?’” (496), to which the father responds: “‘He was a strange n—–. I don’t know what became of him.’” (496). Light in August also contains many racial incidents, especially since one of the subplots deals with the fact that Joe is placed in an orphanage for being half black. The most profound incident occurs when the girl Joe had wanted to marry tells him, “‘Bastard! Son of a bitch! Getting me into a jam, that always treated you like you were a white man! A white man!’” (189). This occurred after Joe and this girl, a prostitute, had been discovered at a dance by his over-protective and religious foster- father at a dance. After her outburst, and being wounded by her pimp, he is devastated. He thinks to himself: “‘Why, I committed murder for her. I even stole for her’” (189). Furthermore, the women in these stories are viewed in a negative manner. The emotions and reactions of these women are somewhat ridiculous. In Light in August , Lena’s action of running away from a home where she was ill treated is credible, but the way in which the narrator describes her next actions is incredible. Lena is near the end of her pregnancy when she decides to travel alone, on foot, and without any money, believing that strangers will take care of her, as she continues her search for the man who abandoned her. She is under the belief that this man’s intentions are to marry her, but that he had to go away to a job, in a town she doesn’t even know the name of. This gives the impression that Lena is brainless and incapable of reason, or that she is simply deceiving herself.
In “Barn Burning” the adult women of the Snopes family are also made out to be incapable by their acceptance of the father’s behavior, but then again, in the suppressed society they live in there isn’t much else they can do. Sartoris’ sisters are described by the narrator as “big bovine, in a flutter of cheap ribbons” (499), and that’s pretty much their description throughout the rest of the story, as no mention of their thoughts is made. The description given of his mother and aunt was that of women who were not there to make suggestions, but to work and obey the father. This is revealed when Sartoris learns that his father is about to burn down another barn, and he is trying to escape the womenfolk in order to warn the barn’s owner. When his mother grabs a hold of him, the aunt says, “‘Let him go. If he don’t go, before God, I am going up there myself!’”(507), to which the mother replies: “‘Don’t you see I can’t?’” (507).
The theme in “Barn Burning” is developed by the use of foreshadowing. This is demonstrated by lines such as the one found on page 496, which states: “…the smell and sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood.” This foreshadows how Sartoris felt each time his father burned a barn and had to go before a judge because of it.
However, the theme in Light in August is more loosely connected and does not readily become concrete until the end, but also with the use of foreshadowing. One example of this is found on page 3, when Lena has been on the road for a while after having left her family who treated her badly and whose mistreatment had escalated after learning of her pregnancy. She thinks to herself, “…although I have not been quite a month on the road I am already in Mississippi, further from home than I have ever been before.” Thus, this foreshadows later events, as she continues her travels through the country, not really in search of the baby’s father, but like one character towards the end of the novel mentioned, “‘I think she was just traveling’” (444).
The similarities in both stories become more apparent as the lives of the characters in each story unfold. Joe Christmas’ life comes to a tragic end when he is shot down for killing his mistress. The mistress, Joanna Burden, a white middle-aged woman from the North, comes from an abolitionist family. She is isolated from the society, save for black neighbors whom she supports through educational funds. When she becomes entangled with Joe, she tries to relive her youth and take advantage of the few “good” years she had left. When she decides to have a baby, Joe becomes enraged and kills her during one of their violent arguments. Perhaps he had been afraid of what this child, like him, would suffer for being biracial. However, some of this conflict is resolved for him right before his death when he is able to meet his biological mother’s parents. Being a white Southerner, the grandfather in this case, is understandably against him. However, the grandmother loves him, and when Joe finds himself being tried for Joanna’s murder, she advises him to escape and run for cover in an outcast minister’s home. Here, the narrator describes his struggle between his “black blood” and “white blood” where he can’t decide what actions to take. Furthermore, towards the end, “he did not kill the minister. He merely struck him with the pistol and ran on and crouched behind that table and defied the black blood for the last time, as he had been defying it for thirty years” (393-394).
He was then shot down and castrated by an overzealous militant. However, he was freed from the life that tormented him, although tragically.
Meanwhile, Lena Grove finally catches up with the man she is looking for, only to be abandoned again. A man, Byron Bunch, whom she meets in this town, helps her throughout her pregnancy. He is in love with her, despite the fact that she has another man’s child. They start traveling together in search of the man, and according to another man who gives them a ride, “‘I think she was just traveling. I don’t think she had any idea of finding whoever it was she was following. I don’t think she had ever aimed to, only she hadn’t told him (Byron) yet’” (444). So, she must have known that she was never to get together again with this man, but was happy to be freed from her difficult life at home and on her way to a new beginning. Sartoris’ freedom came when he turned in his father, an act which made “the grief and despair now no longer terror and fear but just grief and despair” (508). Finally free, “he did not look back” (508). All three characters had been avoiding, and at the same time searching for something in their lives. Must, had now resolved some of their conflicts.
There is a moral and psychological issue each character struggles with through life though, tragically, they do not seem to learn anything of significance as a result.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Carl Bain, et al. Shorter 7th ed. New York : Norton 1998. 496-508.
– – – . Light in August. Toronto, Canada: Random House, 1932. Millgate, Michael. Introduction. New Essays On Light In August. Ed.
Emory Elliot. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.