Barn Burning, Essay Example

William Faulkner uses symbolism in his stories. This is true for Faulkner’s short story Barn Burning. In this story family must leave another town because of something the father, Abner, has done to a neighbor (burnt his house down). This essay will look out different symbolism techniques Faulkner uses in his short story.

The barn burning in the story could be a metaphor for how Abner destroys relationships with people. Burning might symbolize destruction and then renewal just as Abner physically destroys something (a barn) but then he and his family get to go to a new time and start fresh (renewal). Furthering this metaphor or symbol, the reader may guess that the barn is consumed by Abner’s rage. This could be denoted in the reference Faulkner makes to flames and the reader may presume the flames were orange. Thus, Abner’s rage is orange and anything in the story that is orange references Abner.

Abner is described by Faulkner has having many different colors associated with him for instance Abner has  “iron-gray brows” and “pebble-colored eyes”. These colors for Abner suggest something immovable, like iron is a tough element. Since Faulkner termed Abner’s eyes as pebbles the reader may think this symbolizes how short of sight Abner is in looking into his family’s future. This is telling since Abner seems to act from his rage instead of his concern for his family (since he makes his son lie on the stand in order to protect him). Throughout Faulkner’s story, color is used to symbolize a character’s emotion and to bring to light how the character sees the world or reacts to it just as Abner’s rage becomes a fire that burns down a barn.