Faulkner: An Analysis of Color, Thesis Paper Example

While William Faulkner is a master at narrative of any style (first, third, or omniscient) he is also a master of symbolic technique. In Faulkner’s short story Barn Burning the author presents a family traveling from a town where the father, Abner, was standing trial of burning a man’s barn down (an act he did commit) to another town for another job. While there are blatant tones of racism in the story, what is interesting to note is that Faulkner uses other devices in place of color, and then uses these devices to inform on the content of the story; for example, the barn at the beginning of the story is not given a color although one may guess that it is of plain, aged wood, something dark in a grey or black palate. Thus, to have the barn consumed by flames, an orange color, it suggests that the family’s new life is burned up in this particular town, and that in order to change from a dull color to a brighter color (a color that suggests life, since the archetype of fire represents life/change) they must embrace the fire and move on from the town.

When the family arrives at their new home under the roof of, Major de Spain, Abner says, of the white house, “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.” Here the reader is given two different colors: white and black. Faulkner may have used these colors to suggest a duality, two things fighting for space, and most definitely to agitate the reader and suggest something bigger is on the horizon in the story for the family.

Faulkner goes on to use color in describing Abner as he has “iron-gray brows” and “pebble-colored eyes”. These colors for Abner suggest something cut from the earth, and someone devoid of alteration, or change despite the son’s hope that this new house, this “nigger sweat” colored house will in fact change his father, “Maybe it will even change him now from what maybe he couldn’t help but be.” Faulkner’s use of color in the short story points to the emotions of the characters, as well as helps with describing their personalities.