Student Question

What are the four allusions in "Barn Burning" and how do they help interpret the story?

Quick answer:

The narrator first introduces Abner Snopes, whose father is an old soldier who fought in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He has a bad reputation and is considered a "shiftless" man by Colonel Sartoris, who lives nearby. The Colonel's son, Bayard Sartoris, fights with Abner when he comes to visit his sister and show off his horse. Sarty's father (Colonel Sartoris) also owns a horse that he doesn't need anymore and gives it to Abner for free. Sarty's father later finds out that the horse was stolen from a neighboring farmer.

Expert Answers

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The protagonist of the story is named Colonel Sartoris, the name his father bestowed upon him to honor his own service in "the war." This is an allusion to the Civil War and reflects his father's allegiance to destruction and chaos. The boy's name is reflective of the father's hopes that he will "stick to [his] own blood."

After the rug is cleaned, it is ruined with markings that resemble "the sporadic course of a lilliputian mowing machine." This is an allusion to the novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The Lilliputians are a tiny people, standing about six inches tall. They are filled with greed and are morally corrupt, making them quite similar to Sarty's father.

Abner walks stiffly because he was once hit shot in the heel by a "Confederate provost." This is an allusion to the Southern forces of the Civil War; it was the job of a provost to maintain military discipline. His father was shot while on the back of a stolen horse thirty years prior to the central conflict of this story. This establishes Abner's longstanding defiance of the law.

The use of a "Justice of the Peace" is also an allusion to legal traditions originating in England which were used in America for a time. By the 19th century, there were few places left which used a Justice of the Peace to settle legal disputes. The fact that this legal structure is still employed in the setting of this story speaks to themes of tradition and authority.

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