to pay taxes for the rest of her life. A generation later, when the town fathers insist she must contribute, her reply is simply that she "owes no taxes in Jefferson." This encounter is extremely revealing, as Emily is unmoved by the tax notice she receives and she doesn't acknowledge the sheriff's authority, saying, "perhaps he considers himself sheriff." She is indifferent to the fact that there is no record of her tax exempt status. She simply refers the town fathers to Colonel Snopes and repeats her refrain, oblivious of the fact that Colonel Snopes has been dead for years. In essence, Emily owes nothing to the world around her.

Emily ignores traditional authority in several other ways. She doesn't allow a house number to be affixed to her home. She refuses to give a reason to the druggist when she buys poison. She seems oblivious to her violation of social conventions by seeing Homer Baron. With Homer Baron, of course, we all see her madness. She poisons her one and only suitor to keep him from leaving and then sleeps in bed with his corpse. This pathological attitude toward attachment and loss is foreshadowed by Emily's refusal to allow her father to be buried for days after his death.

In "Barn Burning," Abner Snopes is also an obstinate character, but he is much more actively hostile toward the world. Abner is described as having "wolfish independence." During the Civil War, he was a horse thief, stealing horses from both the Union and Confederate armies. In fact, he limps because he was shot by a Confederate soldier. Despite this, he poses as a Confederate veteran.

Abner's attitude toward the world can best be seen in his interaction with his employers. At the beginning of the story, Abner is being sued in court for burning down a neighbor's barn. We see this proceeding filtered through view of his son, Sarty, who naturally assumes both the judge and plantiff are enemies. But listening to the dialogue, it is plain that the Mr. Harris went out of his way to give Abner every chance to reign in the hog that kept crossing onto his property.

In the interactions with Major De Spain, we get a much stronger sense of just how much Abner provokes these interactions. Upon going to meet his new employer, Abner says, "I reckon I'll have a word with the man that aims to begin tomorrow owning me body and soul for the next eight months." Abner then deliberately tracks mud onto the imported carpet in the De Spain house.

While Emily Grierson considers herself above the world at large, Abner is at war with it. De Spain has done nothing to him. Abner needs work to support his family, and De Spain hired him; but somehow, in Abner's mind, De Spain becomes an oppressor of his freedom, and he ruins De Spain's carpet as if declaring, "you don't own me." When De Spain naturally seeks to get his carpet fixed and recover damages, Abner determines to burn his barn down.

In conclusion, both Abner and Emily have a high opinion of themselves that is not justified by reality. Both regard greater society with suspicion and act to preserve their independence in ways that are bizarre and criminal.

There is, indeed, a similarity in theme and style in William Faulkner's short stories "Barn Burning" and "A Rose for Emily". The basic similarity is that both stories explore the extent to which maintaining ties with the past actually helps us move into the future.

Thematically, both stories depict life in the American South, along with the idiosyncrasies, expectations, and dynamics that take place in traditionally small, bucolic settings. Faulkner tells the stories of Emily and Sarti considering the perspective of the modern reader and how the current views of the world affect the interpretation of life in the Old South.

In "Barn Burning" a perennial theme is family versus society. We see a very enmeshed and dysfunctional family led by a man with no morals inviting his sons to conduct criminal behavior. The ties that bond Sarti to his father make him feel obligated to comply with his father's wishes but, in a moment of maturity and self-indentity, he breaks his ties with a legacy that would have brought about his own ruin.

In "A Rose for Emily" the strong ties among Southerners are explored differently as Col. Sartoris (notice the name-swapping in both stories) makes exceptions for Miss Emily due to her lineage and family legacy in Jefferson. However, as time changes, so does the treatment given to Emily, which she strongly resents.

Moreover, Emily is also bound to the wishes of her father: A man who also overpowers her free-will, and renders her unable to deal with life's everyday realities. Emily, in contrast to Sarti, does not become independent from her father. Rather, he dies leaving her devastated and even weaker. Still, she holds true to the need to honor the dignity of her family's Old South roots.

The ties of the Old South are questioned in both stories: Is it worth sticking to an old bond when it is obsolete? Is there an actual obligation to honor the past? 

Hence, although there is a detour in theme in terms of the individual experiences of each character, the overall theme of tradition versus independent thinking permeate both stories in a great way.

The first step in doing a comparison and contrast paper is to isolate the features of the two stories you wish to compare. Both stories are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, and thus one central part of your paper will be to show what each of the stories contributes to Faulkner's creation of the world and families of Yoknapatawpha. The other major connection between the two stories is the linking character of Colonel Sartoris, a young boy in "Barn Burning" and much older in the context of "A Rose for Emily". Both stories, as with many of Faulkner's other works, show the contrast between the old aristocracy of the south and its traditions and the "new" post-reconstruction south.

You should start your paper with a clear thesis concerning the particular aspects of the story that the rest of the paper will investigate. The rest of your introduction should lay out what sort of supporting evidence for your main thesis will be presented in the rest of the paper .