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Symbolism In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

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Symbolism plays an important role in William Faulkner 's short story “Barn Burning”. Throughout this story there were three points of symbolism that stood out the most. These symbols consist of fire, blood, and springtime. There are two main characters Abner and Sarty. Abner is the crazy father who went to war and has some sort of disability. Sarty is Abner 's son who is by his side throughout the whole story. Faulkner portrays a theme that devotion is within family or within the law. Abner chooses devotion to the law when he starts to burn barns. When turning against family for the law, people really need to take a look back and see what caused this to happen. In Abners case, it was the War. War was a huge part that made Abner into who he was because he wasn 't at peace with himself when he was there. The first symbol that was noticed was fire. The fire symbol was a huge piece considering all Abner was known as was a “barn burner”. Another example for fire is when Abner lights the small fire at the campsite. As Faulkner continues, The element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father’s being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion (26). This quote explains Abners feeling toward fire. That without the access he has to fire the less powerful he would feel. When Abner feels the power
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