Thesis: In William Faulkner's "Barn Burning," a boy finds that he can no longer be governed by his father's ideas, tries to prevent his father from doing further harm, and leaves his family.
I. The father is a barn burner and former thief whose idea of independence leads him to infringe on others' well-being.
A. His antisocial actions include burning the barns of people who offend him and deliberately ruining his landlord's rug.
B. He is harsh to his family: they live in poverty, he ignores his wife's feelings about his conduct, and he expects his son to publicly lie for him.
II. Torn and unhappy at first, the boy gradually achieves a sense of his own values and of what he should do.
A. Initially he tries to see his father's enemies as his own, prepares to lie for him, and follows his orders.
B. Appreciation for the peace and stability represented by the landlord's house is a major factor in his ultimate decision to uphold that peace at the potential cost of his father's life.
III. The daring of the boy's action is contrasted with the passivity of his siblings and the ineffectuality of his mother and aunt.
IV. Aspects of the story of symbolic importance include the barn burning, the landlord's house, and the mother's clock.
V. Conclusion: "Barn Burning" is a detailed study of a boy with an antisocial father who acts to uphold a more stable way of life.
In "Barn Burning," a short story by William Faulkner, the author describes how an adolescent boy comes to reject his father's ideas, help people his father views as enemies, and leave his family behind. The boy's struggle to reconcile his father's views with the more civilized standards of their neighbors is contrasted with his father's strong belief in his own willfully independent way of doing things and with the passivity of other members of the family. The shabby possessions of the family and their transient lifestyle reflect their uncertain social st...