Essay on Narrators in Faulkner’s Barn Burning and The...

Narrators in Faulkner’s Barn Burning and The Unvanquished â€Å"Barn Burning† and The Unvanquished present very different ways to tell a story. In â€Å"Barn Burning,† Faulkner uses a third person, limited omniscient point of view that allows him to enter the mind of the story’s protagonist, Colonel Sartoris Snopes. In this point of view, the narrator establishes that the story took place in the past by commenting that â€Å"Later, twenty years later, he was too tell himself, ‘If I had said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have it me again.’ But now he said nothing† (8). The narrator of â€Å"Barn Burning† develops Colonel Sartoris as a child by describing his relationship with his father; no matter how many times Ab Snopes burns a barn or†¦show more content†¦One of the most interesting elements of this backward gaze is its self-awareness. In contrast, for instance, to Willa Cather’s romantic, idealistic narrator in My à ntonia, whose authority Cather undercuts in t he novel’s introduction, Faulkner’s narrator in The Unvanquished constantly reminds us that the story he is telling is a memory and that as a memory it is inevitably flawed—he has to fill in its blank spots and he recognizes that and he is thinking through the events of the story with a mind that is very different than the one that experienced them. This is beautifully apparent early in the novel as he explains that he can now describe the events of the story with language that was not available to him as a child. After Loosh destroys the model of Vicksburg that Bayard and Ringo were playing with, the narrator remarks, â€Å"Loosh squatted, looking at me with that expression on his face. I was just twelve then; I didn’t know triumph; I didn’t even know the word† (5). The narrator again recognizes the gulf of language that now separates him from his childhood experiences when he writes, after learning that he and Ringo had killed a horse rather than a man, â€Å"â€Å"I didn’t know horrified astonishment either, but Ringo and Granny and I were all three it† (29). As the novel moves forward from these confessions of the narrator’s childhood linguistic limitations, Faulkner uses other techniques to reinforce the fact that this narrator is an adultShow MoreRelated Narrative Techniques in Fa ulkner’s The Unvanquished and Barn Burning779 Words   |  4 PagesNarrative Techniques in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished and Barn Burning The Unvanquished is composed of a series of stories during which Bayard Sartoris, the narrator, grows up from a twelve-year-old boy to a young man of twenty-four years. The narrative style makes it obvious that events are being related by an adult who is looking back at his past. There are several indications of this: in the very first story â€Å"Ambuscade†, the narrator, while describing his war games with his coloured friend, RingoRead More Southern Masculinities in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished and Barn Burning1486 Words   |  6 PagesSouthern Masculinities in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished and Barn Burning The youthful protagonists of The Unvanquished and Barn Burning, Bayard Sartoris and Sarty Snopes respectively, offer through their experiences and, most importantly, the way their stories are told, telling insights about the constructions of southern masculinities with respect to class. The relative innocence that each of the boys has in common, though ultimately loses, provides a record of sorts to the formation of theRead MoreWilliam Faulkner s A Rose For Emily1801 Words   |  8 PagesRose for Emily†, which has always been compared to â€Å"Barn Burning†, one of Faulkner’s other short story. It only make sense to compare them two together because these two stories has may similarities , whether it may be in setting , characters or style they favor each other . Nevertheless they also have many differences too, which make them even more interesting and unique. This paper is going to explore all those aspects including Faulkner’s past, to get a clear idea of how different yet similarRead MoreWilliam Faulkner s A Rose For Emily1810 Words   |  8 PagesRose for Emily†, which has always been compared to â€Å"Barn Burning†, one of Faulkner’s other short story. It only make sense to compare them two together because these two stories has may similarities , whether it may be in setting , characters or style they favor each other . Nevertheless they also have many differences too, which make them even more interesting and unique. This paper is going to explore all those aspects including Faulkner’s past, to get a clear idea of how different yet similar