Barn Burning

I have to say that, although it was written unconventionally and took longer to read than I expected, I really enjoyed this story. I admire the way Faulkner uses his imagery, but my favorite literary element was the characterization. Each and every character, no matter how pivotal or trivial to the story, had their own distinct character, personality, and (so it seemed) background story. Faulkner made me wonder why some of these characters are the way that they are.
Obviously, the father has been burning his employer's barns for quite some time now. Why has he made this his tradition? Is it out of spite or jealousy? Does he simply not like the idea of a man "owning me body and soul," as he puts it, and wants revenge? Or is there a deeper, psychological root? This could be evident by his complete lack of emotion, his voice "without heat or anger," likened to tin, his stiff, "clocklike" foot, his cold, gray eyes. The only physical feature that Faulker ascribes an emotion to is his "shaggy, graying, irascible brows." Yet, for all that lack of emotion, he seems to rule his family like a tyrant, as exampled by the phrase "...while the father stood over them in turn, implacable and grim, driving them though never raising his voice again." He uses cold violence, not emotion, as his driving factor, such as when he hits his younger son for being tempted to tell the truth, or when he throws his wife against the wall for begging him not to burn the de Spain's barn. All these attributes of the father Snopes make him a unique, unforgettable character.
I also wonder about the mother of the Snopes family, and her sister as well. They must be attached to each other, not only out of natural sisterly love, but also because they seem to serve everyone else in the family, and the rest of the family seems anywhere from oblivious to ungrateful. The women cook the dinner. They are the first to begin the work of unloading the entire wagon, furniture and all, before rest of the family, including the men, have even seemed to give it a thought. Even Sartoris, who seems to be the redeeming member of the family, brushes away his mother's attempts at helping clean his wounds with annoyance or impatience. There is a lack of respect for the women of the hosuehold; this is made clear by the fact that, although the wife is allowed to sleep on the bed with Abner, the aunt and and two sisters are made to sleep on the floor while the older son takes the second bed. And yet, though the older women of the Snopes family are wronged daily, and even abused, they do not leave. Is it because they want the safety of the other members? Or is it because belonging to this family, no matter how depraved of morals or manners, gives them a sense of belonging to something? Do they truly want to stay, or are they just afraid of what would happen if they left? Do they stay for the children's sake? Abner's? Or their own?
The children of the family also give cause to wonder. They vary so much in nature, even though, as far as the reader knows, they all grew up in the same environment. The older son seems to be an almost carbon copy of his father. It can be assumed he will eventually become just like his father, both in appearance and mannerisms. The two daughters seem to fit in with the other members of the family less than any of them. While they are dull, lazy, unintelligent, and seemingly as far from elegance as possible, they still seem to want to be
fashionable and dainty, though their attempts at it are depicted as poor: "The two sisters got down, big, bovine, in a flutter of cheap ribbons." How did they attain this desire to be cultured when it flowed against not only their circumstances, but also their natural appearances and dispositions?
In my opinion, the most complex character is the narrator, Sartorius Snopes, because he displays so much conflict. He is young enough to see that what his father and brother do is wrong, and doesn't want a part of it. But he still admires his father as any boy his age would, and wants to save him from his "enemies." He always seems to do the right thing from the very beginning (when he is going to tell the truth about the barn to the Justice of the Peace), to the very end, when he warns Mr. de Spain about his barn, but still grieves his father's death in the very act of violence. He never agrees with his father, but still obeys him, probably out of a mixture of fear and loyalty. Sartorius struggles with his feelings to do what is right, and he does what he knows he should do, but it is never without the bitter aftertaste of remorse for his father.