Short stories
Initiation marks the journey all through from childhood stage into adolescence. The initiation stories are quite popular genres in the adolescent literature where the main character of the story is either a child or an adolescent who undergoes through a rite of passage that is very challenging so as to usher them into adulthood. For instance in Barn Burning story the author believes that adulthood is all about morality while Wright believes that adulthood is all about authority and respect. Thus Sarty’s journey involves him fighting the inner demons while Dave’s journey involves that of buying a gun and killing of an animal accidentally. According to Twain in the Hucklebbery Finn, Huck willingly escapes using a raft down a river so as to prove that he is man he is ready for all the circumstances that he could face while on his journey towards manhood. Dave’s initiation is a failure since he fails to learn the true qualities of adulthood throughout his course of initiation. He lies so as to protect his interests and he ends up killing a mule. He does not stand up to his mistakes and in his failure to acknowledge the consequences that would follow; he fails to prove his manhood. Instead he decides to lie about the issues so as to get out of trouble and this makes him to be embarrassed in front of all the people. Though he shot the animal, it was clear that they did not respect him or even treat him in a better way as he could have expected them to do. Sarty’s initiation will be a success since he is matured and understands his own personal values and knows how to stand up for what he believes in. He thus fully takes responsibility for all his decisions and the related consequences which therefore make the initiation process a success (Jackson 30).
Emily’s life was a mystery as the residents in the Jefferson were unable to follow the developments that occurred at the Grieson home and they could not figure out what was the importance of activities that occurred. She lived a secret and none of their neighbors knew what Emily was hiding from them as she was a reserved person. After her death, the whole town including all her neighbors went to the funeral as they wanted to see the inside of the house mostly the women (Faulkner 253). Literally, Emily was hiding the fact that she was having sexual relations with a corpse, Homer Barron who was killed and the corpse withheld in an upstairs room in her house for forty years (Faulkner 264). Her state of mind even during the time that she died remained a mystery to all of her neighbors and the motives behind her killing Homer remained a mystery. The purchasing of the arsenic at the drug store is a mystery to the people as they cannot understand whether she is planning in killing herself or what is really going on (Faulkner 259). Symbolically, Emily represents the diehard supporters of the Old South and also the subscribers to the out-of-date culture. She represents the old south and through her death, the lingering remnants also die along with her.
Abner Snopes anger is perceived to be as a result of the alienation that is in existence in the society. With this kind of alienation within the society, he felt like he did not belong anywhere and the only way in which the high class recognized that he needed the time of the day was when he acted out and tried to prove that he does not need the law and the conformist society to defend him. It is also clear that he had an undeveloped mind that led to his irrational thinking and insensitivities. His anger may have also been caused by his mistreatment experience from other people and this lead to his greater frustration that ultimately led to the barn burnings. For instance, in the case between him and Harris in the case of retaining the hog in the two scuffles and also in the case of Major De Spain who insisted that Abner Snopes should pay for the rugs that were damaged (Faulkner 327). These are some of the cases where Abner acted out by committing arson as a justification for his frustration. He thus acted as the victim of circumstances and not the criminal and he was much angered by the fact that he had to be forced to function in society where corruption is at its peak. His source of anger was from within as he could not face all that was occurring in the society and hence he allowed situations to provoke him thus resulting to him imagining a wrong act that would force him to barn burn as a symbol of righting all of the wrong doings that has been committed unto him. Therefore it is clear that his anger is one that is instilled by the mistreatment of others upon him from the past.
References
Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." First-Prize Stories 1919-1957: from the O. Henry Memorial Awards. Ed. Diana Klemin. Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1957. 318-333.
Faulkner, William. A rose for Emily. publisher not identified, 1958.
Jackson, Ronald L. Encyclopedia of Identity. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, 2010. Print.
