The New and The Old

"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner is a short story that represents the anger and distress that was felt by many disenfranchised whites in the aftermath of the Civil War. In " Barn Burning" there are a few symbols that lead the reader to believe that the Snopes family's way of life and out look has been greatly influenced by the societal changes after the Civil War.

The most prevalent symbol of the change that the Snopes family experienced and how it affected them is the plantation home of Major de Spain. The Snopes family arrives at the de Spain home as sharecroppers. The reader gets the impression that the Snopes are just taking the place of the former slaves that lived on the de Spain plantation. The plantation is described as "and he had never seen a house like this before. Hit's as big as a courthouse."(165) It can be imagined that its size and grandeur were great. To the Snopes family it represented the past and the old order of the South.

On a personal level Abner Snopes the father whom was described as a mean and rough person, the house represented the way of life that he could not have. He was now placed in the category of white trash and it was impossible to get out of it. He was the "new slave" of the post war south. And this filled him with rage. The burning of the barn is his symbolic way of defying the present and looking to the past.

But for Sartoris, Abner’s son, the new South is all that he really knows. The de Spain plantation to him represents a new and peaceful place. He sees the house and "he forgot his father and the terror and despair of both.." (165). The house doesn’t have the connation of the wonderful past but rather it is a symbol of the new and hopeful future.

I thought about the difference in the father and son's perception of the same house. I thought that it might have represented the changing attitude in the south and a generational gap. The father represented the past and the way things used to be. And the son represented the future. This generational gap may have been intended for the larger context that attitudes were changing. The focus on the past may have given way to a focus on the new future of the South.

Choices

William Faulkner's “Dry September” was a disturbing tale of lynching in the south. After discussing it and then thinking about it I found that Hawkshaw the barber was a more interesting and complex character than he first appeared. His stance that the men of the town were lynching the wrong man and his apparent participation in the act make Hawkshaw a hard character to understand. Like many people of the time I think that Hawkshaw was conflicted over what to do. There were many competing ideas and forces that surrounded Hawkshaw and that most likely made it difficult for him to do what was right. I thought about what may have made Hawkshaw participate in the lynching even though he knew it was wrong.

From what can be inferred from the readings Hawkshaw lives in a small southern town where everyone know your name. And being a businessperson of the town Hawkshaw was especially well known. I think Faulkner alludes to Hawkshaw's local super-stardom because Hawkshaw is one of the few characters that the reader knows the name of. The stardom that Hawkshaw has may put him in a precarious situation, especially with the men. He has to see these men on a frequent basis because of his profession. And for these men to think that he was a "niggerlover" would not be good for the business and for that mater his family. It would be difficult to stay behind and condemn the lynching and still remain in good standing in the town. In order to protect the way of life he had come to enjoy and his standing in the town Hawkshaw was forced to choose to go with the men on the lynching trip.

Another reason that Hawkshaw may haven went along with the lynching against his principles was the sheer peer pressure that was involved in the barbershop. Once the momentum of the room got going it would have been hard for anyone in the room to disagree. Each person was revving and inciting the violence and the idea of lynching in the other. One can imagine the energy in the room. Even though Hawkshaw was opposed to lynching Willie Mays he may have been caught up in the action. His rightful thinking mind might have been taken over by a mob mentality.

Hawkshaw was opposed to the actions that the mob committed that night but there were greater things at stake. His reputation, business, and social standing were all at stake that evening. Or was it just a mob mentality? I would like to think that I could stand up for what I thought was wrong. But with so much at stake I am unsure. I think the bigger message that Faulkner had in store for the reader was: Could anyone resist the pressure?

Chopin- A Woman or Her Own Character

I found it amazingly similar that Kate Chopin's and her characters share extraordinary strong personalities and lives. Kate Chopin was a woman ahead of her time; INDEPENDENT. As a young child, her father died in a train accident and she was left to be raised by mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. All of these women were widows. From an early start there was a strong, powerful, and self-dependent, female influence in her life. Soon after Chopin married her husband he died of swamp fever. She was left to raise 5 boys and 2 girls all of whom were born before she was twenty-eight years old. From her early start she saw strong woman and she herself was forced to become a strong woman because of tragedy that had befallen her family. Her own personal life surely influenced her writings and the characters that she wrote about.

In her short stories, At the Cadian Ball and The Storm, Chopin creates this very strong, sexual, and independent character Calxita. Claxita unlike many of her female counterparts of the time feels and acts like she is in charge of the world around her and she deserves that right. Calixta, I think is a reflection of Chopin herself. When Bobinot proposed marriage to her Calixta accepts it on the premise that she is doing Bobinot a favor. I think that Calixta may be a reflection of how Chopin believes that women can be independent of men. Having no real strong male influences in her life Chopin was reflecting her belief that woman could take charge which was a mostly unpopular belief at the time.

  Calixta's affair may have been a metaphor for Chopin's own loveless life. Her husband dying at such a young age may have caused Chopin to feel devoid of a meaningful relationship. Claxita used Alcee as a means to get something that she had been looking for. Calixta's search could have represented for Chopin own search for a relationship.

I think that Chopin may have been using her own characters as a method of portraying her own life. The way that she viewed the world and what she wanted was shown through Calixta’s personality.

The Bonds of the Land

I am beginning to pick up a recurring theme in most of the pieces that we have read. The ultimate and maybe undying connection to the past and to the traditional family land. In Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, the theme of a deep connection to the land is very apparent. The Usher family has lived on the same piece of land for many years. And now Roderick and his sister Madeline are the only members of the Usher family left.

It seems as if the Ushers are unable to leave their ancestral home. I think this is best explained by the fact that the narrator is invited to come and visit the Usher home rather than Roderick traveling away from his home. I think that one of the symbols that appeared to me was that when Madeline was finally dead they put her body in the vault in the house. It seems to me that this may have been symbolism for the fact that even in death there is a deep connection to the property. Her life was so connected to that house that even in death she was unable to escape the bonds that tied her family there.

Roderick was connected to house himself. Unable to leave because of his metaphoric bonds to the house Roderick perished there. Seeing this deadly connection to the House the narrator leaves.

When I thought about this obvious connection to the house and land I thought: What could Poe possible be saying by using this morbid tale? I thought that Poe may have been using this as a commentary on the undying connection that people of the South had to the land. He might also have been trying to say that the connection to the land was unhealthy and brought out the extreme fanatical lengths that Southern citizens would go to protect their land and their way of life. This radical devotion to the land could have foreshadowed the Civil War and the measures of devotion to the land to the point of death that Southerns would use to protect the land.