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The Importance of Literary Elements in Barn Burning The Importance of Literary Elements in Barn Burning Understanding literary elements such as patterns, reader/writer
The literary term for this kind of inversion is chiasmus, or the diagonal or crosswise arrangement of elements. The term "chiasmus" comes from "chi," the Greek word
Submitted by creamfan on February 22, 2005
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The Importance of Literary Elements in Barn Burning
Understanding literary elements such as patterns, reader/writer relationships, and character choice are critical in appreciating William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Some literary elements are small and almost inconsequential while others are large and all-encompassing: the mother's broken clock, a small and seemingly insignificant object, is used so carefully, extracting the maximum effect; the subtle, but more frequent use of dialectal words which contain darker, secondary meanings; the way blood is used throughout the story in many different ways, including several direct references in the familial sense; how Faulkner chooses to write about poor, common people (in fact to the extreme) and how this relates to the opinions of Wordsworth and Aristotle; and finally, the relationship between the reader and writer, Faulkner's choice of narrator and point of view, and how this is works successfully.
One of the formal choices Faulkner uses is the clock, the dowry of Sarty's mother, which does not work. On a simple level, the clock represents the Snopes' poverty, being all her parents could offer the newlyweds, and the only fancy object ever mentioned in the Snopes' possession. More important, however, is that it does not work-symbolizing the brokenness of their relationship and her happiness. To obtain the maximum effect, Faulkner mentions the mother's unhappiness directly after the clock:
...the clock inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which would not run, stopped at some fourteen minutes past two o'clock of a dead and forgotten time, which had been his mother's dowry. She was crying....(Faulkner 4)
Her unhappiness is justified in the story by Abner's treatment of his wife. He is cold and gives her orders, not to mention her feeling of hopelessness and despair about their way of life and his habit with fire.
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