“Barn Burning”
William Faulkner
Part of but preceding Faulkner’s Snopes trilogy, “Barn Burning” is set in the 1890s but was written and published during the 1930s. An O. Henry winner, the short story touches on issues of race, class, and socioeconomics during the Great Depression. In Faulkner’s works, the Snopes family is not comprised of model citizens. His tales of northern Mississippi are brilliantly told and involve a variety of complex people, and the Snopes show the darker strains of the time and place. Faulkner scholar Dr. Carol Andrews joins Leigh and P. T. again this week to examine this coming of age tale and explore the lessons it might offer almost a century later. In looking at his world, Faulkner once said, “The past isn’t dead; it’s not even past.” Perhaps that’s a clue to the writing.
