Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye.
Fire is an important symbol in "Barn Burning," as you might expect. We talk about fire in almost every section of this guide. Here we want to focus on the fire Abner builds the night the family cam...
Stories that have a spring setting tend to be hopeful. Spring is a powerful symbol of rebirth and renewal. Before the final two paragraphs of "Barn Burning" we might not even realize it's springtim...
Notice that Faulkner never comes right out and tells us that Sarty is hungry. When we learn that Sarty's "stomach read" the cans of meat, we understand that he's hungry, and that he can't read the...
Blood comes up a lot in "Barn Burning" though usually in terms of the blood shared by relatives. At the beginning of the story Sarty smells something besides food in the store. He smells "the old f...
Here are the stated contents of the Snopes's wagon on moving day:[…] the battered stove, the broken beds and chairs, the clock inlaid with mother of pearl, which would not run, stopped at som...
