Differing Thoughts and Ideas on Faulkner and O’Brien SUZANNE BOWERS

Differing Thoughts and Ideas on Faulkner and O’Brien

SUZANNE BOWERS

Several common themes run through “The Things They Carried” and “Barn Burning”. You could compare the loneliness, isolation, the need for revenge, or even the similarity, with regard to pyromaniac inclinations, between Abner Snopes and Jimmy Cross. Here we shall discuss the inherent powerlessness felt by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon at being stuck in a war on the other side of the world and Abner Snopes for being poor and stuck in his socio-economic position.
Fire is a constant companion in “Barn Burning”. It symbolizes Snope’s powerlessness and his thirst for power and wealth. After the family has been told to leave town because Snope’s burned a man’s barn, Snopes and his family stop to make camp. Snopes builds a small fire by the roadside. A fire much too small to benefit his large family. This small fire shows how powerless he is to take care of his family. In contrast to the small fire, when Snopes sets a much larger fire to Mr. Harris’s barn it makes him feel powerful and in control if only for a brief period of time. Abner is angry at Mr. Harris, Major de Spain and all other rich, powerful landowners simplybecause they are rich and powerful which are things that Abner desperately wishes to be.This powerlessness leads Snopes to act out towards the general society and employers he manages to come across. Snopes even exudes his false power over his adolescent son, Sartoris, by threatening him. Snopes says, “You’re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you” (Faulkner, paragraph 28). Unfortunately, most of Abner’s circumstance is a direct result of his own making (Padgett, 2006).
Sartoris continues the pursuit of peace throughout our short look into his life, constantly struggling with the morality of betraying his blood family or his loyalty to the law. After, finally leaving the small comfort he does have in his family and striking out on his own Sartoris does eventually free himself from his father and his family but does not immediately find the peace that he expected to find (Ford, 1998). However, he does find a quieter form of happiness. His life is no longer lived under the tyranny and fear of his father. One can only hope that Sartoris’ moral code will bring him a better life than the one he led with his father.
In “The Things They Carried”, Lt. Jimmy Cross is angry that his friend and fellow soldier, Ted Lavender, was shot by enemy fire and killed. Lt. Cross fuels that anger into action and burns down the entire local village of Than Ke. He does this because he doesn’t seem to have power or control over anything else in his life at the time. He is stuck in a war far away from home. Possbily, like Abner, he may be there due to his own socio-economic troubles. The things the men carried not only referrs to the heavy packs on their back and gear they tote, but the heavy emotional baggage they keep inside during their marches. Many of these men have lost friends and family members, and desperately miss home. The girl Lt. Cross loves has not professed her love for him and does not even acknowledge the war he is in. His days seem monotonous with only the march behind and ahead of him. When Lavender is killed, Lt. Cross feels guilt and shame over his death. However, he sees no other course of action but to burn the village just to feel some of the power and control he so desperately needs just to continue through another day. After the burning, he decides to burn Martha’s love letters and try and focus on the task at hand to release some of his guilt (Smith, 17-40). “It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do” (O’Brien, paragraph 97).
It is also worth noting that both of these stories are told by an anonymous narrator. These stories, being told by any character in the story, would take on an entirely different meaning andcould be analyzed 100 different way. In fact, even being told by the anonymous narrator each story will have a different meaning and evoke different emotions in every single reader. Whatever meaning you find in either story they are powerful, they are emotional, and they should continue to be shared with the world.
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Works Cited

Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009.
Ford, Marilyn Claire. “Narrative Legerdemain: Evoking Sarty’s Future in ‘Barn Burning’.” The Mississippi Quarterly 51.3 (1998): 527. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 June 2011.
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009.
Padgett, John B. “Barn Barning”: Commentary & Resources.” William Faulkner on the Web. 17 August 2006. 30 May 2011. http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/-egjbp/faulkner/r_ss_barnburning.html>.
Smith, Lorrie N. “The Things Men Do”: The Gendered Subtext in Tim O’Brien’s Esquire Stories.” Critique. 36.1 (Fall 1994): 17-40. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol. 74. Detroit: Gale, 2005 17-40. Literature Resource Center. 30 May 2011.

Suzanne Bowers is a lowcountry native originally from a small town just outside of Hilton Head, SC. She spent several years working in commercial interior design and real estate management before entering the medical field. She is currently the office and billing administrator of Senior Health Associates and Tidewater Hospice and is attending the nursing program at TCL. Suzanne resides in Bluffton, SC with her husband, Justin, and their two children. Suzanne wrote this essay as a student in Ms. Drumm’s Summer Semester English 101 composition course.