“Barn Burning” is a short story that incorporated many scenes which promote tragedy as the central work of this story. Throughout the story, tragedy is the dominant element that surfaces in most scenes due to the incorporation of sadness, death, oppression and some sort of abuse.
From the very beginning, Faulkner establishes the grim feeling of poverty as the narrator describes how Sarty “smelled the cheese” and mentions how “his intestines” were grumbling due to the smell of food. This exemplifies tragedy due to the representation of the oppressed life that Sarty’s family was experiencing at that time. The poverty of their family establishes the tragic mood for the story as things only get worse from there. It almost feels like the issues for the family take place in a snowballing pattern (one major element of tragic stories). The story starts of with the court case for arson against Abner. After that scene, the family’s life gets worse and worse as they move out of the town and experience more issues raised by Abner.
The story ends with the implied death of Abner. Once again, the tragedy is established with the death of Abner which leads to the destruction of the Snopes family as Sarty runs away and the other family members are left to fend for themselves. Other forms of tragedy that Faulkner incorporates are plentiful throughout this story, ranging from the abuse and manipulation of Sarty to the flashback of how Abner obtained his stiff leg. Thus, one can see how Faulkner has made use of the elements of tragedy in almost every aspect of the story. It is clear that the plot was created by Faulkner with tragedy in his mind in order to fully represent and relay the lives of these characters to the readers.
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