Abner Snopes is not your traditional tragic hero. In fact, he is hardly a hero at all. Abner does not come across as a “nice guy” and the reader feels little compassion for him. Instead of staying and fighting the battle during the Civil War, he deserted on a stolen horse, which is when he sustained his injury, a bullet to his foot. The injury to his foot is also something that he has in common with tragic heroes Oedipus and Achilles.
Most tragic heroes have a flaw beyond their control or make an understandable mistake, yet Abner’s flaw is burning down barns…and it’s not a mistake. Of course, burning a barn for him is a symbol of destroying the upper class and Abner truly is a champion of the poor people.
When Faulkner wrote Barn Burning, it seems like he did so with the intention of showing the versatility of perspective. If a reader only looks at Sarty’s point of view, he sees a man that is cruel to his children and unreasonably violent. If a reader only notes the point of view of the rich landowner, he sees a poor man, angry at having to repay for a rug that he ruined, taking vengeance. Yet, Abner burns barns in order to fight the status quo.
The impact that the status quo has on Abner is evident throughout the story, as is his defiance of it. When the black servant answers the door and tells him to go away, Abner, outraged at being ordered, particularly by someone he would have considered a class below himself, ruins an expensive rug by wiping his muddy shoes across it. When he is taken to court for the rug, he is further insulted by having the fine pressed against him by the owner lowered by the judge due to his “station.”
Abner is a tragic hero, though he may not be the most likeable. He fights social oppression and the limits placed on people based on their class, yet he does so, strangely enough, by burning down the barns of the rich.
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