Barn Burning story
"Barn Burning" is the 13th installment of The American Short Story television anthology series produced by Learning in Focus and Sea Cliff Productions for the Public Broadcasting Service. This installment is based on the 1939 William Faulkner short story of the same name. Synopsis: A jaded sharecropper makes life difficult for his family owing to his funny habit of burning down his landlords' barns.
22 total · 12 major · 10 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| arson | major | The resentful sharecropper Ab Scopes had a penchant for burning down the barns of the landowners to whom he and his family were bound. |
| choosing between conflicting loyalties | major | When Sarty was asked about Ab's whereabouts when a barn had caught fire, Sarty said nothing. In general, Sarty was torn between being loyal to his arsonist father and obedient to the laws of the land. In the end, Sarty betrayed his father by running to alert the DeSpains that their barn was on fire. |
| coping with a problematic family member | major | The whole Scopes family was dismayed at having to move every time the family patriarch Ab broke the law. |
| father and son | major | The story explores the troubled relationship between the young and perhaps naive Satry and his jaded father, Ab. Sarty was very pleased when his father gave him a pocketknife. |
| loyalty to one's family | major | The patriarch Ab Scopes expounded on the importance family loyalty, and his son Sarty struggled with it on account that Ab was a serial barn burner. Ab took him for a walk and explained his view that blood was more important than anything, berating and slapping him for his hesitance in supporting his father's firebug tendencies. |
| poverty in society | major | The viewer is shown a depiction of the poverty in which Reconstruction era sharecroppers lived. |
| prejudice against someone of a different social class | major | The story explores latent class antagonisms in the American South through the point of view of a disgruntled sharecropper and his fiery relationships with his landlords. Ab explained to Sarty how slaves had built the mansions that Sarty so admired. |
| prejudicial attitude of superiority against someone less well off than one's self | major | Ab Scopes, a poor sharecropper, was looked down on by his socially elite land owner, Major DeSpain. |
| resentment | major | The war veteran become sharecropper Ab Scopes was a powder keg of pent up resentments stemming from something to do with him and his family being destitute while a privileged few lived in splendor. Ab intentionally wiped his dirty boots on the Mrs. DeSpain's expensive French rug, then glared silently at her when she protested before turning and striding out the door. |
| rich character vs. poor character | major | The life of the itinerant sharecropper Ab Scopes and family patriarch was juxtaposed with that of his socially elite landlord, Major DeSpain. |