Short Story Essay

Short Story Essay on “A Rose For Emily” and “Barn Burning”

Human behavior is one of the most studied and talked about traits of human beings, for it makes us who we are after all. It is prevalent in books, movies, stories, and most importantly life, everything we do involves it. In all of the short stories we read, aspects of human behavior where the basis of the writings. The short stories “A Rose For Emily” and “Barn Burning” show excellent human reactions to life’s challenges through the themes of social status and death.

One of the overriding themes in all of the stories we read was that of social status. Social status was a present issue back in the civil war days and has continued up into modern day society. Unfortunately a person is not judged by whom they are, but they are judged by the money they make and the background they come from. Faulkner does as wonderful job in “A Rose For Emily” and “Barn Burning” of showing the effects that social status can have on one’s life from both ends of the spectrum, being rich and being poor. Let’s start off with “A Rose For Emily”, in this case the character is brought up in a family that was very well off, after inheriting her father’s estate and any riches he had left, Emily’s personal struggle begins. She lives her life alone, rarely living her house, believing that she is in a sense to good for society, she doesn’t pay taxes, has a slave do her shopping and what not for her, all the while she sits at home with little to no connection to the outside world. Because of her perceived high social status, everyone in the town has their eyes on her; it’s as if being wealthy brings along with it an open invitation to your life. On the other end of the spectrum in the story “Barn Burning” Faulkner depicts a poor family, trying to make it in life. The family struggles throughout the entire story with being underprivileged, moving around from town to town taking whatever jobs are available. Abner Snopes the father of the family demonstrates his struggles with social status the most. A perfect example of his resentment of the upper class is shown with the quote “He just stood stiff in the center of the rug, in his hat, shaggy iron-gray brows twitching slightly above the pebble-colored eyes as he appeared to examine the house with brief deliberation. Then with the same deliberation he turned; the boy watched him pivot on the good leg and saw the stiff foot drag round the arc of the turning, leaving a final long and fading smear.”(pg. 5) Abner Snopes reacts to social status with a large amount of resentment, jealousy, and pure lack of respect. However this is to be expected with the issue of social status, when someone feels that they are less of a person then someone else, they tend to act out, trying to prove their worth. In Abner Snopes case, he burns barns of every place he works, trying to prove a point about himself and his family. It is no doubt that without social status, people would get along better, understand one another more, and over all be better people, but with today’s society and economic setup, it seems that social status issues are here to stay.

Another theme in these two stories is death. We as people react to death in so many different ways. In “A Rose For Emily” death is prominent through the whole