Chapter 25:Don't Read With Your Eyes

Lit/Prof

"Barn Burning"--William Faulkner

In this chapter Foster tells readers that sometime you have to read from a different perspective in order to get a full understanding of what is going on in a story. For example when you are reading literature from a different time period you should think as if you were a person from that time. He also explained that sometimes the main topic of a book is not the main focus; it is in fact an allusion to the main idea. This is why he states the title of this chapter as don’t read with your eyes. This pun is meant to say that don’t simply read the words, instead look for meaning behind those words.

In “Barn Burning” there are two view points that are supported in the story. One is the emotions of the young boy towards his father and the other is the story behind what his father is doing. The father has been in trouble several times by the law. Whenever a neighbor tells him something that he doesn’t want to hear, like in the beginning when the man tells him to keep his pig locked up, he goes and burns their barn down. The man has trained his son to stick up for him in court and say that he is innocent and whenever the trial is over the family moves to the next place. While the mother is unsupportive of her husband’s actions she is aware she can do nothing about it. The boy though, repeatedly tries to sell his father out at court and whenever his father tries to burn the barns he runs after him.

When they move to a new location and the father ruins the expensive rug he decides to get revenge and plans on burning the barn down instead of paying for the rug with ten bushels of corn. The boy has many negative thoughts about his father and wishes he could run away and not have to deal with all the troubles. As the man goes to burn the barn the boy runs after him and tells the people where his father is. As the little boy is running away from the scene he hears two gun shots and he knows from then on he no longer has to worry about his father’s burning past.

When first reading this story you may think that it is all about the father getting revenge on all the people he dislikes when really the story is about the little boy’s opinion of his father and how he makes a difference. This is what Foster means when he is speaking in this chapter, if you read this a certain way then you don’t get the same reaction as you would another way. By interpreting the story you can better understand why the story was told in the manner that it waas presented.