Why does Abner SIOL the rug on purpose?
The rug at the entrance to the home of Major de Spain becomes the crux of one of the Snopes family’s numerous struggles with justice and authority. Both within and beyond the family, then, the rug allows Abner to assert his own authority over others, while he can maintain a superior position with respect to them.
Why does Abner deliberately step in horse poop and walk across the rug?
His motivations for deliberately soiling and then ruining the rug are essentially related to his wounded foot and his wounded pride. He resents being treated worse than most blacks would be treated, and he is angered by de Spain’s contempt for him.
Why does Abner burn barns and destroy the rug?
Snopes’s comments upon leaving the plantation house shed light on why he soiled the rug. Snopes acts out when he feels disrespected; he believes burning barns and damaging the property of others helps make up for his poor lot in life and helps to even the score with those who are more successful than he.
What does Abner Snopes wipe on Major de Spain’s rug?
In the yard, Abner deliberately steps in some fresh horse poop, forces his way into the mansion, and tracks the poop all over the white rug in the front room. Later that day, the owner of the rug and mansion, Mr. de Spain, has the rug dropped off at Abner’s shack.
Why is Abner Snopes setting fires?
Abner Snopes asserts his independence, his defiance, and his own view of justice through fire – by setting fire to the barns owned by those who he feels have slighted him. Fire’s dual function thus represents the junction between authority, control, and desperation at which the Snopes family’s experiences are located.
Why does Abner Snopes walk with a limp?
Abner Snopes Stiff-bodied, he walks with a limp he acquired from being shot by a Confederate’s provost thirty years earlier while stealing a horse during the Civil War. Read an in-depth analysis of Abner Snopes.
What is Abner Snopes son’s name?
Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes Sarty is a ten-year-old boy, the youngest son of Abner Snopes. He is Barn Burning’s main character, even though he is often referred to as “the boy” by William Faulkner. Sarty goes through an enormous transformation throughout the story. He is loyal to his family and his father.
What is Abner Snopes?
Characters Abner Snopes. Snopes is an influential, towering presence in Sartoris’s eyes, but he himself is simply a primitive, thoughtless force of violence and destruction. With his family he is stiff, without depth, emotion, or complexity.
Why does Major Despain Sue Abner Snopes?
De Spain comes to Snopes’s cabin and informs him that he will charge him an extra 20 bushels of corn for damaging the rug. Snopes says nothing, but the following Saturday he appears with de Spain in front of the Justice of the Peace to sue his employer for demanding the payment.
What does Abner Snopes symbolize?
Snopes is an influential, towering presence in Sartoris’s eyes, but he himself is simply a primitive, thoughtless force of violence and destruction. With his family he is stiff, without depth, emotion, or complexity. Snopes’s physical presence fully reflects the inner corruption and love of revenge that he embodies.
Is Abner Snopes a sharecropper?
Abner is a tenant farmer. He uses another man’s land to grow crops, and he gets to keep some of what he grows to sell. He has some of his own tools and animals. A sharecropper is even more at the mercy of his landlord because he doesn’t even own his own tools and has to rent them from the landlord.
Why is Abner Snopes so angry?
Fed by jealousy and rage, Snopes’s need for revenge is borne of his sense of inferiority, lack of power, and gradual emasculation by the dismal sharecropping system.
