Analysis of Death by Landscape and Barn Burning
Analyze of Death by Landscape and Barn Burning As we all have read the story of A Rose for Emily, I decided to choose the story, Barn Burning, written by the same author, William Faulkner for my analysis paper. The story opens with a scene in the court, where vice and guilt filled the air. The other story I am going to compare with Barn Burning is Death by Landscape. These two stories are seemingly unrelated, yet if you take a deeper look at them, there are still quite a few things in common. In the story of Barn Burning, Abnmathy Snopes, the father of Sarty, burnt down the barn of other’s.
When Sarty realized his father’s intention to, once more, burn someone else’s barn, driving by guilt, he felt that he should tell someone. In the end, even though what he had done sacrificed his father’s life, I don’t think he has regretted for what he had done which he thought was right. In the story of Death by Landscape, Lois lives a shadowy life because of an event happened at her thirteen years old. After Lois and her friend, Lucy, went up hill to find a place to pee, Lucy disappeared inexplicably.
Since then, Lois has been living in guilt.
Thus, we can put it that the main character in these two stories both share a feeling of guilt. But for guilt, Sarty wouldn’t sell his father out by telling the truth; Lois wouldn’t live a life haunted by the childhood memory. From the beginning of Barn Burning to the end of it, we can tell that the author had been implying that Sarty didn’t want to become the man of his father’s kind. Although at first, he had to conceal the truth and couldn’t let the cat out of the bag, he struggled through it.
On the contrary, it seemed easier for his elder brother to lie since he had been on his father’s side all along. In the story of Death by Landscape, Lois’s encounter with all the unhappiness turned her into a criminal like girl.
She had to carry the tacit notoriety for the thing that she didn’t do, although she didn’t get physical punishment, she suffered from it spiritually. Then, here comes a question: hadn’t she thought about the consequence she would have to face after she told the unbelievable truth? I hold that she had, yet her instinct told her not to lie.
We can make a conclusion from these two stories that the younger the kid is, the purer he is. In this vice filled world, it’s hard to stay innocent when innocent people are at the disadvantage almost like every time, so that’s why I made that conclusion. What’s more, we can see that what had happened to these two characters really had a major effect on them. Take for example the story of Barn Burning, didn’t the effect come deep down into Sarty’s heart and was always there to remind him not to be the man of his father’s kind?
He left his home after the death of his father and never returned.
Although that means leaving the past behind, did Sarty really let go of everything in the past without it affecting the rest of his life? Just like the character, Lois, in the story of Death by Landscape, she didn’t like nature anymore because of Lucy’s disappearance and she had carried guilt for the rest of her life. Although it wasn’t her who had to be blamed for for Lucy’s disappearance, other people and herself put the invisible blame on her.
Even passing all those years, Lois hadn’t been able to let go of the feeling of guilt. There’s always something in these two characters’ heart that haunted them and affected them. Death by Landscape and Barn Burning are two seemingly different stories, yet, in light of the two characters, we can see how similar they are.
They both share guilt; they were innocent; they were affected by what they had encountered big time. If we take a deep look into the stories and the characters, we would be amazed at how they are actually alike.
