What Fire Means The fire scene in Faulkner's story Burning Barn explains and shows many different characteristics of the Snopes family. The family is going to work on a new farm because Abner the furthest away was forced to leave the other one where he was because it burned down the barn. Later in the story we find out that they are going to Major de Spain's house. The family stops to rest for the night in an oak grove near a stream. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. First, Faulkner describes where the family decided to camp for the night. "That night they camped in a grove of oak and beech trees where a spring flowed." Groves are considered pleasant places and sometimes show the wealth of families. The grove of oak and beech trees may indicate that the family resided on a well-established landholding, perhaps the land of Major de Spain. There was also a stream nearby, which may have been why the family decided to camp there for the night. The family subsequently had to light a fire to keep warm that night. “The nights were still cool and they had against the fire, of a railing lifted from a nearby fence and cut into pieces a small fire” The family then lights a fire in the grove, but instead of collecting the fallen branches from the trees they choose to damage someone else's property by using a fence rail instead. This once again shows how Snopes acted and didn't care about damaging someone else's property, how Abner doesn't care when someone's barn burns down. If Abner isn't ashamed to burn someone's barn, he defiantly won't mind breaking and burning a piece of someone's fence. The next line goes into more detail to describe and show Abner's character. “Small, clean, almost stingy fire, a shrewd fire: such fires were his father's habit” this shows the character of Abner, who must always do his own way and not worry about anyone around him. Even though it was a cold night, Abner only lights a small fire, he refuses to light a large fire. This could be because when Abner was hiding during the war he would always light small fires so that no one would find him and since he is a character set in his own way and refuses to change he continues to light small fires. However, there is another theory as to why Abner only lights small fires, Sarty realizes in the next two lines. Then Sarty thinks about the real reason his father lights only small fires, it's not to stay hidden but "that the element of fire spoke to some deep spring of his father's being, like the elements of steel or power they spoke to other men, as the only weapon to preserve integrity, otherwise the breath would not be worth breathing, and therefore to be regarded with respect and used with discretion." This shows how Abner might see fire as his weapon and how a soldier sees his rifle as a weapon. Abner fills himself as if fire gives him power and control over people, it is his only weapon against rich people like Major de Spain. Without the fire, Abner would be weaponless and helpless in his mind. So, he may have viewed fire as something that didn't need to be wasted on something like heat, but saved for something bigger like burning barns. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now “Older, the kid may have noticed this and wondered why not.