"Barn Burning"

William Faulkner characters have different traits that affect each other. Two characters in the story are the boy and the father. The leader of the family is the father. He is strong, confident, vengeful, has conviction, and is independent. The boy is passive and a follower.

Abner was a man that looked for dominance over people because he's ruled over by De Spain since he's a sharecropper.
Abner is demanding because he said " did you put the cutter back in that straight stock like I told you? No sir, he said. Then go do it."He wants to be superior to others like the negro because he said "Get out of my way nigger",( 5 Faulkner ).He hates wealthy people because " the boy watched him pivot on the good leg and saw the stiff foot drag around the arc of the turning, leaving a final long fading streak", ( 5 Faulkner). The story says that the father burned the barn of the neighbor when the neighbor said that the father had to pay a fee for letting their hog in his land. Abner looks for vengeance because when De Spain said he should pay for the ruined rug he decided to burn De Spain's barn. Also before he dirtied the rug even though De Spain said he had to clean the rug he dirtied in the De Spain home.

The leader in the family was the father and the rest of the family were followers. The boy didn't stand up when his father was doing something wrong like burning the barn. When they moved to another place the boy felt terror and despair towards his father. He got slapped and was told that he needed to stick with his family or no one would stand up for him. The boy dreamed of living in happiness like the De Spain family. He hoped that he would live like that one day that everything would change and his father wouldn't look for vengeance but he didn't want to stand up to his father. He hoped because he thought,"Maybe he will feel it too. Maybe it will even change him now from what maybe he couldn't help but be." He thought that if he left the family he would never have to see his fathers face again. He was a pushover. Meanwhile the mother was also a follower she at least tried to stand up for what's right but was frightened and ended up sobbing in the end. She stood up by saying to the father that he shouldn't burn the barn of the De Spain family but the man just pushed her against the wall and she started sobbing. She ended up holding the small boy that was going to tell the De Spain man that his father was burning his barn.