Interplay between Overt and Covert Progressions: A Rereading of Father and Son Imagery in “Barn Burningâ€

There is a key consensus among scholars both domestically and internationally that “barn burning” is a story of growing up with the protagonist Sarty breaking away from his father’s control and turning towards order and law, while his father is depicted as a violent and unstable person using barn burning to resolve conflicts, which is seen as extreme and radical. This is indeed the direction of plot development. However, behind the public plot lies another hidden and parallel narrative process. In this apparent progress, Sarty was proven to be cowardly, vain, and selfish, and her father’s act of burning the barn was actually the only twisted means for a humiliated and oppressed civilian to maintain his distorted sense of dignity. The images of both father and son were overturned, and upon realizing this dual narrative process, the characters transformed from mundane and singular to rounded and multifaceted. The work itself has become rich from being direct. Only by examining the significance of this dual layer can we fully understand the complexity and richness of the story’s meaning.