Universal Themes And Family In Faulkners “barn Burning” And “the Diary Of Anne Frank”

the most basic level, both Barn Burning and The Diary of Anne Frank are about family – and the reality of being stuck with them. Okay, so the forced closeness of being constantly driven from town to town together or sharing a tiny annex nonstop for 760 days is pretty extreme, but this only accelerates the process that some of us spend a lifetime addressing: how to identify yourself not as your father’s son or your mother’s daughter – or the one who slept with the light on until seventh grade, but as your own, independently developing entity.

Taking a stand against the “pull of blood,” Sarty honors his inner good guy by alerting people as to his father’s latest pyromaniacal target. In the process, he also goes against his entire family, who attempts to stop him from implicating his dad for arson (and probably isn’t ready to pack up and move just yet). Anne’s struggle, on the other hand, is far less radical, as it largely takes place internally between what she calls the “two Annes”: her cheerful, flippant, flirtatious half, which her family doesn’t particularly respect, and her more secret, serious, noble half, which they aren’t well acquainted with. Because she does not have the liberty of making a grand gesture in a criminal-type situation (let alone LEAVING afterward), she uses the diary itself to build her character and speak her personal truth.

This battle for identity is fought

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