Art of Reading - "Barn Burning" Reading Response

1) Niggard- "But he did not think this now and he had seen those same niggard blazes all his life."
When first reading this word in the context of "Barn Burning" I assumed its definition was related to the derogatory term which is lingering in our country's diction. However, niggard is of Norse descent meaning a covetous or stingy person. Miser is a close synonym.

Broadcloth - "...the flat, wide, black hat, the formal coat of broadcloth which had one been black but which had now that friction-glazed greenish cast of the bodies of old house flies..."
Broadcloth is a word which I was fairly certain that I understood, but since it is not regularly used today in conversation I was not quite sure I knew what it is. I've found that it is a type of cloth which is used to make heavy winter wool coats and pea coats.

2) The way that Faulkner uses character, especially the boy and the father, and their relationship is most interesting. The father, Abner, whose name means 'father of light' is anything but. He is an arsonist who burns barns, yet demands that his son obey his orders. The son, abused by his father, is looking for escape, for hope, yet is stricken with fear at the beginning and is convincing himself that his father did not burn down barns. Ultimately the son, who remains nameless, wants to do what is right. The contrast that Faulkner uses between the protagonist and antagonist is accentuated by the irony of the father's name. While the father is not particularly an example of goodness, he is in a sense the father of light because he is an arsonist.

3) "Barn Burning" is a story of contrast in the relationship between a father and son. Where a criminal father forces his son to defend the father's actions only to have the son rebel and run away. The son is a symbol of goodness and innocent justice when he turns on his father and warns the proprietor of the father's actions.