Historical Context: Chapter 25

In Chapter 25, Don’t Read with Your Eyes, Foster underlines the process of the reader putting their self in the time era of the story. A reader must “try to take the works as they were intended to be taken” not the modern way they might see it. To fully understand a piece of work a reader must not read from their own fixed position in the “Year of two thousand and some” but from the historical moment the story is set in. When reading from the correct historical moment in time, it permits for the correct perspective on the literature. It allows for understanding of the text in its “own social, historical, cultural, and personal background” to be implicated. Barn Burning a short story by William Faulkner exemplifies the need to use of historical context. The story takes place when wagons where the main transpiration, transforming the reader from the mid set of modern eras to a historical one. It is important for this change of mid set to occur to gain a better quality of understanding of the characters and their actions. For example, Sartoris Snopes is faced rather to tell the truth about the barn burning down or to remain loyal to his family and father and lie. Mr. Snopes informs Sartoris that he must always remain loyal to his family and accused Sartoris of planning to tell the judge that Mr. Snopes was guilty. The idea of not telling the truth during a trail shows the time difference between the modern world and the time setting of this short story. It is important to understand the time era to be fully aware of importance of family ties, during this time period all they had were family when crops weren’t flourishing.