Stream consciousness is known as literary genre which exposes the thoughts, passions and feelings of the characters which are developed via continuous process of soliloquy, an incessant flow of ideas and emotions which comprise an individualistic conscious experience. According to the literary critics, stream of consciousness is also taken as a narrative mode of novelists, dramatists and poets who portray a character of an individual (Stream of Consciousness, 2010). In other words, it is defined as the gush of thoughtful ideas in one’s conscious mind. Stream of consciousness is a narrative technique to expose the inward feelings and experiences of the individuals to give impressionism and naturalism in the character-portrayal, representing the random growth process of the character via its thoughts and sense impressions (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
Writers who create stream-of-consciousness works of literature focus on the emotional and psychological processes that are taking place in the minds of one or more characters. Important character traits are revealed through an exploration of what is going on in the mind (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
Stream of consciousness is an advanced writing technique which reveals the perceptions, judgments, feelings, memories, and thoughts as if they are disclosing from the brain of the character directly and writer interpret them in unstructured and ungrammatically mode of writings without any specific chronological order in accordance with the portrayal of the character. According to William James, it is disclosure of inner experiences of an individual, used as tool of depicting the multitudinous ideas and feelings which comes in the mind of the individual. The term of coin is used for the first time by Dorthy Richardson, Conrad, James Joyce, W. Faulkner and Virginia Woolf (Stream of Consciousness, 2010).
W. Faulkner portrays the character of the child in ‘‘Barn Burning,’’ exposing the moral awareness how he finds himself alone from the social stratum when he is reaching the age of adolescence. As consciousness develops more deeply, this sense of loneliness and alienation deepen so strongly in the son-father relationship, Sarty and his father (Barn Burning | Themes, 2010).
Faulkner displays a marvelous harmonious blend of ‘blood relation’’ and “morality” by exposing the feelings and thoughts of young boy who has to prefer some existential choice to get be relieved. The close affinity of family is based on the moral grounds to constitute the morality of higher level (Barn Burning | Critical Overview, 2010).
William Faulkner’s Barn Burning (1939) is one of the masterpieces of artistic writings, employing all modern techniques of narration like use of stream of consciousness to expose the dilemma of modern American society which is going to degenerate socially as well as culturally. In the beginning, Faulkner became unpopular due to his vague expressive mannerism and in the later stage, Faulkner had gained immense popularity due to his influential style of prose-writing and Barn Burning is the exclusive example of his modernist style and psychological approach how he probes deep into the minds of his character to reveal the very truth in lucid manner (Barn Burning | Introduction, 2010).
The opening scene of Barn Burning expose the entire story of the different incidents via individualistic monologues or soliloquy of the protagonist, Starty who is accompanied with his father, Abner Snopes in the courtroom, whole story is revealed round after 10-15 years of Civil War. The mental process of generating thoughts and feelings in the child character reveals how much he has sincerity and loyalty for his family-relationship due to the ethical obligations (Barn Burning | Introduction, 2010).
