English 1102 January 17 2008 Abner Snopes a Flat but Complex Character Abner Snopes in William Faulkners Barn Burning is a flat yet amazingly complex and intense character 160 To speak of him as flat is to borrow E M Forsters term Roberts and Jacobs 157 and also to note that in this story this character does not change or grow Yet the force of the characterization the potency and impact of it go beyond what one usually expects to find in a flat character In fact Faulkner could have gotten away