Just to pick up from and add a little to epollock's excellent answer above, economic class is further demonstrated in Faulkner's "Barn Burning" by Abner's method of holding on to his dignity. He is a man without power and without money, and when he feels he is wronged, he holds on to his dignity by burning barns. He sees doing so as his only way to "even the score," right wrongs, get revenge on those who have wronged him. As a bitterly poor man, he sees this as his only option. It is how he attempts to hold on to his dignity.
As Faulkner writes:
...the element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father's being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion.
In a sense, Abner does what all powerless people (most of us) wish they could do. We just know better and are not willing to destroy our lives like Abner has.
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