Barn Burning Foreshadowing

1394 Words3 Pages

Many times in life, people are faced with difficult situations and decisions. There are times when the choice has to be made to keep quiet or to stand up; the choice to be loyal to the conscience or to be submissive. Oftentimes, in these situations, intimidation wins over. The best known dilemma is of the people who have had to encounter the terrible experience of sexual harassment, and have had to fight their fear and fight their harasser to win for themselves self-respect and justice. “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is about a young boy named Colonel Satoris or “Sarty” for short. The two main conflicts Sarty goes through are with Abner, his father, after he burns his employer’s barns. During the story, Sarty’s father terrorizes him and …show more content…

Harris of burning his barn. Mr. Harris calls the boy forward to testify, and Sarty becomes dazed in worry after realizing his father expects him to lie. After changing his mind about asking the boy, the justice banishes Abner from the country. Later that night, his father scolds and strikes him for almost telling them the truth. To keep the victims quiet about the unwanted invasion, the harassers intimidate them. Sometimes cases can get extreme where the consequences have a visible effect such as violence or loss of work. “Among 88 cases of sexual harassment filed with one employer, almost half the complainants were fired and an additional quarter left their jobs in fear or frustration.” (Wilson 66) In most cases, the victims feel struggling and hopeless just as Sarty did. After Abner hits him, he asks his son if he agreed with him and Sarty says yes, but he thinks to himself, “If I had said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again.” …show more content…

Many victims have claimed that they were afraid to report, but along the way, one by one, they realized that they had to take initiative for themselves because no one else would. “After all, action often involves accusations against someone in authority.” (Wilson 68) At the end of the story, Sarty decides to follow his own conscience and runs to the landowner who his father works for and warns him about his father’s vengeance and overhears the conflict. After Abner has been presumably dealt with by the landowner, Sarty takes his leave, free from

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