Justice? or Injustice ? In the short story “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner, two characters play such significant roles, which portrays the battle between justice and injustice. Abner, which is the father of Colonel, represents injustice in Faulkner’s story. On the contrary, Colonel is the opposition to his father by trying to morally do the right thing ,which is bringing justice to his unrighteous acts. This ongoing match of wanting to tell the truth and sticking by family sprouted in the petite building that was known as the court house. It all started when Colonel was summoned to the stand to be questioned about his father 's where abouts. Being paralyzed by fear, he is unable to admit to what happened due to him knowing that his father …show more content…
You would have told him’” … “His father struck him with the flat of his hand on the side of the head”.(Faulkner 482) This is Abner’s attempt to try to corrupt his sons pure mind so that he can stay out jail for all of the wrongdoing he has already done. This put a burden on Colonel to where it was hard for him to control his own decision making abilities because he wanted to live up to his father 's expectations. As much as Colonel wants Even after trial and the moving of his family Abner still decides to make unlawful decisions which starts him off on the wrong foot once again. “You must realize you have ruined that rug” De Spain said, “Wasn’t there anybody here, any of your women..”(Faulkner 486). This event took place after Abner decided to walk over to De Spain’s house and barge past the butler that greeted him while smudging his dirt covered boots into the expensive rug. Feeling disrespected, Abner snaps and has a relapse of what happened in the previous town they just moved from. As much as Colonel wants to stay by his father 's side, his natural instinct of good being takes over and overcomes the obstacles he has been facing in this …show more content…
He has a continuous duel versus his father, Abner, the one who stresses to him that sticking to your blood is important. This non-stop battle he faces is composed of trying to ethically do the right thing, even though it is almost impossible due to Abner. His exact words to his son were, “‘’ You got to learn how to stick to your blood or you aint going to have any blood stick to you’”(Faulkner 482). Colonel undoubtedly wants to do the right thing by simply telling the truth about his old mans wrong doings. However, being the son of Abner he knew it was his duty to defend his father even if that meant lying for him in court. “‘’ I reckon anyone named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can 't help but tell the truth, can they?’”(Faulkner 480) The Justice tries to pry information out of Colonel because he knows that he was a witness and has the potential to put Abner in jail for his actions. Although he abides by his father 's demands and sticks to his blood by not spewing information to the judge, Colonel finally submitted to the pressure of telling the truth and bringing the hammer of justice to put away the antagonist Abner. “Catch him, Net! Catch him!”... “De Spain!”... “Barn!”... “My horse” “Fetch my horse!” (Faulkner 490) At this moment, Colonel broke free of the reigns of injustice that his father has put upon him and ultimately becoming the man he was destined to
It has been stated that while doing what is right is not always easy, it is in fact doing what is right despite it being difficult that is quite the accomplishment. Justice one finds to be one of the major themes throughout “Barn Burning”. The notion of intuitive justice presents itself as a characteristic explored throughout William Faulkner’s literary masterpiece “Barn Burning” through the protagonist Colonel Sartoris Snopes, also referred to as Sarty throughout “Barn Burning”. Faulkner presents Sarty and demonstrates his sense of justice through literal actions and dramatic context.
In “Barn Burning”, Abner enters the house at dusk and “could smell the coffee from the room where they would presently eat the cold food remaining from the afternoon meal.” (14) A warm meal would indicate fulfillment and cohesiveness within the family. The inclusion of the detail that the food was cold represents an inversion of these associations. The cold meal symbolizes the family’s distaste with Abner’s actions. The memory of the dinner lingers with the family as they get ready for bed and appears linked with negative images of “Where they had been were no long, water-cloudy scoriations resembling the sporadic course of a lilliputian moving machine.” (15) In addition, the emphasis that this dinner was in fact a left-over meal symbolizes that the pattern of Abner’s destructive behavior and its effects on his family will not change.
Throughout the story “Barn Burning”, author William Faulkner conveys the moral growth and development of a young boy, as he must make a critical decision between either choosing his family and their teachings or his own morals and values. The reader should realize that the story “Barn Burning” was written in the 1930’s, a time of economic, social, and cultural turmoil. Faulkner carries these themes of despair into the story of the Snopes family.
William Faulkner, recognized as one of the greatest writers of all time, once made a speech as he accepted his Nobel prize for writing in which he stated that a great piece of writing should contain the truths of the heart and the conflicts that arise over these truths. These truths were love, honor, pity, pride, compassion and sacrifice. Truly it would be hard to argue that a story without these truths would be considered even a good story let alone a great one. So the question brought forward is whether Faulkner uses his own truths of the heart to make his story "Barn Burning." Clearly the answer to this question is yes; his use of the truths of the heart are prevalent
Normally in life, you look up to your father to be the care taker and to encourage you to make your own decisions on what is right and what is wrong. You figure your father should have your best interest at heart and to show compassion for you. In William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," Abner is the opposite of the normal father figure you would see. Rather than encouraging his son, Sarty, to make his own decisions on what is right and what is wrong, Abner wants Sarty to lie for him to protect his freedom, so Abner won’t get caught for burning barns. Abner forces fear into Sarty to make sure he will lie for him rather than tell the truth. The relationship between Abner and Sarty is struggling due to Abners abusiveness and criminal ways.
Sarty definitely feels a large obligation to be loyal to his father because of blood ties. Faulkner makes this quite clear in the text several times. Even in the first paragraph Sarty looks at the prosecutor and thinks, "our enemy" (Faulkner76) and also "mine and his both! He's my father!" (Faulkner 74). Faulkner also demonstrates that Sarty is willing to fight for his father. When someone hisses "Barn burner!" (Faulkner 76) at his father, Sarty immediately pursues the offender with the full intention of making him pay for injuring his father's honor. Furthermore, even though he thinks what his father did was wrong, he still shows loyalty by hoping his father will change. Faulkner shows this by writing "Maybe this is the end of it. Maybe even that twenty bushels that seems hard to have to pay for just a rug will be a cheap price for him to stop forever and always from being what he used to be..." (Faulkner 82). While Sarty was debating about betraying his father, he expressed his loyalty to his father in the lines "I could run on and on and never look back, never need to see his face again. Only I can't" (Faulkner 85). In the end, even after he has betrayed his father he still sho...
In ¡§Barn Burning¡¨, Sarty¡¦s father enjoys setting fires to burn down others¡¦ properties. Sarty faces the problem between loyalty and honesty. On one hand, he wants to be loyal to his father; on the other hand, he does not endorse his father¡¦s behavior. His father teaches him: ¡§You¡¦re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain¡¦t going to have any blood to stick to you¡¨ (¡§Barn Burning¡¨, 8). His father wa...
In “Barn Burning” the setting is a time when people drove horse wagons and the workingmen were generally farmers. The major character in this story is Colonel Sartoris Snopes, called “Sarty” by his family who is a ten-year-old boy. In the beginning, Sarty is portrayed as a confused and frightened young boy. He is in despair over the burden of doing the right thing or sticking by his family, as his father states,” You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.”
William Faulkner elected to write “Barn Burning” from his young character Sarty’s perspective because his sense of morality and decency would present a more plausible conflict in this story. Abner Snopes inability to feel the level of remorse needed to generate a truly moral predicament in this story, sheds light on Sarty’s efforts to overcome the constant “pull of blood”(277) that forces him to remain loyal to his father. As a result, this reveals the hidden contempt and fear Sarty has developed over the years because of Abner’s behavior. Sarty’s struggle to maintain an understanding of morality while clinging to the fading idolization of a father he fears, sets the tone for a chain of events that results in his liberation from Abner’s destructive defiance-but at a costly price.
Albert Camus’ The Stranger offers one man’s incite into the justice of society. Monsieur Meursault, the main protagonist in the novel, believes that morals and the concept of right and wrong possess no importance. This idea influences him to act distinctively in situations that require emotion and just decision, including feeling sadness over his mother’s death, the abuse of a woman, and his killing of an innocent man. In these situations Meursault apathetically devoids himself of all emotion and abstains from dealing with the reality in front of him. When confronted by the court over his murder, he reiterates his habitual motto on life that nothing matters anyways, so why care? His uncaring response inflames the people working within the
In the short story Barn Burning, William Faulkner sets the scene in a courtroom located in a corner store market. Protagonist, Abner Snopes, was being accused of burning down Mr. Harris’s barn. Because of this, the Snopes family gpt forced to leave the country and never come back. They then moved to a beautiful new place where Abner worked as a sharecropper for Major De Spain. Not long after working for them, Abner ruined their valuable rug by intentionally tracking horse manure onto it. When told to clean it he used soap that completely destroyed it. Major de Spain fined Abner 20 bushels of corn, which caused Abner dto take Major De Spain to court. The Justice only deducts the punishment from 20 bushels to 10 bushels of corn. Due to Abner's rage he plots to burn Major de Spains house by instructing Sarty to gather kerosene. Meanwhile Sarty cautioned Major De Spain about his father’s motives. And lastly, three gun shots went off, but Sarty had no desire to look back to see who was killed.
At first glance, the story “Barn burning” seems just to be about a tyrannical father and a son who is in the grips of that tyranny. I think Faulkner explores at least one important philosophical question in this story were he asks at what point should a person make a choice between what his parent(s) and / or family believes and his own values?
In the story “Barns Burning” Abner Snopes, the father is accused of burning a neighbor’s barn. Sarty is faced with a decision that will shape the rest of his life. Sarty is called to the stand, but because the plaintiff is ultimately unwilling to force him to testify against his own father, the case is closed, and the father is advised to leave that part of the country. As the family Sarty,
William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during the Civil War. The main character, Abner Snopes, shares the ropes to make a living for his family. He despises wealthy people. Out of resentment for wealthy people, he burns their barns to get revenge.
...eard the gunfire, no longer in terror and fear, "Father. My Father he thought." Sarty tried to think good thoughts about his father thinking, "he was brave!" He served as a solder under Colonel Sartoris in the war! When the morning sun came up, he was finally on his own to be his own man, free to make his own individual decisions without worrying about what his father would do to him. It was from Sarty's dilemma of family loyalty and the desire to please his father that kept him from doing the right things. Was his father so bitter due to experiences he had during the Civil War ? Was it society's fault for what happened to his father? Was Abner just born with his us against them attitude? These are all questions that Faulkner leaves with us after reading the "Barn Burning." and is part of that fire in the back of our minds that we will never be able to put out..