Barn Burning: Sarty's Transformation Into Adulthood
In William Faulkner's story, "Barn Burning", we find a young man who
struggles with the relationship he has with his father. We see Sarty, the young
man, develop into an adult while dealing with the many crude actions and ways of
Abner, his father. We see Sarty as a puzzled youth who faces the questions of
faithfulness to his father or faithfulness to himself and the society he lives
in. His struggle dealing with the reactions which are caused by his father's
acts result in him thinking more for himself as the story progresses. Faulkner
uses many instances to display the developing of Sarty's conscience as the theme
of the story "Barn Burning." Three instances in which we can see the developing
of a conscience in the story are the ways that Sarty compliments and admires his
father, the language he uses when describing his father, and the way he obeys
his father throughout the story.
The first instance in which we can see a transition from childhood to
adulthood in Sarty's life is in the way he compliments his father. Sarty
admires his father very much and wishes that things could change for the better
throughout the story. At the beginning of the story he speaks of how his
fathers "...wolflike independence..."(145) causes his family to depend on almost
no one. He believes that they live on their own because of his fathers drive
for survival. When Sarty mentions the way his father commands his sisters to
clean a rug with force "...though never raising his voice..."(148), it shows how
he sees his father as strict, but not overly demanding. He seems to begin to
feel dissent towards his father for the way he exercises his authority in the
household. As we near the end of the story, Sarty's compliments become sparse
and have a different tone surrounding them. After running from the burning barn,
he spoke of his dad in an almost heroic sense. He wanted everyone to remember
his dad as a brave man, "He was in the war."(154) and should be known for it,
not burning barns. He seems to care about, but not condone his father and his
actions.
Another instance where we see a transition is in the language he uses
when describing his father. At the beginning of the story he spoke as a child
watching and looking at the things around him. He said that an enemy of his
Therefore, by means of growth to maturity the two young men exemplify the challenges of manhood.
I think it is clear that the grimly serious nature of the tale, and in particular, the kind of existence that Sarty has. Because of his father 's penchant for barn burning and his clear resistance or conflict with any form of authority, he finds himself cut off from society and isolated. In addition, he has to constantly struggle with his own sense of right and wrong, and whether to disobey his father by revealing his guilt. This is of course what he nearly does at the beginning of the story, and his father realises this, and beats him for it. However, by the end of the story, this is what he decides to do, and we are left with a moving image of Sarty looking up at the constellations above him and then walking away from his father and family, without looking
The central theme in William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" is initiation and morality. Young Colonel Sartoris "Sarty" Snopes is confronted with the conflict between loyalty to his family and to honor and justice.
What prompts Sarty to betray his own moral character is his fear of Abner, who he describes as the “black, flat, and bloodless . . . voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin”(279). Time and again, Sarty has witnesse...
When it comes to fighting with his brothers. He may not be as strict as the society he use to live in, but he as well as others do not just want fights to erupt and the be the way men solve problems. Fighting with guns and knives and also person to person has become a huge conflict in today’s society. Equality;s last society had a good and effective way of keeping violence to a minimum. In our society nowadays not every parent or guardian is always looking out for their child's best interest. So trying to get every parent in this society to stop violence once they see the first sign of it would not
The critical point of the story is when Sarty decides to tell Mr. De Spain that his father is going to burn his barn. Sarty is in disarray because he doesn’t know what is going to happen to him next and is probably speculating that his family will never forgive him because the of the harm that will come to their father if he is caught in the act.
quote is an example of how the narrator viewed his brother. He not only thought
turns into an adult but rather think about how the issue is treated in ?The
it related to his own life and the events going on around him at the
The nature of the relationship between father and son in William Faulkner's Barn Burning is displayed in the first paragraph of the story. In general a father-son relationship would be built on genuine respect, love, loyalty, and admiration. These building blocks were absent in Abner and Sarty Snopes relationship. Sarty's loyalty to his father appeared to come from a long time fear of the consequences of not obeying his father's commands. The "nigger" that could place the blame on Abner was not to be found. Was Faulkner inferring by this statement that the individual had been killed? If Abner had so little moral value to destroy a man's property, surely to protect himself from persecution he could destroy a man's life.
The main character and protagonist in this story is a boy named Colonel Sartoris. In this story, Sarty is faced with the decision of either going along with the views and actions of his morally challenged father or asserting his own morality and individuality by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind.
audience the idea that Heaney constantly tries to be like his father, even though he is
showing that this man has come of age as a true adult, possibly due to
William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" provides an excellent example of how conflicting loyalties can affect decisions. In Faulkner's story, the main character, Sarty, faces such a dilemma. On one hand, Sarty has the morals that society has instilled in him in spite of his father. One the other hand, Sarty has the loyalty to his father because of the blood ties shared between them and the fact that his father raised and provided for him. Ultimately, it is these conflicting ideas that will lead to Sarty's final decision.
Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see that the