In the story, “Barn Burning”, a character called Abner Snopes moves from town to town with his family as sharecroppers. However, eventually every sharecropping that they are with ends with Abner burning the barn of the owner and the family moves to another town per the wishes of the town. Throughout the story, Abner’s son, Sartoris Snopes (nicknamed Sarty), begins to realize his moral compass. At the end of the story, he finally warns the owners before Abner burns the barn down, resulting in Abner’s death. One common theme that the story shows is confusion, as represented through the two main characters, Abner and Sarty. First off, confusion is portrayed through Abner. The first thing to know is Abner’s story line. In accordance to Sarty …show more content…
in the last page of Barn Burning, Abner served in the army. After the war ended, he had no real reserved place for him in society as a respectable man who fought in the war. Instead he was sent to the lowest, but profitable, position in society at the time, sharecropping. There is evidence of their sharecropping when Abner was told about signing a contract, “I'll add it in your contract and when you come to the commissary you can sign it.” There is no relevant reason that a harvest penalty would be added to a contract already between two white people of this time. This as well as his inferred position of burning down multiple owners’ barns, this inference being on the basis of him needing oil and being around de Spain’s barn at the end of the story as well as being accused in court of burning down someone else’s barn. Not only this, but as Abner said to Sarty, "You were fixing to tell them. You would have told him." This tells us that there was something Abner wanted to hide about this court case. Now that the facts are straight, we can make a constructive statement about Abner’s mental state. At this time, fighting in the army either meant that you were dead or that you were esteemed. We can infer this position in time due to their accents, treating of blacks, and means of travel (saying hit instead of it, ignoring many black’s opinions, and the main mode of travel being via horses). The fact that Abner fought in the war but was put in such a low position such as sharecropping and not a high one such as the one the de Spain is in currently can be grounds for a feeling of unfairness. As Marcia Reynolds (Doctor of Psychology) has put it, “When we feel something is unfair, we respond as if it were a threat and go into "flight or fight" mode.” (Reynolds, 2011) Unfairness in Abner’s case is the confusion on why he is not in a better position. As such, Abner responds to his confusion fueled feeling of unfairness by fighting and then flying. In a standard instance, Abner is not normally driven to burn down the barn of any random owner he forms a sharecropping with. There has to be a final event to activate his memory and remind him of his true position. In the first sharecropping, it was the penalty of charging him to return the hog to his farm: “I told him he could have the hog when he paid me a dollar pound fee.” The second time, he attempted to burn down Major de Spain’s house after it was settled my Justice that Abner had to pay a fee for that as well: “I hold you in damages to Major de Spain to the amount of ten bushels of corn”. After this, he made his final attempt to burn a barn, but was stopped by de Spain per Sarty’s warning. However, like father like son.
In the story, it could even be argued that Sarty was the one who suffered the most in the way of confusion. His confusion, however, was different than that of Abner’s. Sarty was a child. We infer this through the way the prosecutor at the beginning of the story described him, "Not him. The little one. The boy,". We can already infer that he cannot make highly accurate choices on his own, as according to University of Rochester Medical Center, “Good judgment isn't something he or she can excel in, at least not yet. The rational part of a teen's brain isn't fully developed and won't be until he or she is 25 years old or so.” (University of Rochester) With this, Abner, being Sarty’s parent, plays one of the most important roles in Sarty’s life as of then as Rochester also tells parents that, “You're the most important role model your kids have.” (University of Rochester) Based on this evidence, Sarty should be fully obedient to his father, but why isn’t …show more content…
he? We must not forget that Sarty is also in his most observant stages of life. He is also present in the court cases and the pain that the other people feel due to Abner’s actions. With this, he is already set up to, and has made the assumption that what his father is doing is wrong. His father, however, cannot be both right and wrong at the same time. This creates a contradiction. According to Matt Slick of the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, “A contradiction occurs when two (or more) different statements on a topic cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense.” (Slick) Naturally, as Sarty believes both sides of a contradiction to be true, it will cause confusion. Sarty believes that his father would never do anything wrong, such as the role model of a father to Sarty as explained earlier.
However, “Ten-year-old Sarty cannot understand the true reasons for his father's actions” (Arkansas Tech University) because he declines the fact that his father’s actions are wrong until just like Abner, something causes a tip in the balance. This tip has to be powerful, something just as influential as Abner since Sarty declined time and time again that they would pay the fees sent to Abner, one of which being when Sarty said, “He won't git no twenty bushels! He won't git none!” This influence is none other than his mother. Sarty’s mother was quiet at the beginning of the story, but as it went on, she began to speak up against Abner more often, Sarty being within hearing distance. She constantly said things like, “Abner! No! No!” This was the final tipping point for Sarty as the influences of the townsfolk, justices, and other parent left him with the assumption that what Abner is doing is wrong, no matter the fact that he is his father. Finally, Sarty told Abner to de Spain, killing Abner, Sarty running off into the distant forest, ending both of their circulation of confusion with each other along with the story, once and for
all.
behaviors of the wicked people and their outcomes. In the book, "The Kitchen House" written by
The characters in this story are some very interesting people. They each lead their own way of life, and have their own interests at heart. Some of the main characters in this novel are: Sarny, Lucy, Miss Laura, Bartlett, Stanley, and Sarny's two children Little Delie, and Tyler. Sarny is the central character in this book. She is clever and knows exactly what to even in the worst of times. She is very emotional though, and can break down and cry when the slightest of things happens. This is perhaps from what she has experienced as a slave earlier on in her life. Sarny is fond of teaching people, as a friend named Nightjohn once taught her. Lucy is Sarny's close friend. She is also quite wise, but is a bit too optimistic at times. She never stops smiling and is very friendly. However, she does help Sarny find her lost children. Miss Laura is a middle-aged woman who lives a very luxurious life. She gives Sarny and Lucy a place to live and offers them employment. She also finds Sarny's children for her. Bartlett works for Miss Laura as well. He is a quiet and patient man who is helpful and quite kind. He was however castrated as a young slave boy, and cannot have children. Stanley is Sarny's second husband, for her first died from being worked to death on the plantation. Stanley is a gentle, big, fun-loving man, but is not intimidated by anything. This leads him to his death when he gets mad at a white man, and is confronted by the Ku Klux Klan. Little Delie and Tyler are Sarny's lost children. After she recovers them, and they grow up, Little Delie starts to like business, while Tyler wants to become a doctor.
In the beginning of the story, Sarty originally stands by his father and backs him up when he is put under pressure or when accused of committing whatever it could be. However, throughout the novel, Sarty begins to see his father’s true colors and the horrible man he actually is. When Sarty sees De Spain’s mansion, it gives him hope that having his father work in a place that stands for “peace and dignity” would terminate his father’s bad behavior for good. However, the moment when Abner said “get out of my way (N-word)”, he knew that there was no going back to the way things used to be (pg 10 and 11). This was his realization that his father was a villain. Sarty dreamed of having the life that De Spain did. A nice house, people who worked for him, wealth, and success. Realizing that if he stayed with his nomadic family who spent their time living in a wagon and covering for their father’s actions, he would be stuck forever unsuccessful and poor. What astonishes this choice is that even at ten years of age, Sarty is mature enough to realize that his father is a bad person and that he can have a better life where he can live his life the way he wants to and make his own decisions. Maybe Sarty thought that he could have a better life, away from the negative influence that Abner displayed. When he heard the gunshots, he knew that his father was dead and it gave him a legitimate reason to leave his family and start fresh, just like Huck Finn. Sarty does not look back because maybe there’s a side of him that is embarrassed to be Abner’s son and a desire to be free from being Abner’s son, although he praises him as “brave” and a man of “Colonel Satoris’ cavalry” (pg
Abner, his father. We see Sarty as a puzzled youth who faces the questions of
The main character, Abner Snopes, sharecrops to make a living for his family. He despises wealthy people. Out of resentment for wealthy people, he burns their barns to get revenge. Abner’s character over the course of the story is unchanging in that he is cold hearted, lawless, and violent.
Abner goes before a Justice to show that he is being wronged. While the Justice still finds him guilty he does lessen the fine. However, that is not enough for Abner. This prompts Abner into taking matters, once again into his own hands. His father calls for him to go to their barn and retrieve a can of oil. Sarty starts for the barn. Then he realizes that he was doing what he was told out of obligation. “Then he was moving, running, outside the house, toward the stable: this the old habit, the old blood which he had not been permitted to choose for himself.” (Faulkner 181) Although he is tormented by his choice he returns with the can. When Sarty realizes that Abner isn’t going to send warning, he feels Abner is breaking his own moral code. He then knows that he has to do the right thing, and warn de Spain. Abner knows that he wants to tell, so he wants him detained. Finally, able to break free he sets off to warn de Spain. After his warning, Sarty hears three shots fired. In a moment of guilt, he calls out to his father. “” Pap! Pap!”, running again before he knew he had begun to run, looking backward over his shoulder at the glare as he got up, running on among the invisible trees, panting, sobbing, “Father! Father!”” (Faulkner 183) The change from an endearment to something more formal, shows Sarty putting emotional distances between himself and his father.
It was as though the explanation that his father gave him, was the step he needed to realize that he was no longer a timid, meek child. After all, Sarty realizes that although his father has struck him before, he has never told him the reasons as to why, until that night. Perhaps, his father feels that he is old enough to understand the
His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy (Golding, 290).
Barn Burning 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. Faulkner opens the story, “Barn Burning” in a southern courthouse room of the during the Civil War reconstruction era, also a time of social, cultural, and economic instability.
Sarty spent his entire life hiding behind the unspoken rule that blood is thicker than water. But, in the face of having to decide whether he should continue to overlook Abner’s amoral behavior, he chooses not to. Even though he tries to understand Abner’s reasoning, in his heart he cannot condone it. In a situation where Sarty-the child would be frightened to stand up against his father, Sarty-the man is not. It is unfortunate that he had to lose a father in order to regain his sense of morality, but in light of the situation he was in, it can be agreed, that he is better off.
...s and values over his loyalty to his father. What is surprising, is that he immediately seems to regret it, as is shown when he cries praises to his father in remorse. Is this just because he was Sarty's father, or did Sarty actually feel some justified love toward his father? In the story, Sarty's father showed absolutely no hint of affection or any such emotion towards his son, or anyone for that matter. This would make it seem that perhaps Sarty had some sort of misplaced unconditional love for his father. This emotion must have added tremendously to his internal struggle. All and all, it was the conflict between the morals of society and Sarty's loyalty to his father that led to his final decision.
Sarty has moved twelve times in his ten years of age and although the story does not state clearly, that this is not the first time his father has set fire to a barn, but shows that the chances are, that he probably has done this in the past which has affected Sarty in how he feels about his father. Sarty’s other family members include the mother, aunt, an older brother, and two twin sisters who are minor contributing factors in this story. The family knows the father is responsible for the burning of the barns and they even unwillingly help him at his requests. This story describes the family somewhat concerned for the father, but they never challenge his decision to burn the barns even though it is wrong.
Already in the first chapter, the reader begins to gain a sense of the horrors that have taken place. Like the ghost, the address of the house is a stubborn reminder of its history. The characters refer to the house by its number, 124. These digits highlight the absence of Sethe’s murdered third child. As an institution, slavery shattered its victims’ traditional family structures, or else precluded such structures from ever forming. Slaves were thus deprived of the foundations of any identity apart from their role as servants. Baby Suggs is a woman who never had the chance to be a real mother, daughter, or sister. Later, we learn that neither Sethe nor Paul D knew their parents, and the relatively long, six-year marriage of Halle and Sethe is an anomaly in an institution that would regularly redistribute men and women to different farms as their owners deemed necessary.
The son, Colonel Sartoris, known as Sarty, had to deal with constant rejection from his father, Abner. The story starts with Sarty feeling the anxiety of whether he should tell the judge the truth or lie for his farther. He is in an emotional dilemma on what to do. Sarty knew if he told the truth, that his father might have to go to jail. As Sarty was called by the judge to come forward, he said to himself, "He aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair. And I will have to do it." In despair, "Enemy! Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see the judges face was Murphy 2 friendly nor discern that his voice was troubled" (398)
The Smales were a suburban, upper middle class, white family living in Southern Africa until political turmoil and war forced them to flee from their home and lives. Rebel black armies in Soweto and other areas of Southern Africa revolted against the government and the minority white race, attacking radio and television stations and burning the homes of whites. The Smales needed to get out quickly. Their servant July, whom they had always treated well and had a very uncommon relationship with, offered to guide the family to his village. The Smales, having no other options, accepted July’s offer and ran in haste and confusion to the dearth village. They knew little of the drastic adjustments they would have to make in order to survive in July’s rustic village. These adjustments would soon threaten their relationships with one another and their family’s structure.