In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” Faulkner writes about a boy in crisis between his father and the community to signify the sacrifices that one must make to find their own identity. Sarty, a young and unexperienced boy, finds himself challenged to protect his father or to stay true to himself. The journey of Sarty’s self-discovery is revealed through analyzing his character traits, understanding how the setting influences Sarty and his relationship with his father, and the struggle of finding freedom. Sarty, immature and small for his age, is torn between conflicting loyalties to his father, or his sense of justice and righteousness. “He realizes he must accuse his father or lie on his behalf” (Billingslea). In the beginning, Sarty wants …show more content…
to take his father’s side and is asked to testify in his favor. Sarty struggles with how he will respond knowing his father has committed the crime. His harsh father Abner constantly reminds him of how important it is to stick to his blood and stay loyal to his family. “He aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief despair. And I will have to do it” (Faulkner). Luckily, he is spared and his father is let go due to the lack of evidence. Sarty is able to continue his loyalty by thinking that moving to a new place will allow his dad to make a fresh start. Unfortunately, Sarty soon realizes his location has changed, but his father has not. His father is a lost soul unable to be stopped. After Abner has the urge to burn down another barn, Sarty begins to realize that it is more important to go pursue the way his heart desires. “Sarty now understands that the blood-bond entails his acquiescence in his father’s violence and his own submission to an authority whose demonic character he begins to recognize” (Bertonneau). Faulkner does not explain the shooting of Abner, for it happens offstage, but when it occurs, Sarty does not turn back. He matures, and grasps the fact that no matter whom he is in conflict with, he must do what is appropriate. He continues on his path to freedom. Faulkner opens up the story with a boy in a small courtroom, with the smell of hermetic meat and cheese filling the air. He illustrates the beginning in which Abner is in trial, but does not justify any reason for why he is there. Faulkner does this to make the reader want to continue reading. His diction is very important; he is repetitive with dark and angry words to set the mood. These words are also symbols throughout the story, and set up a fire setting. Abner is constantly in misery, “in which he immerses his family and all of those whom he comes into contact” (Bertonneau). He is jealous of any one in a higher social class, and instantly gets the urge to become a rival with them. The men that he surrounds himself with have high-end materialistic things, which happens to be the opposite of himself. He struggles with the idea of being ‘below’ them, and feels as if he needs to vandalize their belongings to end on a higher scale. This is why Major de Spain’s house and expensive rug are so crucial in this story. “If I thought enough of a rug to have to git hit all the way from France I wouldn’t keep it where folks coming in would have to tromp on it” (Faulkner). There is a vast difference between the activities that occur during the story’s day and nighttime life. In the daytime scenes Sarty is working, and attends court with his father. As long as he is able to do these two things, he stays in his father’s good graces. When night falls, Sarty is expected to be his father’s accomplice and endure his father’s wrath. Sarty mourns his father at midnight on the hill and then falls asleep. Once again, when daylight comes the next morning, the day’s events bring peace and hope. “At midnight he was sitting on the crest of a hill. He did not know it was midnight and he did not know how far he had come” (Faulkner.) Faulkner uses “Barn Burning” to deliver several themes throughout the story.
He uses a ten-year-old boy to respond to the intuitions of right and wrong. Sarty achieves freedom, by having the courage to follow his heart, even though he was against his family. The theme begins to evolve in one first courthouse trial. Sarty is faced with words that paint his father as a person of interest in many unlawful incidents. Sarty defends his father and feels his father’s pressure to remain loyal regardless of his actions. Sarty’s father strikes him to convince him he is right and the men who brought him to trial are out for revenge. Sarty tries to remain loyalty as his thoughts begin to lead him to doubt. At the de Spain mansion, Sarty has hope that his father will work and be able to maintain a different life for himself and his family. “Maybe he’s done now, now that he has…” (Faulkner). Once Sarty realizes the impact of his father’s choices, he loses hope, realizes his father is unable to change, and fears the burning of Major de Spain’s barn. Sarty feels he cannot look away and stand by for what his father is about to do. “’De Spain!’ He cried, panted. ‘Where’s…Barn!’ he cried. ‘Barn!’” (Faulkner). He decided to make the decision to stand on his own and challenge the loyalty to his father for the truth that lies within himself. Sarty has grown and is able to leave his fear and despair in order to gain freedom, and a different kind of life than he has ever
known. Faulkner uses Sarty and his emotional changes to construct a story about an immature boy with immense decisions that must be made under pressure. The places where the events take place have an enormous roll inside the story, for they contribute to the character’s personalities, construct a venue for the conflicts to occur, and leave a remarkable point for the reader’s to admire.
The Significance of Family Meals in Faulkner’s Barn Burning, Shall Not Perish, and Two Soldiers
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
This story follows the typical format and is narrated in the third person. In the exposition, Faulkner’s skill as a writer is demonstrated through the way that he uses detail to draw the readers into the story. Also, in the first paragraph we are introduced to the main character and protagonist in the story, Sarty. The setting in which Sarty’s conflict is established is a trial. In the trial, the justice asks Sarty, “ I reckon any boy named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth, can they” (qtd. in...
Sarah and her mother are sought out by the French Police after an order goes out to arrest all French Jews. When Sarah’s little brother starts to feel the pressures of social injustice, he turns to his sister for guidance. Michel did not want to go with the French Police, so he asks Sarah to help him hide in their secret cupboard. Sarah does this because she loves Michel and does not want him to be discriminated against. Sarah, her mother, and her father get arrested for being Jewish and are taken to a concentration camp just outside their hometown. Sarah thinks Michel, her beloved brother, will be safe. She says, “Yes, he’d be safe there. She was sure of it. The girl murmured his name and laid her palm flat on the wooden panel. I’ll come back for you later. I promise” (Rosnay 9). During this time of inequality, where the French were removing Sarah and her mother just because they were Jewish, Sarah’s brother asked her for help. Sarah promised her brother she would be back for him and helped him escape his impending arrest. Sarah’s brother believed her because he looks up to her and loves her. As the story continues, when Sarah falls ill and is in pain, she also turns to her father for comfort, “at one point she had been sick, bringing up bile, moaning in pain. She had felt her father’s hand upon her, comforting her” (Rosnay 55).
Throughout the middle of the short story, Sarty is involved in a couple dramatic events that lead to his ultimate decision. Following the trial, Sarty's wicked fa...
of a conscience in the story are the ways that Sarty compliments and admires his
Sheetz 1 Sarah Sheetz Ms. Rosenberger English 4 October 17, 2016 Faulkner’s Self Help Book In “Barn Burning,” Faulkner illustrates a boy’s coming to age story, including his struggle in choosing whether to stand by in the midst of his father’s destructive cycle of spiteful burning or stand up for his own belief in civic duty. While most readers do not relate to having a father that habitually burns others’ belongings in a strange power scheme, readers relate to the struggle between blood ties and their own values. Taking the theme even broader, readers relate to any struggle with making a decision. Through imagery, reoccurring motifs, and diction, Faulkner creates an intense pressure which enhances readers understanding of Sarty, his struggle,
William Faulkner has written some of the most unique novels and short stories of any author, and, to this day, his stories continue to be enjoyed by many. Both “Barn Burning” and “A Rose for Emily” tell about the life of southern people and their struggles with society, but Faulkner used the dramatic settings of these two stories to create a mood unlike any other and make the audience feel like they too were a part of these southern towns. These two stories have many similarities in there setting, but they also have many differences to that make them unique and interesting.
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.
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
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.
If we compare William Faulkner's two short stories, 'A Rose for Emily' and 'Barn Burning', he structures the plots of these two stories differently. However, both of the stories note the effect of a father¡¦s teaching, and in both the protagonists Miss Emily and Sarty make their own decisions about their lives. The stories present major idea through symbolism that includes strong metaphorical meaning. Both stories affect my thinking of life.
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.
The story of "Barn Burning" was "first published in the June of 1939 in the Harper's Magazine and later awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award for the best short story of the year." The author, William Faulkner, "was one of America's most innovative novelists". The way he describes the smells, sites and sounds of the rural late 1800's make you feel as if you are there with the characters in this story. Through the use of symbolism, Faulkner tells the story about a relationship of a father and son. Fire was the most vital symbol used and describes the way, Abner, the main character in the story faces all of his challenges. He lived his life like a flaming inferno destroying everything he touches. In this story of a boy's struggle with his love for his father and doing what is morally right, the Family loyalty comes to flames in "Barn Burning".