Loyalty In Barn Burning

William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” is based around the late 1890s, where the family unit is one of the most important aspects of the household. The father of the household is the “breadwinner” and essentially runs the home. All decisions are made by him and no one is to question his authority. “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you” (184). Previous to making this statement, Sarty was about to betray his family and tell that indeed it was his father who set Mr. Harris barn on fire. This story setting is back in the late 1890s, so being a man is taking care and ensuring the well-being of the family. Webster defines loyalty as the “unswerving of allegiance” (“loyalty”). Sarty is disloyal to his family because he’s not looking out for their best interest. By telling the truth about what his father did would put a gigantic burden on the family. Sarty disloyalty to his family cause him to lose his father and ultimately be alone the rest of his life.

“The two sisters stooped, broad, lethargic, stooping, they presented an incredible expanse of pale cloth and a flutter of tawdry ribbons (187)”.

Although the girls didn’t want to clean the rug, they removed the father’s footprints from the rug and never disobeyed his command. The eldest son was a follower of Abner, in addition to the wife and aunt. The eldest son helped his father with the burnings of the barns and never questioned him. The aunt and Abner’s wife also did what was told of them and never spoke directly against his word. Faulkner provided these examples to show the importance of the Abner’s voice and authority in the family. Sarty couldn’t relate to loyalty. He often times pondered his father’s decisions in his head and questioned going against his

family.
The little boy in this story betrayed his family and caused even more turmoil amongst them. Sarty struggles with remaining loyal to his family and making the right conscience decision the entire story. By telling the truth of what really happened to those barns could put his family, particularly his father, in deep suffering and trouble. Sarty must learn that being loyal is more important than being honest when related to family situations. His father has told him that he must look after the family and do whatever is necessary to keep the family unit together. The first sign of Sarty’s disloyal is merely the thought of going against his family. Sarty knows that not following along with the family plans could cause harm to his family. So thinking of ever going against the word of his family is disloyalty. The second sign of Sarty’s disloyalty is when his father appeared before the justice on accusations of burning Mr. Harris barn. He knew what his father expected of him and that was for him to lie. He fought hard on what needed to be done and what was the best decision. The third instance of disloyalty was when he told Major de Spain of the plan to burn the barn. By telling Major de Spain of the arrange barn burning caused him to lose his father.
These examples demonstrates Sarty’s struggle to remain loyal to his family. Major de Spain killed his father because of his attempt to burn down his barn. If Sarty would have stayed loyal to his family, his father would still be alive. Sarty learned the hard way to remain loyal to his family.