In “Barn Burning,” the theme of loyalty and betrayal contribute greatly to the main conflict of the short story. Abner expects his son to stand wholeheartedly by his actions, right or wrong. Abner assumes that a blood relation entitles him to a lifetime of support, disregarding what his young son may be experiencing. He attempts to train Sarty to build his morals around loyalty to his family, but in reality Abner only wants Sarty to remain loyal to him. Faulkner writes in “Barn Burning,” “you got to learn to stick by your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick by you,” (Faulkner 4). However, Sarty’s conscience is far too heavy to believe this statement. In Short Stories for Students the editor states, “...Sarty expresses his real loyalty to normative ethics, in which revenge is an aberration and aggressive violence is a sin,” (Akers and Moore 8). Sadly, Sarty is forced to make a choice between his father and morals, and morals win. …show more content…
In Short Stories for Students the editor states, “morality is expressed ethically in the form of law, which requires an objective sorting-out of truth,” (Akers and Moore 8).
For some reason, Abner is under the impression that he has the authority to define ethical behavior. He fails to look at situations objectively, but acts selfishly to satisfy his desires. Faulkner describes Abner as almost inhuman, as he never feels any guilt for his behavior. Not once does Abner consider the effect he has on Sarty, whose guilt weighs heavy. In “Barn Burning” Faulkner states, “he aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair,” (Faulkner 2). Sarty, almost in a state of depression, sacrifices his happiness for the satisfaction of his father. After a great deal of suffering, Sarty chooses his principles over his
father. Tragically for Sarty, the pressure his father forced on him alienated him from the rest of the world - and from his true self. Sarty genuinely wants to behave morally, but he lacks a good example in his life to prove that his instincts are correct. In Short Stories for Students, the editor states, “...this sense of alienation takes root, moreover, in Sarty’s relation with his father, who should be the moral model…” (Akers and Moore 7). As a young child, Sarty likely believed his father’s behavior to be appropriate. Nevertheless, his moral senses still formed. The fact that a ten year old, illiterate boy possesses the ability to determine right from wrong proves that Abner, unless he is mentally unwell, knows the immorality of his actions. Faulkner writes in “Barn Burning,” “...our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my father!” (Faulkner 1). Sarty acts against his will to avoid even more neglect and abuse from his father. This in itself is extremely ironic, as family loyalty is so important to Abner. Sarty realizes, unlike his father, that labeling everyone as an enemy always leads to loneliness.
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.
When described as stiff, we see Abner’s abruptness and coldness towards his family as well as others in his community. Abner’s authorative figure makes his coldness more threatening and his patriarchal figure puts more force into his coldness. Faulkner portrays him as wolf-like and without heat as well; this description shows us that Abner is not only cunning in his crime, but also emotionless when committing the crime. For example, when burning barns, he dispassionately watches the barns burn down.
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?
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.
Once outside the courtroom, Sarty is again loyal to his family, to his "blood ties." Another boy hisses "Barn burner!" as Sarty and his father are walking out of the courtroom, one thin, wiry body after another. Sarty immediately comes to his father's (and his own) defense and provokes a fight in which he literally sheds his own blood to protect the family name--a strong emphasis on blood loyalty. While Sarty does know that his father is a barn burner, he still defends his father's honor and hopes that "he's done satisfied now, now that he has..." (401-402) Sarty never finishes the thought, althoug...
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.
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.
In Barn Burning, Sartys father enjoys setting fires to burn down others properties. Sarty faces the problem of loyalty and honesty. On one hand, he wants to be loyal to his father; on the other hand, he does not endorse his fathers behavior. His father teaches him: Youre getting to be a man. You got to learn to do it.
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.
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.”
In “Barn Burning”, Sarty is depicted as being loyal to his father Abner, to the extent
In the short story “Barn Burning” by author William Faulkner, the story follows a very young boy by the name of Colonel Sartoris Snopes, or Sarty for short. Is the main character in this tale of a moral boy with a very cold and vindictive father who possesses very little morality. The story starts with Sarty being asked to testify against his father in a barn burning incident and right away Sarty’s inner thoughts about truth, justice, and loyalty to family are tested. Sarty’s father is found innocent but told to leave town as soon as possible. They move on to take up work at a farm doing sharecropper work. Once again Sarty’s father has done wrong and young Sarty is forced to choose between family and doing the right thing, his struggle for morality is tested and he is forced to make a dire decision that will go against what his father has taught him all his life.
During the scene in which Sarty sees de Spain’s mansion and compares it to a courthouse, the narrator describes a reason for the “surge of peace and joy” that Sarty could not have contrived “being too young for that: They are safe from him. People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond his touch”(206). The narrator knows the reason for Sarty suddenly being overcome with a sense of peace and happiness, even though Sarty is unable to articulate it. One night, when the family camps outside, Abner builds a “small fire, neat, niggard almost, a shrewd fire”, which was characteristic of all of the fires Abner built.(204) The narrator discusses the possibility of Sarty’s questioning of the small, calculated size of the fire, and eventually states, had he been “older still, he might have divined the true reason: that the element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father’s being”(204). Largely illuminating Abner’s character and the meaning of fire to him, the narrator contrasts Abner to his son, ultimately proving the possibility of differences between family members. In addition, by saying Sarty was far too young to understand certain details of his situation, Faulkner presents to the reader a naive and innocent side to Sarty, suggesting an easily influenced but also uncorrupted child. The quality of Sarty causing him to be easily swayed goes to show the strength of his inner sense of morality, as his father is an extremely influential man but is still ultimately unable to coax his ten-year old son to blindly follow him in his unjust acts. The narrator characterizes Sarty and Abner to show the disparity between the two and the feasibility of separating from one’s expected
Contrary to Emily’s father, Abner does so by being both physically and psychologically abusive to his son, Sarty. Abner believes that in order to establish his dominance and teach Sarty how to be a man, he must inflict physical pain on him by striking “him with the flat of his hand on the side of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules at the store, exactly as he would strike either of them with any stick in order to kill a horse fly” (Faulkner ###). This induces fear into Sarty’s mind towards his own father. However, Sarty’s whole family is trapped dealing with the consequences of Abner’s never-ending cycle of vengeance and hatred for those who are above him because they are forced to move every time he is found guilty of a crime. When Abner is put on trial for burning down their landlord’s barn, he tries to control Sarty once more by denying him the right to make his own decisions and demands that he lies in court. Even though Sarty ends up not having to testify against his father, he is still punished as Abner harshly scolds him for potentially telling the truth in the courtroom. Sarty is essentially stuck between doing what he believes is right and obeying his father’s
...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..