William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" contains a character, Sarty, whose individual maturity ultimately initiates a more positive lifestyle than what is provided by his family. Sarty faces much drama throughout the entire short story which builds his personal maturity and allows him to truly evaluate the negative and positive aspects of his life. The dramatic conflict is between Sarty and his father, Abner Snopes, an older man who can be characterized as a 19th century terrorist who has a keen predilection for burning barns.
Beginning the short story one realizes Sarty can be characterized as a young shy boy who seems to be intimidated by his father. Immediately following Abner's first barn burning of the story, Sarty is convinced that his father's malignant actions are profoundly immoral, but he is also conscious that opposing Abner's actions would be a sense of betrayal. Sarty's belief in these two perspectives leads to his internal conflict throughout the entire short story; one choice commits acts of betrayal while the other leads to the participation in evil. Sarty's intimidation of his father combined with his internal conflict is demonstrated at the beginning of the story when he thought to himself "Enemy! Enemy!"(483) as the justice was contemplating interrogating Sarty. This thought leads the reader to believe that Abner Snopes has molded Sarty to act as a faithful family member, and not to declare any of Abner's negative actions. Sarty must keep himself from exclaiming the true actions of his father, because he knows the degree of their immorality.
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...
... middle of paper ...
...ght shows all the maturity he gained throughout the story. He completely realizes the horrors of his family, and has the personal ability through the maturity he gained to make the decision to leave the family. This maturity allows Sarty to "not look back" (494) and neglect all feelings of his family and their evil.
Sarty is confronted with challenges and extreme internal conflict throughout this entire short story. Dramatic events within the family eventually allow Sarty to make the best decision of his life, choosing good over evil. "Barn Burning" proves as an initiation story for Sarty, because of the new maturity he gains through the evil experiences he has with his family.
Works Citied
Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.
Michael Meyer. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. 483-494.
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.
In “Barn Burning,” Abner is described as stiff, wolf-like, and without heat because of his coldness and bitterness toward society in which he was part of during the time of the War Between the States. The main character is Abner Snopes who sharecrops to make a living for his family; in his story, Faulkner describes a typical relationship between wealthy people and poor people during that particular time.
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
The antagonist in the story is Abner Snobes. Abner Snobes is a very angry and inconsiderate man who has hate and detestation for almost anybody who is not “blood-kin”, and he portrays that hatred and contempt throughout the story (qtd. In Volpe 163).
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,
The struggle for Sarty is strong because of the great emphasis his father, Abner places on loyalty to one’s blood no matter the cost. Sarty might have been able to make his own choices of right and wrong, had it not been for the impact of his father’s words. His struggle becomes apparent because he doesn’t want to lie in court, but also feels strong loyalty to his father. He reminds himself that his father’s enemies are his own. “The smell and sense just a little fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood. He could not see the table where the Justice sat and before which his father and his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair: ourn! Mine and hisn both! He’s my father!) stood. (Faulkner 172) This demonstrates to the reader that Sarty wants
I believe that Faulkner displayed this belief throughout this story. He shows that Sarty is a “soul” that is compassionate when he mourns his father in the last few paragraphs of the story. He exemplifies sacrifice when Sarty must sacrifice the safety and lives of his family members for his own morals. Finally, Faulkner conveys endurance when the child comes to the realization that he may not return to the surviving members of his family, and that he must continue to live on his own.
The description of the father’s character and plot shows his evilness. Abner is described as having an “inscrutable face and gray eyes” which, Faulkner writes, “glinted coldly” (342). Describing the father’s voice, as “cold and harsh” and the fact Abner often wears a stiff black coat paints a picture of evil in the reader’s mind (340). Making the connection with the color black to represent evil, Faulkner often uses black when describing the father. For example, when Sarty states that he “could see his father against the stars, but without a face or depth, sharp, black, flat, and bloodless as though cut from tin in the iron folds of the frock coat, the voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin” (341). Thorough out the story, the father burns down barns of people that he assumes are his enemies. The father resents rich people, and he does not financially support his family adequately, placing the family in the low income class.
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’s dilemma arises from his father’s destructive envy of his wealthy employers. Abner Snopes frustration with being a poor sharecropper owned “body and soul”(280) by the South’s rich and elite leads him to exact his revenge on the undeserving blue bloods in the only way he knows how-by burning down their barns. While Sarty’s loyalty to Abner is proven after a court hearing held by “his father’s enemy . . . our enemy . . .ourn! mine and hisn both,”(277) after which he challenges and is beaten by a boy “half again his size”(278) because the boy called his father a “barn burner”(278) he is left to make a critical decision between saving his family or his own morality.
The. Barn Burning. Collected Stories of William Faulkner. New York: The New York Times.
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.”
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)