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In “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner, Sartoris Snopes is faced with the issue of doing what he thinks is right for society, or allowing his father to continue doing what he knows is wrong. Most people are infused with a sense of familial moral obligation, and with characterization, the effects of sharecropping, and symbolism, Faulkner shows how the right choice is not always the easy choice when it comes to choosing between your family and society. Faulkner’s use of indirect characterization shows how the characters feel through their thoughts and actions. Abner is a violent and influential figure that dislikes upper class society. Although he cannot fully develop an intelligent thought about it, he knows he is part of an unfair sharecropping …show more content…
He knows he cannot get out of it, and it frustrates him. Because of his frustration with the upper class, he crosses boundaries and takes his anger out on everyone around him. His violent tendencies give him control over his family. He hits Sarty because he almost told about the barn, and, in a tone “still without heat or anger” (482), explains that family is the only thing that will stick with you. Faulkner writes, “[d]on’t you know all they wanted was a chance to get at me because they knew I had them beat?” (482). He thinks he is beating the people that “own [him] body and soul” (483) by damaging their property. This immature and vengeful mindset causes Sarty to struggle with an internal conflict of choosing his family or doing what is right for society. He associates violence with adulthood, because he, like Ab, is uneducated and cannot explain his feelings and reactions. He does have a sense of moral …show more content…
Ab’s anger comes from a frustration with the upper class and their unfair sharecropping system, leaving his family subject to his emotions. According to literary critic Irving Howe: “[a]fter its defeat in the Civil War, the South could not participate fully and freely in the ‘normal’ development of American society—that is, industrialism and large-scale capitalism arrived there later’ (566). Because of this setback, poor families in the South engaged in tenant farming, and were under the control of wealthy families. Ab is not fully aware that he is a victim of “economic oppression” (DeMott 2), although he has somewhat of an understanding about the relationship between money, labor, and the upper class. He knows he is stuck in a corrupted system. Literary critic Benjamin DeMott writes, “[w]e know that his hatred of the planters with whom he enters into sharecropping agreements repeatedly issues in acts of wanton destruction” (1). He is somewhat aware that the upper class is wealthy from other people’s labor, even though he is unable to form a fully developed thought about it: “[he has] an undeveloped mind—aware of the weight of an immense unfairness… and yet unable to move forward from either awareness to anything approaching rational protest” (2). While he is aware of the social injustice, he makes no attempt at changing it or acting rationally about it; instead, he is vengeful.
Throughout Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” the reader acknowledges that the protagonist Sarty exhibits an intuitive sense of
Sarty's main dilemma is his loyalty to his family, which collides with his disappointment and suppressed dislike for his own father. He tends to hide his feelings by denying the facts, "our enemy he thought in that despair: ourn! mine and his both! He's my father!" (Faulkner 171). Sarty appears to be fearful of his father: "If I would have said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again. But now he said nothing. He was not crying. He jut stood there." (Faulkner 173)
William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" is an intriguing story about a young boy named Colonel Sartoris's (Sarty) love and hatred for his father, Abner Snopes. Ab is a brutal and frightening man who instills fear into whom ever he seems to be close to. What is the cause of Abner Snopes's cruel-heartedness? Maybe it's his alienation from the higher class in society that causes him to act in this manner. When such a separation occurs in a community one can feel that he doesn't belong and because he does not belong that the only way the higher class will give him the time of day is if the person acts out and tries to prove that he doesn't need law and conventional society, much like Ab Snopes. Another possibility is that Sarty's father has not developed the intelligence to conform to societal formality. He might feel that law is unnecessary for a husband and father who can, for the most part, get by and protect his family on his own. The cold hearted side of Ab Snopes is what causes the internal conflict in Sarty. Sarty loves his father because of the simple fact that Ab is his father. No matter how evil a father is a part deep down inside, no matter how small, will always hold the door open in case that person ever decides to change. That of course is the only thing that even remotely resembles Sarty's true love for his father, because Abner Snopes does nothing but abuse anyone who ever loved him throughout the entire story. We know that he is harsh to his wife, his sons, his daughters, and even his stock, and in the end this is why Sarty betrays his father. He simply would not take it any longer.
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.
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
The narrator’s father is being freed from slavery after the civil war, leads a quiet life. On his deathbed, the narrator’s grandfather is bitter and feels as a traitor to the blacks’ common goal. He advises the narrator’s father to undermine the white people and “agree’em to death and destruction (Ellison 21)” The old man deemed meekness to be treachery. The narrator’s father brings into the book element of emotional and moral ambiguity. Despite the old man’s warnings, the narrator believes that genuine obedience can win him respect and praise.
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.
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.
Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.
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,
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.
In William Faulkner 's “Barn Burning”, Sarty fights his own internal conflict of whether to side with his family, therefore lying about his father’s history of arson, or to abandon his family due to his moral issues with their actions. Sarty defends his father’s honor as a way of siding with his family. He brawls with the boys outside the “courthouse” all because they disparage his father by calling him a “barn burner” (p. 208). Sarty regrets telling the truth to the judge. Sarty becomes well aware of his decisions and realizes how they can impact his family. When Sarty’s father is beating him, he says “stick to your own blood” (p. 210) and Sarty agrees. Sarty truly valued his family and wishes he stayed behind. After running away from his family, Sarty regrets his decisions and thinks about his father, saying “he was brave” (p. 222).
...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..