In the short story, Barn Burning by William Faulkner, a young boy is burdened with the daunting task of choosing his family or to be honorable. The consequences the boy faces as a result of his pivotal and difficult choice will be part of the rest of his life, whether it be in a positive or negative manner.
To begin with, the boy is part of an impoverished family. There is nothing that he can do about that, since he was born into it and has no say in how the family lives due to his very stern father. He has no other choice than to continue under the misguidance of his unruly and tyrannical father. As the story plays on, readers can gain a better understanding of just exactly how poor the Snopes family was. For example, Faulkner writes
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In his warning to DeSpain, it could be said that the boy drafted his very own Declaration of Independence from his abusive, manipulative and public enemy father. For the latter part of his life, Abner has been on the contra side of society. He used to steal and sell horses during the Civil War, was also a mercenary, and is now fighting a personal crusade on societal class. Although Abner’s viewpoints do have some logic to them, his biggest fallacy is how he uses them to cause a ruckus. He burns wealthy people’s barns, but just because they are well off financially, does not mean that his actions are justified. After all, there are animals and other belongings lost in the barns, and if he is willing to burn their barns, then no one knows what other crimes he is willing to commit in order to make a point. By the same token, we can assume that Abner’s actions severely impact Colonel's life in a very negative way. We see this when someone at the courthouse begins murmuring “barn burner” at him and his father when they are exiting the building. This interaction can help readers realize that when Abner goes down, the whole family goes down with him, so people view the rest of the family just how they see Abner. Like the saying goes “guilty by
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.
In “Barn Burning”, Sarty is emotionally torn by two personalities, one being loyal to his Father, and the other is being loyal to society because in his mind, he knows he’s doing the right thing. But in the beginning of the story, Sarty’s personality starts to pull when the Justice of the Peace is questioning him. Sarty has the need to tell the truth yet with his Father’s dominating presence there, he cannot do it. “He aims for me to lie, he thought again with that frantic grief and despair,” (p.398). In one sentence, there is an instant clear meaning that Sarty is distraught in making decisions having to involve his Father. In this moment though, he also feels his Father’s emotions penetrating right into his body through his Father, “did not even look at him” (p.398). Sarty’s sense of loyalty sides strongly with family due to the fact of how he was raised. The time period in which the stor...
the South, the time period following the Civil War, the only thing that kept the
In William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning” a young boy named Sarty is raised by an impoverished white family of sharecroppers, their circumstances leave little room for them to improve their conditions of living. Their family has to work on rich landowner’s farms and get paid a little share of the land owner’s crops. Given their situation Sarty’s father Abner when feeling wronged takes matters into his own hands, and often this is done by burning down the landowner’s barns. Sarty is constantly being placed into a situation where he has to choose between his beliefs in right and wrong, or his fathers. This causes the main psychological conflict in the story. Sarty starts to realize his father’s depravity and struggles between his loyalty to
...t to enter, he tells him to "get out of my way"(Faulkner 166) as he steps into the house and tracks his horse manure all over their very expensive rug. Then when the lady of the house tells him to leave he quickly obeys her after swiveling around on his heel to grind the fecal matter in even further. As he is leaving he once again makes a derogatory remark to the butler. This is probably when Abner's motivation becomes the most clear. He only feels superior to blacks in which case meant everyone else around him was somehow superior and therefore he felt as though every action they took was a threat to him and damaged his pride in himself which forced him to retaliate the only way he knew how, burning barns.
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 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 to him to protect his freedom, so Abner won’t get caught burning barns. Abner forces fear into Sarty to make sure he will lie to him rather than tell the truth.
To Kill A Mockingbird Generations of family, living in the same community can leave an identity for themselves, making them live with it for generations to generations. The Finches, The Ewells and Dill's family are three families who are all criticized and sometimes applauded for their way of living. The Ewells are “ the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations.
In ¡§Barn Burning¡¨, Sarty¡¦s father enjoys setting fires to burn down others¡¦ properties. Sarty faces the problem between loyalty and honesty. On one hand, he wants to be loyal to his father; on the other hand, he does not endorse his father¡¦s behavior. His father teaches him: ¡§You¡¦re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain¡¦t going to have any blood to stick to you¡¨ (¡§Barn Burning¡¨, 8). His father wa...
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.
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.
Another topic that in interesting to discuss is why this white boy was forced to live in such poor conditions. Dalton Conley stated in the book that despite his mother and fathers economic standings, his family was able to maintain a livable lifestyle where many neighbors and friends at that time could not of enjoyed. His family could have moved to a more up scale, refined community, but simply couldn't afford it.
As a school teacher and with limited income from teaching and a family to take care, the narrator is still stuck with housing project in Harlem, he cannot make a bail or hire the best lawyer to defend his brother. The distress from losing his baby daughter; the feeling of guilt, desperation and failure to care and protect his younger brother from the deadly touch of drugs weight down the narrator’s life. Damaged while getting out of Harlem’s trap, and like his descended father, the narrator sees the darkness in every corner of
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?
In the story “Barns Burning” Abner Snopes, the father is accused of burning a neighbor’s barn. Sarty is faced with a decision that will shape the rest of his life. Sarty is called to the stand, but because the plaintiff is ultimately unwilling to force him to testify against his own father, the case is closed, and the father is advised to leave that part of the country. As the family Sarty,
...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..