(402) Sarty knows that his father's habit of burning barns is wrong, but his loyalty to honor and justice almost get the best of him. Sarty nearly confesses the truth when he called to testify, but the Justice of the Peace dismisses him before he can speak. 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 will never know if his father and brother were shot, but he does try to keep running as the “grief and despair now no longer terror and fear but just grief and despair”, and breaks the blood tie from his family as he no longer wishes to suffer from his fathers actions. Regardless of Sartys decision to run away, he still cares for his family, including his father, but he realizes what his father does is wrong and he wants no part of it, even if its his own blood.
Knowing the truth and knowing that he has to lie about it, terrifies him as he says: “He aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair. And I will have to do hit.” He shows unconditional loyalty toward his father by remaining silent, and forcing the judge who he sees as the “enemy”, to dismiss the case due to the lack of evidence. His devotion is depicted further as they leave the courtroom, and the boy gets in to an altercation with a bystander, “half again his size”, hissing at them: "Barn burner!" However his steadfastness to his father is not rewarded but rather expected by his brutal man. The father’s poor parenting skill, slowly erodes the boy’s loyalty.
Sarty's realizes that he will have to lie about the fire in order to save his father, and that his father wants him to do so. This understanding constitutes one of the very few moments of perfect synchrony between father and son. Later, when they leave the proceeding, Sarty gets into a fight with some of the local boys who call Abner "Barn Bumer!"(227). He feels an insult directed at his father is the same thing as an insult directed at him. He defends his father the same way he would have defended himse1f Had Abner... ... middle of paper ... ...er's unfair ways.
In the barn burning, the love between a father and a son should be based on genuine respect, love, loyalty, and admiration. This is not what happened. Blood was the most important aspect. Throughout this story the boy just wants to gain his father’s admiration, but in doing so he loses his blood tie with his father. In Barn burning, Sarty’s father is being tried, but since there is no evidence to prove that he did it, he is ordered to the leave the country.
While wise men, good men, wild men, and grave men have differences they each learn too late, and lament their lack of foresight, even they “do not go gentle into that good night,” instead they “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” . Through Thomas’ use of building blocks like form and character he creates an observation of every man’s last resort to begging his father to not give into death. True, Thomas is angry, but no child wants to lose a parent. Thomas’ father is dying and naturally Thomas is having a difficult time accepting his father’s death. Thomas wants his father to understand that even his “old age should burn and rage at close of day” .
He's my father!)" (2176). Upon hearing the hiss of someone accusing his father of burning barns, Sarty feels "the old fierce pull of blood" and is blindly thrust into a fight, only to be physically jerked back by his father's hand and his cold voice ordering him to get in the wagon. As the Snopes' family leaves town, Sarty consoles himself with the hope that this will be the last time his father commits the act that he cannot bring himself to even think of : "Maybe he's done satisfied now, now that he has" (2177). Deep down, Sarty knows his father is not going to end his destructive rampage.
Not only his father forces him to listen to his own rules, but also he makes him to lie to people and society to protect him. At the beginning of the story, it starts in the courtroom because his father is accused of burning a neighbor¡¯s barn. Sarty is called to the stand, but because the plaintiff is finally unwilling to force him to testify against his own father, the case is closed, and the father, Abner Snopes, is advised to leave that town. Back in the courtroom, his father warns his son, ¡°You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain¡¯t going to have any blood to stick to you.¡± He lies to save his father from the society, even though Sarty knows his father is wrong. Not only his father can¡¯t fit into the society, but also he made hi...
Throughout the story, Faulker characterizes Sartoris’s life as filled of “grief and despair.” Sartoris abhors the fact that he must live a nomadic lifestyle due to his father’s crimes. Despite forcing himself to support his father in the trial, Sartoris knows that it is dishonest. After the trial, Sartoris is injured defending his father when another child calls Abner a barn burner. When his mother tries to tend to his wounds, he replies, “Hit don’t hurt. Lemme be” (407).
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... ... middle of paper ... ... sets fire to burn down the barn that belongs to the house, he thoroughly despairs of his father. He not only destroys the barn, but also shatters Sarty¡¦s hope.