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Sartoris Snopes In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

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In William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning,” the main character, Sartoris Snopes, is a ten year old boy forced to make the transition from childhood to adulthood at a young age. Sartoris is the son to a very domineering, violent father named Abner. Abner’s way of revenge on those who do him wrong is setting their barns on fire. He burns their barns instead of their houses because that is where their profit from crops and livestock comes from. Sartoris feels pressured by his father to defend him even though he knows it is wrong. At the end of the story, Sartoris makes the courageous decision to break away from his father’s control by letting their landowner know Abner is planning to burn down his barn. He is then forced to enter the world …show more content…

One of the obstacles Sartoris faces is his father, Abner. He controls Sartoris, along with his mother and siblings, with both physical and psychological violence. He essentially makes them all accomplices in his violent hobby: burning barns. His father uses this revenge tactic as a way to punish the world for the massive injustices it has practiced upon him, or so he perceives. Without fire, Abner would feel completely powerless and out of control. Fire is the “one weapon for the preservation of integrity” (464). Sarty even fights some boys outside the courtroom in an effort to defend his father's integrity, while hoping that his father will stop burning barns. Abner can almost be seen as inhuman, almost monstrous-like. He has no emotions and feels no sympathy or remorse for committing such a hostile act. Sartoris and the rest …show more content…

His father pressures him into helping and defending him when he burns down people’s barn, but Sartoris knows in his heart that it is not the right thing to do. He starts to feel despair and grief because he understands that his father’s behavior is illegal and immoral. Meanwhile, he has to suppress his own beliefs and remain silent and loyal instead of being honest. It is almost like his father is the devil on one shoulder, while his conscience is on the other shoulder telling him it is wrong. His own needs are at odds with the demands of the family. Sartoris’s ideas of justice and honor are so different from his father's, and his father's choices often rob Sartoris of the ability to make his own decisions. When this sense of justice overpowers the pull of his father, Sartoris makes the courageous decision to act against his father. He cannot continue to sit back and watch needless destruction without trying to stop it. Sartoris finds out his father is planning to burn down Major de Spain’s barn, so he runs, “his heart and lungs drumming, on ip the drive toward the lighted house, the lighted door” (471) to warn the landowner of his father’s plans. When Sartoris yells “Barn! Barn!” (471), de Spain immediately jumps on his horse and shoots Abner. This moment represents Sartoris’s break from his father’s reins and his newfound freedom and

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