Sarty Response: Barn Burning By William Faulkner

Loyalty should be considered a quality that is supposed to keep family ties together and use the shield of bravery to protect it. It is proven that devotion in families of today, are lost and bravery shows no character in a person. It is a personality that each individual has in them only to be used in the most courteous way and should not be used selfishly. Loyalty cannot be purchased and must be earned. If it used in the wrong way, it can climax to a disaster.

"Rebellion, against not only rationalism but also against all traditional modes of understanding humanity, is the attitude forming the artistic backdrop as the twentieth-century begins. The perspective of the 'modern' and of modernism in literature is that the rationalist project fails to produce answers to the deepest human questions, is doomed to failure, and that we are on our own for seeking answers to questions about human meaning." (Mr. John Mays) Sarty Snopes in William Faulkner’s Barn Burning, explores these questions of human meaning, which ultimately classifies this modernistic short story. The dichotomy and differences between Sarty and Abner Snopes creates an undeniable tension within the character of Sarty, while he battles

William Faulkner elected to write “Barn Burning” from his young character Sarty’s perspective because his sense of morality and decency would present a more plausible conflict in this story. Abner Snopes inability to feel the level of remorse needed to generate a truly moral predicament in this story, sheds light on Sarty’s efforts to overcome the constant “pull of blood”(277) that forces him to remain loyal to his father. As a result, this reveals the hidden contempt and fear Sarty has developed over the years because of Abner’s behavior. Sarty’s struggle to maintain an understanding of morality while clinging to the fading idolization of a father he fears, sets the tone

The short story,”Barn Burning”written by William Faulkner is about a 10 year old boy named Sarty, who gets called to the stand of the court; his father, Abner Snopes, is accused of burning a barn down. Sarty knows that his father is guilty of arson and wants justice to be served, but, his father wants him to stay loyal to his family and blood. The conflict of morals vs. family goes on for the entire story,Sarty’s moral beliefs are embedded in justice and peace, while his father wants him to protect his family no matter the circumstances. Literary devices used in the story are symbolism and diction, the symbols of blood and fire being, family and a chain.and being told from the perspective of a timid ten year old boy. One of the major themes present throughout the story is courage, wanting to tell on his father for arson but, being shot down by his intimidating father. William Faulkner illustrates the theme of courage through the use of symbolism and diction

“Barn Burning” is a story which was first published in 1939 and later awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award. It was the best short story of the year. William Faulkner, the author, was a creative and innovative writer whose ability to describe a place makes you feel like you are present and experiencing all happenings that take place in the story. Particularly in this short story, he has managed to create the picture of real-life events in the minds of readers while depicting the main theme: constant struggle between the poor and rich.

developing a mind and will of his own. He is no longer unperceptively loyal to his father.

The theme of William Faulkner's Barn Burning is Colonel Sartoris Snope's desire to break away from the oppressive conditions of his family life. He is pulled between his family and his morality. In this essay, I will discuss Sarty's struggle between the two sides of his conflict and the point at which it becomes resolved.

The struggle for Sarty is that he wants desperately to believe in his father’s innocence. But he also knows that the Justice of the Peace’s verdict was not right. He knows what his father has done and he is immensely grateful that he was not forced to testify against him. At this point Sarty is still fighting with himself to remain loyal to his father. He even attacks a “boy half again his size” (Faulkner 6) for calling out “Barn Burner” (Faulkner 6) as they leave the hearing.

Faulkner proves us that it is impossible to sruggle with one's own heart . The moment when Sarty decided to choose morality over the blood pool and warned the de Spain's revealed his true character. Though this meant the death of his

actions to show that no one will own or control him. He has no regard

In “Burn Burning” by William Faulkner, justice plays an ambivalent role, particularly for the Snopes family, such that even a ten-year-old Sarty, who watches his father and other characters in the story, struggles a lot as he seeks to determine what “justice” might mean for him. The fact that there are two courtroom scenes in this short story quickly confirms the seriousness of justice in Faulkner’s society. Abner’s activities revolves his family, and the young Sarty in particular, who finds himself in so many court visits that he is eventually able to recognize all judges by their formal and bespectacled appearance— although he has trouble in keeping them straight. These numerous court proceedings at one point confuses Sarty such that in one trial he finds himself defending his father against the charges of burning a barn—when, actually, it was his father who had sued Major de Spain. "Barn Burning" features a variety of perceptions on justice, and vividly shows how the procedure for legal justice is not always just.

Loyalty is a powerful force. Oftentimes it blindsides us and causes us to support things we would not normally. Even do things that we despise. William Faulkner’s Barn Burning illustrates just such a case. Presenting a young boy’s progression from a loyal child, to an independent man as a conflict of loyalty and morals. This boy, Sarty, battles his own forming morals versus his father’s decisions, which leads to his development from child to adult. Faulkner writes his characters progression in five stages: blind loyalty, repressed disagreements, open questioning, and attempted reasoning with his father, before finally taking action to contradict his father.

Next, we are introduced to the antagonist, Abner Snobes, when he talks for the first time since the trial began. He also establishes the fact that he plans to move himself and his family out of town. We are then introduced to the rest of Sarty’s family.

William Faulkner is a writer from Mississippi. Faulkner is a very famous writer with most of his most famous works being short stories. Two of his most popular short stories are “A rose for Emily” along with “Barn Burning”. Faulkner has many other popular works, but “Barn Burning” was one of his well-known stories because of the many different of elements of literature in which Faulkner chose to include. Faulkner was known as a writer who could properly convey many different elements of literature, such as symbolism, conflict, tone, and many other elements of plot within his stories. In “Barn Burning”, William Faulkner most commonly uses symbolism and conflict to emphasize the obstacles that Sarty has to face in his youth years.

There are several ways in which William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" is indicative of literary modernism. It depicts a relevant historical period and is part of the frontiersman literary tradition (Gleeson-White, 2009, p. 389). The author utilizes a number of purely literary approaches that were innovative for the time period in which the tale was originally published (in 1932), such as employing a young child as a narrator complete with misspelled words and broken, puerile thoughts. However, the most eminent way in which this story embraces the tradition of literary modernism is in the author's rendition of dynamic social conventions that were in a state of flux at the time of the writing. Specifically, his treatment of race is the inverse of how race is generally portrayed in American literature prior to the early part of the 20th century. An analysis of this integral component of "Barn Burning" reveals that Faulkner's unconventional rendering of African American characters in a desirable social status particularly as compared to that of the Snopes clan is crucial to this tale's inclusion as part of the tradition of literary modernism.