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The Grapes Of Wrath Character Analysis Sarty

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One can easily detect that Sarty is somewhat a prisoner to his father, Abner's, abusive and sadistic behavior. No matter how hard Sarty tried, nothing he did ever seemed to make his father proud. For instance, in the opening scene – after Abner's hearing – a teenage boy shouted, “[b]arn burner!”, as Abner and Sarty were leaving the makeshift courtroom/convenient store. Sarty, in response, sprung at the boy to defend his father's honor; however, Abner is quite ungrateful for his son's reaction, for he pulled Sarty back and spoke to him in a harsh, cold voice to “[g]o get in the wagon”, as if he were almost embarrassed of Sarty's behavior (pg. 516). Regardless of Sarty's efforts to make his father happy and prove his loyalty, later that evening, Abner struck him "on the side of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules at the store, exactly as he would strike either of them with any stick in order to kill a horse fly" because he sensed that Sarty was “fixing” to tell the truth to the Justice of the Peace during the hearing (pg. …show more content…

However, as much as Sarty did not want to lie, he knew the consequences of telling the truth – either Abner would go to jail, or even worse, he would beat the living daylight out of Sarty. Throughout the story, Sarty faced an inner struggle that no ten-year-old should: choosing between obeying his father, despite the fact that Abner's line of thinking was completely corrupt, or betraying his father by doing what is morally right. “I could keep on”, Sarty thought to himself as he runs to fetch an oil can for his father before warning Major de Spain, “I could run on and on and never look back, never need to see his face again. Only I

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