Internal Conflict In Barn Burning

Law Over Man Ten is the number of times the word blood is written in Faulkner’s short story. Perhaps, or maybe not, blood is thicker than water. Yeah, what a cliché, right? However, what happens when being loyal to family includes breaking the law? In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” through the use of Sarty’s internal conflict on betraying his father or abiding by his principles and Abner’s fixation on sticking it to the man, Faulkner portrays the conflict of Man vs Self and Man vs Society. In addition to that, the resolution, in which Sartoris chooses to flee from his family, supports the theme of loyalty to the law outweighing loyalty to family when that involves constantly breaking it. Colonel Sartoris Snopes, for a boy his age, is dealing with an immense internal conflict. On the one hand, he feels the obligation to stay true to his blood. From the beginning, Sarty is faced with this gut-wrenching decision. According to William Faulkner, “He could not see the table where the Justice sat and before which his father and his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my …show more content…
Major De Spain, for instance, represents wealth and power. Abner knows this and it makes him bitter. He may not personally hate Major, but he hates everything that he represents because Snopes knows that he will never have any of the things that De Spain has. According to Faulkner, “ ‘I reckon I’ll have a word with the man that aims to begin to-morrow owning me body and soul for the next eight months’ ” (229). You can almost hear the rancorous tone in Abner’s voice. He despises the fact that Major, in a way, owns him and there is that nothing he can do about it. Abner may be exaggerating, but, then again, this portrays Abner’s hate for the people who are “above”