In “Barn Burning”, the destitute class of tenant farmers to which Sarty, a ten-year-old boy, and his family belong to a class that represents a stark contrast to the prosperous class of their wealthy landlord, Major de Spain. Sarty's father seems to be engaged in a personal class war against all those who are wealthier than he is, he also seems to be pushing his family further into poverty as a result of his destructive behavior, pyromania. Sarty, because of circumstance or lack of education, is not completely aware of the vast separation of social classes and the cruelty that exists among them. He does, however, have an inclination that what his father’s actions and what he represents, the evil of the world, is not what he wants for himself.
