Set in the late 1800's, William Faulkner's short story, “Barn Burning”, tells a tale centered around the complicated relationship between two characters: an empathetic, ten-year-old named Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty, for short), and his tyrannical father, Abner Snopes. Typically in life, a father is a son's first role model – they expect their fathers to be the caretaker of their family; the one to provide, protect and encourage; to always have his family's best interest at heart. In Faulkner's story, Abner is quite the opposite. Abner is a bitter, manipulative, aggressive man who has a knack for burning down the barns of his superiors out of drunken rage and revenge. He repeatedly asks for his young son, Sarty, to lie on his behalf because
