“Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is a short story about how Colonel Sartoris Snopes, often referred to in the story as Sarty, struggles with morality and his family bonds as his father, Abner Snopes, commits acts of arson with a cold, calculated demeanor. The story starts with a court hearing about one such incident, a barn burning, where the Snopes end up banished from that county. After arriving at a new place, Abner takes Sarty to see their landlords for a reason not mentioned. The landlords live in such a nice house the narrator tells us Sarty’s thoughts on the matter, “big as a courthouse he thought quietly, with a surge of peace and joy whose reason he could not have thought into words, being too young for that: They are safe from him.”
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If such acts of arson are something Abner has done before, why does Sarty only betray his family when this landlord’s property is threatened? This is due to Sarty’s inner conflict of “being pulled two ways like between two teams of horses,” finally coming to a head (7).
One could say that the two teams of horses pulling Sarty are between his morality and his loyalty to his family and his father. One critic, Virginia Fowler, argues that it is Abner that causes the shift in Sarty’s thinking. In the scene where Sarty is struck by Abner, and Abner’s w first time doing so, explains why he hit his son. According to Fowler, “Abner makes the boy aware, first, of loyalty as a conscious mode of behavior, and second, of the fact that there are perhaps other modes of behavior one could follow.” (?) A sound statement, which is further solidified by the fact from that moment on in the story, Sarty begins to act differently. From being fearful, yet passive, to becoming much more active in his interactions and internal thoughts, even defending his father’s actions with Major de Spain’s rug in a loud, possibly forced, manner. “Suddenly the boy went toward him, fast, stopping as suddenly. ‘You done the best you could!’ he
If such acts of arson are something Abner has done before, why does Sarty only betray his family when this landlord’s property is threatened? This is due to Sarty’s inner conflict of “being pulled two ways like between two teams of horses,” finally coming to a head (7).
One could say that the two teams of horses pulling Sarty are between his morality and his loyalty to his family and his father. One critic, Virginia Fowler, argues that it is Abner that causes the shift in Sarty’s thinking. In the scene where Sarty is struck by Abner, and Abner’s w first time doing so, explains why he hit his son. According to Fowler, “Abner makes the boy aware, first, of loyalty as a conscious mode of behavior, and second, of the fact that there are perhaps other modes of behavior one could follow.” (?) A sound statement, which is further solidified by the fact from that moment on in the story, Sarty begins to act differently. From being fearful, yet passive, to becoming much more active in his interactions and internal thoughts, even defending his father’s actions with Major de Spain’s rug in a loud, possibly forced, manner. “Suddenly the boy went toward him, fast, stopping as suddenly. ‘You done the best you could!’ he