Theme Of Honor In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

For as long as time itself men have lived and died for Honor. Men have been elevated to Knighthood or left in squalor for an act or breach of Honor respectively. In the story “Barn Burning,” by William Faulkner (1897-1962) describes this very battle between a man and his son. The honor of the family versus the honor of one’s self. The story takes place in Yoknapatawpha, an imaginary county in Mississippi. In this county like most across America there are a couple family names that hold a lot of weight, and by weight I mean money, land and power, and many others who live in the shadows cast by these families. In this county the Sartoris and De Spain families cast the largest shadow and Abner Snopes, with his son Colonel Sartoris and their family live and worked beneath it. Colonel Sartoris, named after Abner’s previous employer whom he fought in the war with, sits in a makeshift courthouse as his father stands trial for burning his current employer’s barn down. The trial reaches a head and the Justice of the Peace calls on Colonel Sartoris to testify. As he approaches the Justice of the Peace, William …show more content…
Neddy loved to swim and sets out, the day the story begins, to swim as many pools as he can on an eight mile hike to his home in Bullet Park. He mentally plots his route to his home and sets out to swim the “Lucinda River” as he called it after his wife. First, he stopped at the Grahams where he is cheerfully greeted and enjoys a drink, followed by the Hammer’s, Lear’s, Howland’s, Crosscup’s and Bunker’s. All were prosperous men and women who called him a friend, each greeting him with warm welcomes and his choice of alcohol. As he made his way to the Levy’s, things began to change. A storm brewed and as it let loose a fury of wind and rain he took shelter in the Levy’s gazebo where drank his fourth or fifth