Sarty In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

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So begins William Faulkner’s Barn Burning; an absorbing short story detailing a boy’s course to manhood in a grim-natured world. Not only does ten-year-old Sarty, our story’s protagonist, face the harsh reality of growing up, but also a great dilemma: does he stay loyal to his family, even though there is discontent with his father? This story spotlights on the emotions of the protagonist, but what is (or, are) the cause of those vexed feelings? It is essential to understand both father and son to recognize a theme of justice. William Faulkner first introduces Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes at his father’s trial for burning his employer’s barn. Sarty (briefly) testifies against his father, Abner Snopes, and is later beaten for it. …show more content…
According to the text, Sarty thinks, “our enemy…ourn! mine and hism both! He’s my father!” (Faulkner 3). However, he reminds himself of this consciously. Sarty then attacks a larger boy (who called his father a “Barn burner”) (Faulkner 5). This marks the start of a pattern throughout the story. To the man he knows he owes his life and allegiance to, Sarty constantly makes an effort to defend his father through his emotions and actions. These feelings are not only what Faulkner predicts to be Sarty’s beliefs in maturity, but also a pathway to the greater power of justice. After beating the other boy, Sarty is struck by his father and later told that, “they [the men at the court] wanted was a chance to get at me because they knew I had them beat…” (Faulkner 8). Instead of a response from Sarty, Faulkner proposes that he was to say to himself, “If I had said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again.” (Faulkner 8). At the arrival of their new job, the de Spain mansion becomes a symbol of peace and hope. Sarty, in his innocence, thinks that they are safe from his father’s arsonist ways, that “People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond his touch…” (Faulkner 10). However, contrary to Sarty’s hope, the more wealth and power a landowner has, the more his father’s envious wrath grows, such as in the flames he …show more content…
But, yet, while retrieving the oil, Sarty realizes that he has two options: he could simply allow his father to burn the barn, or run away. Although he supplies Abner with his oil, Sarty takes a stand on the side of justice and confronts his father directly for the first time; Sarty runs off to de Spain and warns of him of his father’s plan. In the end, Sarty turns his back literally and figuratively on his home and family. But, yet, Sarty’s separation is shown as almost promising, as he journeys into “the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasingthe rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night” (Faulkner 25). Faulkner’s creation of a story of a boy’s (becoming a man) view regarding what is wrong and what is right is simply complex in its own right. The main character is growing up, coming of age, and must choose his father’s way of justice and judgement of society or society’s contrarily defined path. Sarty’s emotional anxieties only further intensify this story, making it a piece that must be sensibly read. In retrospect, Faulkner’s lengthy, descriptive details are certainly worth the time, as they focus on a distinctive property in
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