In William Faulkner’s story, “Barn Burning”, a young man, Colonel Sartoris, struggled with the relationship he had with his father and his own conscience. Sarty, the young man, develop into an adult while dealing with the many crude actions and ways of Abner, his tyrannical father. Sarty was a puzzled youth faced with the decision of either going along with the views and actions of his morally challenged father or asserting his own morality and individuality by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind. His struggle dealing with the reactions that were caused by his father’s action resulted in him thinking more for himself throughout the story. Sarty knew he “smelled cheese, and more.” He smelled the “fierce pull of blood,” his father’s blood, the blood of the family name, Snopes. Sarty knew he was also the son of the “barn burner.” A name he heard hissing as they passed by boys in town. Sarty fought to defend his father, but when hurt; he seemed to need the blood to remain for a while as a reminder of why he stayed with his father. Sarty viewed his father at times as “bloodless” and cut from “tin.” Sarty could usually convince himself why his father was this way. The fact that he had to be a horse trader for four years, hiding from the blue and the gray armies to exist by stealing or “capturing” as he called it, horses caused Sarty to view his father the way he did. “Barn Burning” was a sad story because it not only showed the classical struggle between the underprivileged and the privileged classes, but also the struggle between a father and his son, Sarty. In general a father-son relationship would be built on genuine respect, love, loyalty, and admiration. These building blocks were absent in Abner and Sarty Snopes relationship. Sarty's loyalty to his father appeared to come from a long time

fear of the consequences of not obeying his father's commands. Was Sarty to become a man like his father? It seemed to be the fear that Sarty may have worried about many times. Young boys usually acquire the desire at sometime in their life to simulate their father's actions, perspectives on life and mannerisms. Fathers are examples to how they would like their sons to be. Abner probably thought it was the only way to be. Sarty spoke of how his father’s “wolf-like independence” caused his family to depend on almost no one. Sarty’s main dilemma was his loyalty to his family, which collided with his disappointment and suppressed dislike for his own father. He tended to hide his feelings by denying the facts, “our enemy he thought in that despair: ourn! mine and his both! He’s my father!” Sarty appeared to be fearful of his father. A transition from childhood to adulthood in Sarty’s life was in the way he complimented his father. Sarty admired his father very much and wished that things could change for the better. Abner’s past was not Sarty’s; his future was not to be Sarty’s either. For their views on life and the people in it were quite different. Abner Snopes looked at the mansion of Major de Spain as a symbol of inequality. It was a fact that he had too much and Abner had so little. Sarty looked at the vast mansion as a picturesque scene of “the grove of oaks and cedars and flowering trees and shrubs” almost as if it was a re-run of something he had was coming to him. Sarty reached for the positive in life, the beauty of a day and the chance to be a better man than his father. He wanted to be a man of truth as seen when he told his father he would have told the Justice of the Peace that his father had burned Mr. Harris’ barn. This would have been a complete denial of any inherited traits from his father. Abner Snopes would not tell the truth if it meant he would suffer or

be punished. He thought that he had paid the price of the war and now was his time to seek what was his. To him, any man that would cross him and take him to court would be forever sorry. Abner received the same treatment time and again and burned the barn of Major de Spain. This violent act of rage against this man and the area that Sarty loved brought him to make a major decision in his young life. Young Sarty had a choice; he could be loyal to his father, his blood relative, or he could do what he innately sensed was right. He knew that his father was wrong when he burned barns, but Abner constantly reminded his son of the importance of family blood, and of the responsibilities that being part of a family entailed. He told Sarty, “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.” In other words, if you are not utterly loyal to your own family, no matter if the family is right or wrong; you will not have any place to turn when you need help. At the end of the story, this was Sarty’s dilemma-he had no place to go and no one to turn to. After hearing the gunshot at Major de Spain’s burning barn, Sarty came to the realization that he could never go back home. At this point, Sarty realized the dubious intentions of his father. He had to decide to go on protecting his father, suffering from which would certainly be isolation and regrets for a while, or to make a break to live as he thought. He made the break he had come to the point in life where he was becoming his own man. This is one of the many books that I have read and actually enjoyed; it is certainly within my top ten books of favor. I honestly can not say that I have a favorite chapter in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book as a whole. I would highly recommend anyone

to read it. There is even a movie out for it that has been edited especially for children to possibly teach them life-long lessons. So there it is, in a “nutshell”; this book is good for all ages.