In William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning,” Sarty, a ten year old boy, struggles to find his own identity due to choosing between his father’s ideals of loyalty to family and justice. Sarty lives and travels with a very poor white family, and they work on farms of rich landowners, but they get paid very little. As the beginning of the story begins, Sarty and his family are in court for Abner’s decisions of burning landowners’ barns. In the process, Sarty is pressured to choose between two paths, in which Faulkner shows “the classic conflicts of good versus evil, son versus father, and individual versus familial identity” (Ford). At the end Sarty’s final resolution develops his identity.
Sarty’s conflict with his father is very strong, because Abner Snopes believes family loyalty is everything. Sarty is unable to make his own choices due to Abner’s ideals, because from the beginning Abner enforces Sarty to “stick to your own blood”(Faulkner 175). In the opening scenes, Sarty’s conflict is unveiled. Sarty loves and respects his father, but in court he does not want to lie. This causes Sarty to recognize his father’s enemies as his own enemies, and this puts Sarty in a very uncomfortable position. As Ford states, during the first trial with Mr. Harris’ Barn, the Justice of the peace banishes Abner from town instead of testifying …show more content…
This pattern troubles Sarty, because his father’s view of justice is not right. This affects Sarty heavily because Sarty has trouble in following his own beliefs and his fathers orders. Sarty understands that the truth should be told so the justice system can correct the wrong. Though, Sarty feels uneasy everytime he sees his father acting in revenge. The first barn burning scene shows an African American man is sent ahead to warn the barn owner. In the second barn burning there was no African American sent and this was what led Sarty to