Barn Burning
William Faulkner's Barn Burning is a story about a poor family that moves from one rural Mississippi town to another because of the father's, Abner Snopes, actions. The story begins at Abner's hearing for setting fire to The Harris's barn after a dispute over a bothersome pig. We get a glimpse into his son Sarty's mind and see that Abner has completely brainwashed him into thinking that everybody is their enemy and out to get them. Although Sarty maintains his loyalty to his father for as long as he can, he is eventually driven by numerous reasons to leave home. One of the reasons Sarty leaves is because he realizes there is a life out there for him that is not full of the fear, grief, and despair caused by his father that he feels now. He is called to the stand to testify and thinks to himself "He aims for me to lie, he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair."(page 398) He is so blinded by these emotions that he "could not see that the Justice's face was kindly" and saw him only as his and his father's enemy, though the judge had done no harm to them.(page 398) As he is working the fields with his brother, he hopes that everything vanishes, "corn, rug, fire, the terror and grief; the being pulled two ways like b
Another reason he leaves is because he begins to realize that his father is not a good person and that he does not have to put up with his father's abuse any longer. He begins to realize that what his father does is wrong, but cannot even admit it to himself. After the first trial he thinks that "Maybe he's done satisfied now, now that he has..." but then he trails off, unable to finish the thought.(page 399) He is starting to realize that his father only does these things to beat the other person. And when Abner tells Sarty that the judge and Mr. Harris "only wanted to get at [him] because they knew [he] had them beat," Sarty thinks to himself that all they really wanted was truth and justice, but he does not tell his father this because his father would hit him again.(page 400) Abner is a terrible father to Sarty. Not only does he name his son as a part of his games to trick people, (Colonel Sartirus??) he does not even do him the courtesy of calling him by name. Abner always calls Sarty "boy" or "son". Abner uses him to do all his work around the farm while he stands around doing basically nothing. He hits him, speaks harshly to him, and never shows any affection towards him. It is a safe bet to say that after a certain point Sarty would wise up and get sick of taking it. etween two teams of hors
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 891
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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