William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" presents a dichotomy of thought. On one hand, it is a heroic tragedy about Sarty Snopes growing into awareness and morality. On the other, it is a story describing a moribund southern aristocracy built on a tainted ante-bellum foundation of slavery and decaying on a post-war economic oppression of white agrarians. Sarty rightfully looks at this old order of life as a symbol of hope. However, to Abner Snopes, this way of life represents a bad crop lying system that kept sharecroppers in debt to merchants from birth to death and ask for extreme labor as the price for existence. Faulkner frequently reveals his sympathies with the characters who come of poor, white stock, who do not have enough resources and no money at all. People whom others rule and whose very existence is stolen from them and governed by others. Faulkner talks about racism and how one kind should try to stick to its own so that no one can try to take them apart. He shows us the motive in form of Sarty and Abner, both characters of the same family.

The story focuses on two members of the Snopes family: Abner Snopes, a poor sharecropper who takes out his frustrations against the post-Ci

Abner's constant rebellion is displayed by a rough, sour character and exemplified when he burns his landlord's barn down. He feels despair and loss, and inflicts damage to whomever he happens to be working for. Although the story centers on the feelings and thoughts of Abner's youngest son Sarty, the economic implications of his entire family play a vital role in justifying (not condoning) his father's behavior, which is the pivotal reason for Sarty's controversial feelings on which the whole story is based. Sarty's main dilemma is his loyalty to his family that collides with his disappointment and suppressed dislike of his own father. He tends to hide his feelings by denying the facts, "our Enemy he though in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He's my Father!" and "The boy said nothing. Enemy! Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see that the Justice's face was kindly."

The story's emotional turns are clearly defined by Sarty's thoughts and Abner's actions.

"Barn Burning" is a sad story because it very clearly shows the classical struggle between the "privileged" and the "underprivileged" classes. Time after time emotions of despair surface from both the protagonist and the antagonist involved in the story. This story outlines two distinct protagonists and two distinct antagonists. The first two are Colonel Sartoris Snopes as "Sarty" and his father Abner Snopes as "Ab". Sarty is the protagonist surrounded by his father antagonism whereas Abner is the protagonist antagonized by the social struct

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Approximate Word count = 1043
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)