Loyalty In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

In this short story, "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner, one major theme is the evolution in the course of the story of the young boy's sense of loyalty. He starts out with a forced on family loyalty and slowly evolves throughout the narration to a high sense of horror and justice. There is a persistent conflict of personality between the two main characters; the father, Abner Snopes, who values only his self-interest and the boy, his youngest son named Colonel Sartoris but called Sarty, who values honor and justice.

Abner Snopes was brought to trial in a makeshift court, accused of burning the barn of a Mr. Harris. During the trial, when he was going to be called upon to testify by a Justice of the Peace, Sarty has a choice, he can choose to loyal to his family or he can have the sense of justice. The problem is that he knows his father burnt the barn, but his father tried to influence him with the family loyalty, "You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain't going to have any blood to stick to you" (Faulkner 3). That means if Sarty is not loyal to his family, even if his father is wrong, he will have no place to go when he will need help.

However, because there is no evidence that Snopes burnt the barn, the judge is forced to close
. . They are safe from him" (Faulkner 4). Sarty starts to feel that his sense of justice begins to grow when he saw in the de Spain place a place of law. He hopes that this place will stop his father for burning barns. Another incident, however, reinforces Sarty's growing sense of justice. "Watching him, the boy remarked the absolutely undeviating course which his father held and saw the stiff foot come squarely down in a pile of fresh droppings where a horse had stood in the drive and which his father could have avoided by a simple change of stride" (Faulkner