Sarty Snopes In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

The Old South has a lot of hatred. This hatred is seen through the rich and poor, north and south, and through generations of families. William Faulkner’s, “Barn Burning” illustrates many of these feelings. Sarty Snopes is the son of Abner Snopes. Abner Snopes is a brutal and demanding father. Abner is a victim of the poor south and The Civil War. Benjamin DeMott writes,” together with the ignorance and brutality in Abner Snopes, there is a ferocious, primitive undeceivedness in his reading of terms of the relationship between the rich and poor, lucky and unlucky, advantaged and disadvantaged” (517). Abner pushes this brutality and hatred onto this son. Sarty begins to feel the destructive nature of his father. This
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One reason Sarty tells of his father in the end is because of the terror he feels over his father’s trail. Sarty is intimidated by the men in the courtroom, “He saw the men between himself and the table part and become a lane of grim faces” (Faulkner 503). The judge orders
Abner out of the country. As the Snopes walk out of the courtroom, Sarty could feel the crowds’ accusing glares. When they make it to the next tenant, it is not long before Abner is in court again. Sarty soon realizes he is in a court room again, when he sees the man with glasses.
Sarty shouts out, “He ain’t done it! He ain’t burnt…” (510). Abner quickly sends Sarty back to the wagon. Sarty stays in the courtroom instead of going to the wagon. Sarty wants to stay and hear his father’s
Jan Hiles writes, “Ab Snopes must turn to his kin for defense not only from Union troops but also from the landed Southern aristocrat who, in what Ab perceives as a failure of Paternalism” (516). While Sarty and his family camp for the night, his father asks if he would have told the truth. When Sarty did not answer, Abner strikes Sarty on the head. Abner expects Sarty to lie for him. “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood stick to you” (Faulkner 505). Twenty years later Sarty says to himself” If I had said what they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again” (Faulkner 505).
Sarty tells on his father before he burns Major DeSpain’s house because he realizes his father in never going to change. Abner tells Sarty to get the oil used for oiling the wagon. Sarty beings to panic as he heads to the barn. Sarty thinks to himself, “I could run on and on and never look back; never need to see his face again” (Faulkner 512). Sarty is trying to find a way out. Sarty does not want to abandon his family, but he also does not want his