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Ashley Wagner
Sarty’s Identity: A Rupture of Family Ties
In William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning,” a ten-year-old boy, Sarty develops his own identity as he is trying to resolve the conflict between his loyalty to Abner, his father and accepted social norms of justice. Sarty is being raised in the south by a very poor white family around the year of 1895, about 30 years after the abolishment of slavery. The family represents the plight of sharecroppers who have no prospects of improving the conditions of their life. They work on farms of rich landowners who pay them a meager portion of their crops. In such circumstances Abner adheres to his own system of “justice” often manifesting his anger by burning landowners’ barns. In the process, he traumatizes and tyrannizes his young son, Sarty, and propels him toward manhood prematurely by continually putting Sarty in a position to choose between his father’s idea of justice and his own. Sarty is constantly being pulled in two different directions; in this way, Faulkner presents “the classic conflicts of good versus evil, son versus father, and individual versus familial identity” (Ford). Sarty’s final resolution of this conflict marks his coming of age.
The conflict between Sarty and his father is so strong because Abner Snopes puts such an emphasis on being loyal to the family at whatever cost. Had he not been so emphatic about this, Sarty would be able to make his decisions based on his morals, but at the beginning of the story, Abner does not leave Sarty a choice in the matter; he is to “stick to [his] own blood” (Faulkner 330). However, already in the opening scene, the reader can see Sarty’s conflict. On the one hand he loves and respects his father, but on the other he does not want to lie in the court. Therefore he has to remind himself that father’s “enemies” are his, Sarty’s “enemies” as well. Reading the passages one learns that, “Abner had threatened to torch Mr. Harris’s barn,
Ashley Wagner
Sarty’s Identity: A Rupture of Family Ties
In William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning,” a ten-year-old boy, Sarty develops his own identity as he is trying to resolve the conflict between his loyalty to Abner, his father and accepted social norms of justice. Sarty is being raised in the south by a very poor white family around the year of 1895, about 30 years after the abolishment of slavery. The family represents the plight of sharecroppers who have no prospects of improving the conditions of their life. They work on farms of rich landowners who pay them a meager portion of their crops. In such circumstances Abner adheres to his own system of “justice” often manifesting his anger by burning landowners’ barns. In the process, he traumatizes and tyrannizes his young son, Sarty, and propels him toward manhood prematurely by continually putting Sarty in a position to choose between his father’s idea of justice and his own. Sarty is constantly being pulled in two different directions; in this way, Faulkner presents “the classic conflicts of good versus evil, son versus father, and individual versus familial identity” (Ford). Sarty’s final resolution of this conflict marks his coming of age.
The conflict between Sarty and his father is so strong because Abner Snopes puts such an emphasis on being loyal to the family at whatever cost. Had he not been so emphatic about this, Sarty would be able to make his decisions based on his morals, but at the beginning of the story, Abner does not leave Sarty a choice in the matter; he is to “stick to [his] own blood” (Faulkner 330). However, already in the opening scene, the reader can see Sarty’s conflict. On the one hand he loves and respects his father, but on the other he does not want to lie in the court. Therefore he has to remind himself that father’s “enemies” are his, Sarty’s “enemies” as well. Reading the passages one learns that, “Abner had threatened to torch Mr. Harris’s barn,
Bibliography: Web. 28 Feb. 2013.