Motives of Loyalty and Justice in Faulkner's Barn Burning

William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning” is a narrative about a young boy and his journey to finding his own moralistic compass. The story focuses on a young boy named Colonel Sartoris (“Sarty”) Snopes and his family. The beginning of the story starts with Abner on trial for an act of arson against his landlord’s property. As the story progresses, we see that Abner resorts to other means of revenge such as the following: the destruction of property, negligence, emotional withdrawal, arson, lying, and stealing. Even though Sarty wants to remain loyal to his father, he always wages a war with his own internal sense of justice. Throughout the story, Faulkner uses allusion, symbolism, and narrator omniscience to help the reader gain further insight into how Sarty develops throughout the literature. Faulkner wrote “Barn Burning” in 1939; he uses this literature to elaborate on the life of a poor, white, sharecropping family in the Post-Civil War South. Faulkner uses this story to call into perspective human nature and how we, as a species, sometimes have an inner conflict about what is morally best to do for a given situation.

The story opens with Abner Snopes attending a court hearing for the burning of his landlord’s barn. The exposition starts when Sarty is placed in the middle of the situation; Harris (the landlord) mentions to the Justice of the Peace that Sarty knows the “truth” about what has happened. However, Harris feels bad for the boy when he is called forth, so he tells the judge to dismiss the testimony and banish the family instead (Faulkner 335-336). While the family is traveling to a new location, Abner takes Sarty aside and strikes him. He tells Sarty, “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood stick to you” (338). This incident lets Sarty know to keep quiet and just agree with what his father has to say. The tension further builds when the family arrives at the new plantation. Abner and Sarty set out to visit “…[T]he man that aims to begin tomorrow owning me body and soul for the next eight months” (339). This quote is in reference to visiting the new landlord, Major de Spain. De Spain is a wealthy landowner and is the true definition of a Southern aristocrat. He embodies everything that Abner isn’t.

When they arrive at the landlord’s property, Sarty witnesses his father knowingly step in a fresh pile of horse manure. Abner then walks into the nice house making sure to track the manure onto the landlord’s expensive, French rug. When Major de Spain sees what has become of the rug, he takes it over to the Snopes’ residence to have Abner fix the mess he made. After this encounter, Abner chooses to have his daughters wash the fancy rug with a harsh, lye soap; then, he proceeds to tear the rug by scraping it with a sharp rock. This further infuriates de Spain, and he demands twenty bushels of corn from Snopes’ crop for the ruining of his rug (339-342).

Next, the story sees Abner back in court a second time. He tries to sue Major de Spain for his request of twenty bushels of corn; the argument is that twenty bushels of corn is too much of a punishment for his crimes. In the end, the Justice of the Peace reduces the amount owed to 10 bushels of corn. The story comes to a climax as Sarty makes the decision to go against his father. He runs to warn de Spain of his father’s intentions to burn his barn down. After Sarty warns de Spain, he runs away and hides until he can make a decision about what to do next. At this point in the story, we reach the falling action. Sarty is sitting on a hill after his father was shot. He is no longer living in fear; instead, he only has grief and despair for his father’s actions. The resolution happens when he decides to walk away and never look back. This shows that the character has changed from a young, naive boy to a young man with an independent mindset (343-347).

Throughout the literature, there are many internal and external conflicts that the main character faces. Some of the internal conflicts are the following: struggling with loyalty vs. justice, fear, grief, and despair. Sarty is constantly waging an internal battle between taking up for his father and doing what is considered right. “… [I]t was as if he had swung outward at the end of a grape vine, over a ravine, and at the top of the swing had been caught in a prolonged instant of mesmerized gravity, weightless in time” (338). This statement shows Sarty’s internal struggle with fear as he is put on the spot at his father’s first trial. Some of the external conflicts are the following: his father’s actions and how his other family members react to his father’s actions.

In “Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’: Sarty’s Conflict Reconsidered' by Virginia C. Fowler, she states that '[Sarty’s] new “loyalty” is ultimately not to de Spain and the Southern aristocracy but to those impulses. Sarty believes, as Abner once did, that the Southern aristocracy does embody ideal moral values” (1). This quote is a good example of how Sarty’s internal conflict isn’t based on taking sides between his father and de Spain. It shows that his conflict resides more on weighing the values of Abner vs. the old-Southern (moralistic) aristocrats. Sarty just wants his father to make better decisions and choose to live a moralistic lifestyle. Furthermore, this leads us into the idea that Sarty then has to decide for himself what moralistic path in life that he would like to take.

The setting of the story takes place is in a small, Sothern, Post-Civil War town in Yoknapatawpha County. The area in which the family lives plays as an external conflict to the main character because he finds it hard to move passed his poor, sharecropper, family name while living in this town. With the industrialization of the South, not only were freed slaves sharecroppers but so were some of the poor white families. The Snopes are caught in this cycle of working for landlords and still being in debt at the end of the cropping season. The Snopes are an example of new age citizens; as a whole, the family is ruthless and lack honesty and integrity to do the right thing (Professor Barker-1/28/19).

Sarty believes his father will change upon the arrival at the new landlord’s house. “[T]he spell of this peace and dignity rendering even the barns and stable and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive,” Sarty thought (Faulkner 339). This thought sheds light on the Snopes’ previous living situations. Until now, they have moved from small farm to small farm. With the presence of Major de Spain’s house, Sarty felt joy and happiness. He truly believed that this opportunity would curb his father’s actions. It was believed that someone who owns a house that size would be “untouchable” by his father. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In “Little Men in Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’ and the Reivers,” Caroline Miles makes a statement that sums up Abner as a character. She states that, “To contain his emotional responses to the circumstances in which he lives, he burns barns, a controlled reaction to his oppression, not only by his landlords, but also by the economic and heterosexual system that keeps him poor… While at the same time he is denied access to the means to support his family with dignity like a man” (156-157). This quote shows how Abner is a “static” and “flat” character that refuses to change throughout the story. Miles points out that Abner is stuck in the repetitive cycle of barn burning because it is something he can control when he is oppressed in all other areas of life. He wants to be able to support his family, but he is caught in a cycle of revenge and never-ending debt which is what leads him to this destructive lifestyle. It is easy to agree with Mile’s view because Abner never really tries to change his ways, and that is what makes him remain stagnant throughout the story.

As a character, Abner is a cold, harsh man who never bows down to anyone. He is loud and demands attention. The only time Abner shows a brief change in his demeanor is when he chose to take de Spain to court for their feud. This is unlike Abner in the sense that he normally doesn’t seek his revenge the “legal” way. Although this is a brief change in Abner’s behavior, he does resort back to his old ways. In her analysis, Caroline Miles also points out that, “Sarty’s father is absent literally and metaphorically… Faulkner presents Abner as a shadow, and illusion of a man, a cutout with no ability to think or feel” (155-156). Even when Sarty tries to reason or connect with his father about his behavior, it is met resistance. Sarty is never really able to connect with his father the way a child should.

Lennie, the mother, can also be considered a static character. She can be compared to the household items in which they are taking with them… “[T]he clock inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which would not run, stopped at some fourteen minutes past two o’clock if a dead and forgotten day and time” (Faulkner 337). This description, along with the broken beds, chairs, and battered stove could easily relate to Lennie. She has been abused and cast aside by Abner throughout the story. When she offers advice, it isn’t listened to. The same can apply to the children in the story (with the exception of Sarty), the twin daughters and the older brother, are all given descriptions pertaining to cattle. This gives them a “herd-like” appearance of following blindly behind Abner.

Sarty is the opposite of Abner. Although he is also a Snopes, he is quieter and more reserved, and he wants to tell the truth. This is where Sarty and his father clash. Abner believes that Sarty should take up for his family no matter what. Meanwhile, Sarty is watching everything happening and the tension builds until he decides to finally walk away. This shows that he is more of a dynamic and round character in the story. Sarty is the one character that changes throughout the text. He grows into a mature, mentally sound young man. Sarty takes all his father’s actions and arrives at the conclusion that Abner is never going to change. This is when Sarty realizes that for him, and his family, to have a better life, they will all need to get away from Abner’s bad behavior.

In “Barn Burning,” Faulkner is heavy in his use of symbolism. The main use of symbolism is in relation to fire. In the story, while the family is traveling to a new living location, Abner builds a fire. Sarty describes the fire as small and “shrewd” (337). This means that some of the fires that Abner started were made with scarce materials that he found lying around, and yet, he believes that the fire will burn as long as it possibly can. One example of character omniscience is when Sartoris believes that IF he were older, “[H]e might have divined that true reason: that the element of the fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father’s being, as the element of steel or powder spoke to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion”(338). This view of his father shows that Abner regards fire is a “weapon” used to be in control of situations.

Another example of symbolism in the literature is the rich imagery of the Spring morning that Sarty decides to walk away. In the book, the last scene tells us about the birds chirping and the whippoorwill trees in the distance. This imagery is used to represent a “new” day where Sarty can make “new” choices; he can choose to be free of the fear of his father’s actions. However, whippoorwills can show that Sarty has mixed feelings about his decision; especially after he heard the gunshots in the distance. This left him with a sense of loss and grief for his father.

The biggest use of symbolism in “Barn Burning” is the use of names. Sartoris (Sarty) Snopes is named after Faulkner's real-life great-great-grandfather. To Faulkner, the name Sartoris represents a vision of the 'old-South.' It stands for honesty, integrity, and dignity. This is in vast contrast to the last name of Snopes. To Faulkner, the name Snopes represents everything that is the opposite of Sartoris. Snopes is the definition of people that are liars, cheaters, greedy, and disrespectful. They are ruthless and will do anything to get ahead in the post-Civil War South. Sartoris vs. Snopes can also be a symbol of the clash of the “old-school” South versus the “new,” industrialized version of the South (Professor Barker-1/128/19).

The ending of the story plays a big part in understanding some of the key elements of irony that Faulkner provides to the reader. The end of the story tells the reader that Abner went to de Spain’s barn to burn it down… This is similar to the beginning of the story where we find out that Abner is in court with his landlord Harris for burning down his barn, too. This shows that the Snopes family is caught in Abner’s repetitive cycle of control and revenge. Every time a situation happens, the family has to pick up and move to a new location; it is stated that in total, the family has moved over 12 times.

The main irony lies in that Sarty finally goes against his father and chooses to warn de Spain of his father’s plans. This is ironic because, with all the situations that Abner has put Sarty through, the reader would be led to believe that Sarty would end up being exactly like his father. In the literature, it states that Sarty is, “[S]mall and wiry like his father, in patched and faded jeans even too small for him, with straight uncombed brown hair and eyes gray and wild as a storm scud” (Faulkner 336). With this definition, it is shown to the reader that Sarty and Abner look a lot alike; however, it is re-enforced throughout the story that even though they look alike, they are morally different. In the end, Sarty chooses his own independence because he craves stability.

It is easy to understand why Sarty would want to pursue his own life separate from his family. Even at a young age, he sees why his family is caught in a repetitive, unchanging cycle of strife. His father, Abner, is controlling every aspect of the family through intimidation; the family comprehends that Abner’s decisions are what is causing them to have to relocate and start over in a new location time and time again. The reader can see through Sarty’s experiences throughout the piece, that the father was never going to change his ways. The rising action of Abner walking on Major de Spain’s rug with horse manure-covered shoes was an eye-opening experience for Sarty. He knew that his father could have even avoided walking through the mess, but Abner CHOSE to walk through the mess. It was a representation of his character as an unflinching, relentless, cold man who wants to 'stick it' to the aristocrats of society.

In conclusion, the climax of the story shows how Sarty is considered a dynamic character. A dynamic character is one that changes and grows throughout the story. Sarty shows a change in that he chose to go against loyalty to his father, and he chose to pursue justice. This is a reaffirmation that most humans face an inner struggle between doing what is right and wrong. In this story, Sarty went on to pursue his own independence by alerting Major de Spain of his father’s intentions of planned arson. Upon doing this, Sarty knows that he will not be able to go back to his father after turning against him. Memories of his childhood leave a lasting impression on him. At the end of the literature, after his father was shot, Sarty sat on a hill facing away from his residence. He somewhat had a hand in his father being killed, but in the end, this is what ultimately ended the cycle of family oppression.