| William Faulkner is remembered for his many fictional | | | | at his core and demands a response. Sarty knows his |
| short stories and essays. One of his best known, and | | | | father is wrong, but he also feels intense sorrow |
| most beloved, is an account entitled "Barn Burning," a | | | | over the inevitable choice that he must make; this is |
| coming of age narrative set in the aftermath of the | | | | the source of his grief. |
| war torn South. Here a young protagonist, named | | | | Such a young boy, faced with such a difficult |
| Colonel Sartoris Snopes, is pitted against his | | | | situation can not help but feel a sense fear. In fact, |
| antagonist father, Abner. Named for a fictional Civil | | | | Sarty is described as being full of "fear" (178) and |
| War hero, Colonel Snopes, or Sarty as he called, is a | | | | "terror" (182). Faulkner tells us that Sarty's |
| ten-year-old little boy born into a poor sharecropper | | | | youthfulness, coupled with his fathers brutality, |
| family headed by a ruthless, vindictive, and angry | | | | creates a longing to be "free" (182) while |
| man. Faulkner describes Sarty physically as a young | | | | simultaneously generating "enough weight to keep |
| boy, small for his age, wiry, wearing patched and | | | | him rooted in his place"(182). "Fear," the Bible asserts |
| faded jeans too small for him, with no shoes on his | | | | "hath torment" and Sarty is without a doubt a |
| feet. He has brown, uncombed hair, grey eyes, and is | | | | tormented soul. That is, until they come to Major De |
| "wild as a storm scud" (179). Emotionally Sarty is a | | | | Spain's and Sarty sees his home: "at that instant he |
| despairing, grief-stricken, and fearful young man who | | | | forgot his father and the terror and despair both" |
| learns how to overcome these limitations to make | | | | (182). And this sets the stage for our hero to shine. |
| the biggest decision of his life and, in the process, | | | | In this visit Sarty comes to understand that it is |
| becomes a man. | | | | possible to break free from his father's influence. To |
| Faulkner does a masterful job of giving the reader an | | | | him, the house looks like a "Courthouse" (182) which |
| undeniable sense of Sarty's despair. At the Harris trial, | | | | is a symbol of civic justice and is no doubt the |
| while waiting to be called as a witness, Faulkner | | | | impression given to the young man because of his |
| states that the boy is filled with a mixture of | | | | inner desire to have his father brought to account for |
| emotion but "mostly of despair" (178). The cause of | | | | his deeds. He knows his father's crimes can't go on. |
| this despondency is two fold; he is expected to lie, | | | | This visit marks the turning point in his mentality, the |
| and to adopt his father's enemies as his own. The | | | | point where the ten-year-old child decides to become |
| pressure to lie is exerted by his father. Sarty thinks | | | | a man. |
| to himself: "he aims for me to lie... with that frantic | | | | It seems that Faulkner wants us to see through the |
| grief and despair. And I will have to do hit" (179). It is | | | | child's eyes the fact that each of us must choose |
| quite evident that Sarty was no stranger to his | | | | our own path, that life is a series of decisions that |
| father's demand for unity, and yet it is equally | | | | start early in our childhood and define who we will be |
| evident that he feels a great degree of despair | | | | later in life. We control our course, not the blood of |
| bullying The enemies are a different matter. This is | | | | ancestry, not familial relation, and we can change our |
| self imposed despondency. In his adolescent mind he | | | | direction if we will stay true to our convictions and |
| can reach no other conclusion than that his father's | | | | choose to do good as apposed to doing evil. |
| enemies must be his own. He sees his father's | | | | Sarty makes his choice; he will be true to himself. As |
| "enemy" and muses "in that despair" that they are | | | | he races down the dirt road leading to the De Spain's |
| "ourn! mine and hisn both! He's my father" (179). The | | | | house, Sarty can feel his blood racing and his heart |
| despair comes from his sensation that he must hate | | | | throbbing yet his blood is not holding him back as he |
| those his father hates. | | | | had supposed, but rather it is urging him on; |
| This hopelessness gives way to yet another emotion | | | | overcoming the despair, bypassing his fear, and |
| still more bitter, that of grief. While the words despair | | | | ignoring his grief; he is now, for all intents and |
| and grief have similar connotations it appears evident | | | | purposes, a man. His childhood is just as dead as his |
| that Faulkner viewed them as distinctly separate | | | | father appears to be; his future just as dark and |
| characteristics of this young man. Faulkner repeatedly | | | | uncertain as the night sky and dark forest that he |
| states that Sarty is filled with "grief and despair"(179) | | | | walks into, just as uncertain as adult life really is. The |
| both. Despair refers to the hopelessness Sarty feels, | | | | story ends with the dawning of a new day; |
| while grief is referring to the intense sorry over the | | | | symbolically representing the new lease on life this |
| choice that he must make. Sarty understands the | | | | young protagonist has gained. The old familiar feelings |
| morality of issues. Though hampered by his | | | | of "despair" and "grief" (191) are still present but the |
| surroundings, he nonetheless has an internal principle | | | | "terror and fear" (191) are now gone. No future |
| of moral decency. A war in his mind rages between | | | | decision in life can ever be so hard; no other night |
| his loyalty to blood and that of his civic responsibility. | | | | can ever be as dark, because he is now the master |
| It is said to be like "being pulled two ways... between | | | | of his own destiny. |
| two teams of horses" (186). This pulling shakes him | | | | |