Rite Of Passage In Barn Burning By William Faulkner

All people have an experience of ¡°Rite of Passage¡± because it is necessary to be an adult. What is Rite of Passage? It means a ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood. In the story ¡°Barn Burning¡± by William Faulkner, Sarty, who was the son of barn burner- Abner Snopes, he experienced his Rite of Passage at the end of the story. Although his decision leads to his father¡¯s death, it helps him to independent from his father. I think he made the correct decision not only for himself, but also for his family and society.
First, his decision is for himself- Sarty. His father, Abner Snopes, always affects him in terrible ways. Not only his
After Abner burned neighbor¡¯s Barn, Sarty and his family- his parents, two sisters, an older brother, and an aunt- had to move out from the town. The narration describes that ¡°sitting on or among the sorry residue of the dozen and more moving which even boy could remember.¡± His family always had been turned around Abner¡¯s finger. I don¡¯t think that was the first time that Sarty and his family exercised by Abner¡¯s power. They couldn¡¯t live common life like other families, and always poor and uncomfortable because of Abner¡¯s outlaw-ness. Therefore, although his family would be upset when they first hear Abner¡¯s death, after time passes, they would have better life than before when Abner was alive.
Finally, his decision is for society. People have to follow some rules to live all together. That is reason why people made the rules, and that is the order of society. However, some people break the rules and it affects rest of the people in bad ways. When someone breaks the rules, it shakes other people¡¯s mind and it could give people anxiety about their safety. That¡¯s reason why people punish criminals. In the story, Abner always breaks the rules and he makes society muddle. For example, he was a horse stiff before, and he burned other¡¯s barns once, and he habitually
It will be a very hard time to everyone. However, it will be a first step to be a real adult. It gives a lesson to young people, how hard to become an adult because being an adult is comes with responsibilities about everything. Therefore, many times, even though young people realize it is time to break their position as a child from their parents, they hesitate to doing it. For example, in the story, when, after the first trial, his father strikes him and tries to convince him that the men who bring him to trial are only after revenge because they know that ultimately Snopes is in the right, Sarty says nothing, but Faulkner knows that twenty years later, Sarty will tell himself, ¡°If I had said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again.¡± At the end of the story, when Sarty hears the shots that announce his father¡¯s death, Sarty first cries, ¡°Pap! Pap!¡± but seconds later shifts to the more mature sounding ¡°Father! Father!¡± He realized that he stepped into the real adult¡¯s world with responsibility about his decision that leads his father¡¯s death. His decision was right decision for everybody. Sarty, he now becomes an adult. We could see that he finally realized himself as an adult, so he changed his father¡¯s title ¡°Pap¡± to ¡°Father.¡± Every children of every parent will not be only hurt, but also willingly experience their child¡¯s