Sarty Snopes Essay

Faulkner's short story about Sarty Snopes and his father, Abner Snopes, is a striking example of education and service to the family. This story very clearly demonstrates an example of education in poor families where the authority of the father is immutable. This fact is emphasized in each stage of the work. In this case, Sarty, a boy of ten, has an inner struggle all the time.
Sarty Snopes is the main character of this story. His perception of the situation enables the readers to grasp the essence of the story. At first, it seems that it is only a few days of the one poor’s life from a southern family, and there is nothing interesting in this story, just because Sarty makes no conclusions from the behavior of his family. A normal ten-year-old boy, he is loyal to his family and performs exactly what
is required. He probably had to go in the footsteps of his older brother, who copies the behavior of his father, but Sarty had something that distinguishes him from the rest of the family – he believes in honor and justice.
The first scene in a courtroom immediately shows how difficult is the position of the smaller Sarty. He is summoned to testify, and he feels anger and frustration because he has to lie. From the narrative, it is evident that his father persuades his son to tell lies – Abner initially believes that blood ties are much more important than the truth, and his son is obliged to do everything for the benefit of his family. When it is needed to lie, Sarty lies. In addition, he convinces himself to see in the Prosecutor of his father an enemy of the family. That is the saving straw, which keeps Sarty Snopes; it never gives him a break finally, because of internal conflict and sense of justice. Sarty knows that his father is wrong when he burns barns, but still sticks up for him when he hears as one boy called his father the arsonist. He immediately rushed into the fight without fear, no pain, no blood, it was important for him to protect Abner and his own name.
Abner gives his son no chance for an independent decision. On the way to another farm, when the family stopped for the night, Abner had a talk with Sarty about how important it is to be loyal to your family in spite of justice. Abner knew that his youngest son was going to tell the truth to the judge, and says that even if the boy would do, as his conscience dictates, no one person in the courtroom would be nothing to do with it. No one would have protected him. Only his family, his blood relatives, always there to help.
Sarty would like to hope that his father will no longer do bad things that they are just going to work honestly, that mother would not cry in secret, that they settle in a small house, and it will be unnecessary neither to lie nor to wander through the vast South. However, the boy does not know that Abner is a usual Marauder. Abner broke the law many times, perhaps the desire to get rich at the expense of others quickly and easily, went to his head.
In the past, when Abner was shot in the heel, he was angry at the whole world, ex-generals and those who could buy his work.
We cannot say that Abner was left alone against the whole world, and no one offered him assistance. The scene at the court shows us that Mr. Harris honestly helped Abner Snopes when his hog got into the crops of Harris. However, Snopes did not want to accept this help, moreover, he was angry, and burned the barn. He continued to act like that. Abner took revenge on everyone, for success, for a good house, for the opportunity to hire people like him to work.
The father of Sarty Snopes lived as wolves: he did not recognize in ourselves any superiors; he believed that he did not owe anything to anybody. If Abner were a wolf, then his family, of course, was the pack in which he was the leader. That means that everybody will unquestioningly obey his will. There is no love in the pack, caring, and understanding. There is a law in the pack, and it says that the leader acts, as he needs. The wolf cubs do not need a home, education, parental custody. The wolf cubs have to be trained to kill strangers. The will and the sense of freedom are unknown to
them.