Sarty Snopes In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

The Old South has a lot of hatred. This hatred is seen through the rich and poor, north and south, and through generations of families. William Faulkner’s, “Barn Burning” illustrates many of these feelings. Sarty Snopes is the son of Abner Snopes. Abner Snopes is a brutal and demanding father. Abner is a victim of the poor south and The Civil War. Benjamin DeMott writes,” together with the ignorance and brutality in Abner Snopes, there is a ferocious, primitive undeceivedness in his reading of terms of the relationship between the rich and poor, lucky and unlucky, advantaged and disadvantaged” (517). Abner pushes this brutality and hatred onto this son. Sarty begins to feel the destructive nature of his father. This
constant
and unstable nature of his father begins to make Sarty question his morals. Sarty’s decision to tells on his father is the result of three main events: the terror Sarty feels during his father’s trail, Sarty’s father is abusive towards him, and his father’s plan to burn Major
DeSpain’s house.
One reason Sarty tells of his father in the end is because of the terror he feels over his father’s trail. Sarty is intimidated by the men in the courtroom, “He saw the men between himself and the table part and become a lane of grim faces” (Faulkner 503). The judge orders
Abner out of the country. As the Snopes walk out of the courtroom, Sarty could feel the crowds’ accusing glares. When they make it to the next tenant, it is not long before Abner is in court again. Sarty soon realizes he is in a court room again, when he sees the man with glasses.
Sarty shouts out, “He ain’t done it! He ain’t burnt…” (510). Abner quickly sends Sarty back to the wagon. Sarty stays in the courtroom instead of going to the wagon. Sarty wants to stay and hear his father’s
fate. Sarty’s father is abusive towards him because he fails to always put family first. While setting in the courtroom Sarty realizes, “The smell and sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood” (Faulkner 503).” Sarty knows what his father expects from his family.
Jan Hiles writes, “Ab Snopes must turn to his kin for defense not only from Union troops but also from the landed Southern aristocrat who, in what Ab perceives as a failure of Paternalism” (516). While Sarty and his family camp for the night, his father asks if he would have told the truth. When Sarty did not answer, Abner strikes Sarty on the head. Abner expects Sarty to lie for him. “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood stick to you” (Faulkner 505). Twenty years later Sarty says to himself” If I had said what they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again” (Faulkner 505).
Sarty tells on his father before he burns Major DeSpain’s house because he realizes his father in never going to change. Abner tells Sarty to get the oil used for oiling the wagon. Sarty beings to panic as he heads to the barn. Sarty thinks to himself, “I could run on and on and never look back; never need to see his face again” (Faulkner 512). Sarty is trying to find a way out. Sarty does not want to abandon his family, but he also does not want his
father to burn the house. Sarty brings the can to his father reluctantly. Abner has Sarty’s mother hold
Sarty down. Sarty breaks free and run to warn Major DeSpain. Ultimately Sarty’s father is shot before he can burn anything. Sarty is sitting on a hill alone, “the grief and despair now no longer terror and fear but just grief and despair” (Faulkner 514).
Sarty is struck with a hard decision of whether or not to tell on his father. Sarty’s character grows from a boy to a man in a short period of time. Sarty takes the chance of telling on his father to stop the terror and abusiveness. “Sarty now understands that the blood-bond entails his acquiescence in his father’s violence and his own submission to an authority whose demonic character he begins to recognize” (Thomas Bertonneau Par 8). Sarty grows tired of moving from place to place, never having the chance to put down roots. After his father is shot, he begins to tell himself that his father was a brave solider. Sarty is trying to remember his father in a good light. The realization that his father will never change is a burden that will be too much.