Summary Of William Faulkner's Barn Burning

William Faulkner’s work “Barn Burning” is a great example of how authors can connect his writing with the reader. I observed that Faulkner gives us the duty to figure out each situation along the story. He introduces a problem, provide the details, but doesn’t conclude with a resolution. To me, it sounds as if he wants us to draw our own outcome. For instance, when Sartoris betrays his dad, Mr. Snopes gets killed, but we don’t know for sure what happens after it. In order to satisfy our ending, we imagine what happens next with Sartoris and his family. As of for me, I would like to think that Sartoris changes his life, he stops committing crimes, and encourages his family to take a better path in life; maybe now they support and protect each other, and keep themselves more together than ever before. Moreover, I noticed that Faulkner lectures on consequences after actions. Some situations stand out on this pattern; for example, when Mr. Snopes is taken to court after destroying a barn, also when Mr. Snopes is forced to leave the town for not telling the truth in court, and when Mr. Snopes is killed on his attempt to burn de Spain barn.
Furthermore, Faulkner discusses a very controversial issue that I think many people have gone through, and is the loyalty devoted to our love ones, even in critical situations.
We can see this reflected in the reading to where Sartoris is punished by his dad because he didn’t defend him in the court, when he is being accused of setting on fire Mr. Harris’ barn. Mr. Snopes strikes his own son on the head with the flat of his hand, and later says: “You’re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.” Analyzing these words, Mr. Snopes is not only punishing and forcing Sartoris to cover up his crimes, but he is also threatening that if he isn’t loyal to his family, nobody will support nor defend him whenever he needs
them. Nevertheless, this issue about whether deciding to protect the people you love or doing the right thing, is not only a Faulkner sermon to us, but it is a reality in our lives. For instance, once one of my friends did things she shouldn’t have done in the school gym later night with some of her friends. When she got to our place, she talked about it. Some days after it, in one of the volleyball team trainings, the Coach was notified of this incident. He talked to the team and asked who was the person that met in the gym some other people late at night. No one would say anything, probably because more than half of the team didn’t know what was going on, and to be honest, neither did I. My friend, she didn’t give detail of what happened that night. Because nobody would tell the story, the Coach made the whole team run for more than an hour as a punishment. I could have spoken, but I wasn’t sure of the consequences towards her. Besides, I didn’t have a concrete story to tell. Maybe Faulkner tries to give us a lesson. Sometimes we should not follow our feelings and attachments to others, sometimes we should follow our ethical values and do the right thing instead. We can cover up a lie, or two, but we can’t cover up a life of lies, and even with the littlest lie, consequences are applied.