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Barn Burning Conflicts

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A Place to Belong
During the walk of life, people are often faced with many different conflicts. Many conflicts can be resolved quite quickly, while others tend to be rather complicated to resolve. When people are faced with conflict, they must decide how they will seek resolution and move forward. Each person has a unique way of dealing with conflicts, which result in completely different outcomes. Abner, the barn-burner, lived an estranged life, destroying everything that stood in his way.” Barn Burning” is a story about a boy's struggle between his love for and loyalty to his father and doing what he knows is morally correct. Throughout the story, the family’s loyalty bursts into flames time and time again. The son, known as Sarty, has …show more content…

The courtroom setting is important to note, as it depicts the tension and uncertainty within the room. The uncertainty and tension within the room parallels the uncertainty and tension within Sarty in a variety of ways Sarty is in an emotional dilemma and cannot seem to make up his mind about what to do. Sarty loves his father with all his heart and has always been loyal to him and his family. The family is close-knit and has always taken loyalty seriously. Despite his love and loyalty to his family, Sarty knows that if he tells the truth about his father to the judge, his father will go to jail. This is shown vividly in the courtroom proceedings: As the judge called on Sarty forward he says to himself, ‘He aims for me to lie,’ he thought, again with that frantic grief and despair. ‘And I will have to do it’” (Faulkner 1016). In despair, Sarty thinks, “‘Enemy! Enemy!’ . . . for a moment he could not even see, could not see the judge’s face was friendly nor discern that his voice was troubled” (Faulkner 1016). This proves the uncertainty that Sarty was feeling while being faced to make a very important decision regarding his father. Sarty knows that this decision is not something to take lightly and knows that the decision that he makes will affect him, his father, and his family for the rest of his

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When Major de Spain finds out about the ruined carpet he brings it to the father and tells him that he needs to wash it and give him some of his corn during harvest. The father is insecure about his inability to provide the best of everything for his family and he hates to be told what to do, especially by the wealthy. When they take the issue to court and he still has to pay part of the original price asked, the father acts out by setting fire to the barn. The father’s insecurity of being poor causes him to become angry and hard headed. He sets poor examples for his children, especially the boys and burns anyone’s barn that crosses

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Although, he is pulled away from causing any more trouble than his father already created. Sartoris is hit by his father multiple times throughout the story and observes his mother being thrown into the wall for stopping Abner from committing another crime. Seeing and receiving abuse has led Sartoris to grow as a character and become a brave young boy. Hermann Hesse, who is a German poet, said, “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” Hesse’s quote relates the William Faulkner’s story, Barn Burning because Sartoris holds unto his family even though there is verbal and physical abuse from Abner.

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The emotional struggles prove that he wants to believe Steve is not guilty, but struggles to do so. Moreover, his father finds it difficult to remain optimistic during the proceedings. As Steve and his father continue to talk, Steve searches for the look of “reassurance he has always seen” in his father 's face (Myers 112). His father lacks the look of reassurance because he cannot seem to understand how his son remains in jail for accused murder. Steve’s parents still feel apprehensive if their son is trustworthy.

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Harris' barn. Immediately, Sarty is convinced that the people in the court are his father’s enemies, therefore they are his enemies. He boldly sets himself with a loyalty to blood, as in opposition to the justice of the court ". . . our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! Mine and hisn both!

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Confused, saddened, depressed, Steve worries he has demolished his relationship with his father forever. Although worried about his parents being disappointed, the trial is mainly on his mind. He holds guilt in his soul. He does not want to be portrayed as a

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Guterson’s descriptive language paints a vivid picture of the courtroom atmosphere, with phrases such as “the old courtroom was strained with emotion” and “the air was heavy with uncertainty” evoking a sense of unease and foreboding. By juxtaposing Miyamoto’s composure with the charged atmosphere of the courtroom, the author highlights the stark contrast between the accused and his surroundings, setting the stage for the unfolding drama of the

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Everyone is raised differently from the minute they are born. These differences range from small to extreme actions. There are little things like learning how to read or bigger things like being raised to believe in a higher power. Some children are disciplined by word or with a physical action. Everything varies from the very start.

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Going back to the quote at the beginning, loyalty is a key part of this story. It is Sarty’s undying loyalty to his terrible father that drives the story forward. The first scene we come to where Sarty displays loyalty to his father is when Abner is on trial for the crime of burning down a black man’s barn. The court decides they want Sarty to testify. Sarty decides that he must defend his father because loyalty to family is very important

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In William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning,” we follow a young boy, Colonel Sartoris Snopes, and his family as they are exiled from yet another place of residence after the patriarch of the Snopes family burns down another barn. Through all of this turmoil the father, Abner, demands unwavering loyalty from the family and he maintains it through dogmatic “fear[,] despair and the old grief of [familial] blood”(508). Faulkner’s repetitive use of blood illustrates the constant and ever-present significance that blood ties hold in the family as instilled by Abner. It is evident that the Snopes family is not well off financially, and this causes distrust and anger towards those of a higher social class within the disillusioned Abner. To Abner, this idea solidifies the belief that they need to “learn to stick to [their] blood” or they aren’t

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“Barn Burning” is a very interesting story about a family and the hardships they face. Though the narrative focuses on Sarty Snopes, his father Abner causes many of the problems they encounter. Abner Snopes is a very cruel and negative father who does not grow throughout the story because of his hate towards others. In this story, Faulkner uses figurative language to characterize Abner.

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to still keep established pace and tone, which is that calm, disassociated mood. At this point the father, the reader might think, is a construction of the husband’s mind, because the husband had focused on “the idea of never seeing him again. . . .” which struck him the most out of this chance meeting, rather than on the present moment of seeing him (Forn 345). However surreal this may be in real life, the narrator manages to keep the same weight through the pacing in the story to give this story a certain realism through the husband’s

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The victim of the barn burning called Sartoris to testify against his father, but Abner stopped him before he said anything. Later, Abner talks to Sartoris about family loyalty and “struck [Sartoris] with the flat side of his

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The lawyer is unhappy with Bartleby and says, “I am seriously displeased. I am pained, Bartleby. I had thought better of you” (159). I soon to realize by further reading the story that the lawyer is becoming almost a compassionate person. He lets Bartleby stay in the office and even goes to the extent of moving his

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