ipl-logo

Character Analysis: Barn Burning

1268 Words6 Pages

How Good a Job Does Sarty Do of Dealing with His Father:
“Barn Burning” by William Faulkner
Sarty’s father is a liar, a criminal, and an abuser. He spends his time hitting his wife and children for little to no reason. He burns the barns of anyone that says anything he doesn’t like, and he forces his family to cover for him. His son Sarty is forced to lie to cover for the what his father did, which was burn down some barns. He is forced to lie in front of a judge which causes him to be guilty himself (226). The situation with his father also causes a lot of moral debate inside Sarty’s head. He is forced to decide between what is morally right, which would be to confess what his father has done and backing his father up by lying. Overall the …show more content…

“maybe it will even change him now from what maybe he couldn’t help but be” (230). He’s hoping that his father has finally seen what he has been doing wrong and will change for the better. He hopes that going to the new place will make things better but he starts to realize he might be wrong when he sees his father deliberately track “droppings” into the De Spain house (230). Even after that he still has hope that his father will change and he won’t have to go through with another barn burning. He starts to realize that he was wrong when his father says “go get that oil” (234). The whole time he was running to get the oil he had thoughts about running away “I could run on and on…” but he decided he couldn’t because he would leave his family and the barn would still get burned down (234). He knew he could not stand by any longer and watch his father do this again …show more content…

Even after everything he still wanted his father to be a good man because he loved him. He said his father was a “brave man” because he was in the war (237). He wanted his father to die a good man. All this could have been avoided if he would have just told the judge about what his father had done in the first place instead of lying. The judge would have arrested him instead of forcing him to leave.” Take your wagon and get out of this country before dark” (227). He could also have not told anyone at all and just let his father get away with what he was doing but the older he got the more influenced he could be by his father. If his father got caught he could also get in trouble for lying all those years and go to jail with his father. “I reckon anybody named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth” (226). The judge didn’t want to question him about the burning of the barn. “For a moment, he could not even see, could not see that the Justice’s face was kindly nor discern that his voice was troubled when he spoke to the man named Harris” (226). The judge didn’t want Sarty to lie for his father but he knew that he would, that’s why he didn’t want to question him. Even worse he could become like his father and burn the barns of the people that said something he didn’t like. He always believed the

Show More
Related
1327 Words | 6 Pages

The man had spared Lewis’s life, so why should Lewis not do the same for him? But what was the man to do if he did tell? The man couldn’t act out, he was in hiding. The logical thing to do would be to say something.

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

After telling his father, “Go on, go! I don’t want you to stay - I hate you and I hope you never come back!” he feels guilty but pushes the feeling away. When he finds out that his father may have died in a landslide in Bougainville, regret swallows him.

Read More
104 Words | 1 Pages

Adam Farmer obviously has some emotional/mental issues, so that makes him an Unbalanced Hero. However, Adam is self-aware. He knows exactly how he is thinking, feeling, acting, and reacting to things. He is very introspective and rather serious for his age. He also tends to act on impulse and does not think things through properly.

Read More
635 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, the lives of the Richardson and Warren families are tracked. The Richardons are a well-off family who have lived in Shaker Heights for generations, while the Warrens are new to the neighborhood and have never kept a residence for more than a few months. Through this expert from chapter ten, the author describes Mrs. Richardson’s analysis of Mia to communicate the theme that people of different social classes often misjudge those they cannot relate to. In this passage, Ng uses imagery, repetition, details, and diction to portray Mrs. Richardson as a person who values moral superiority through her threatened attitude toward Mia.

Read More
1280 Words | 6 Pages

The novel displays Steve’s father’s perception regarding his son’s presence in jail. Steve Harmon ends up in jail for suspected murder, leaving his innocence to be questioned by those closest to him. Steve’s father finds it difficult to believe that Steve is innocent. Steve’s father experiences “tears in his eyes” and “struggles with his emotions” just after Steve asks if his father believes that Steve is truly innocent (Myers 111).

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

As if one little trip could make any difference… But what if I’m wrong? I have to give it a shot anyway. He’s my father for Pete’s sake. He deserves more,” (Page 181).

Read More
176 Words | 1 Pages

In William Faulkner's “Barn Burning” he tells of a young boy named Sarty who has a constant struggle between truth and loyalty. Sarty’s father, Abner, pushes him to lie for him in court about crimes Sarty knows are wrong. At the beginning of “Barn Burning” Sarty is a scared boy who has a timid relationship with his father. He obeys his father due to his father's intimidation and his constant lectures about loyalty. During the week Sarty and his family visit a mansion of sorts where he gets his first taste of a life that is full of something other than abuse and terror.

Read More
723 Words | 3 Pages

But, in this case Sarty have to decide if being loyal to his family or loyal to the law is more important. As we may all know that a father and son relationship is supposed to have the tightest bond that consist of LOYALTY? In “Barn Burning” Sarty is broken between his loyalty to his family and an inner more sense of justice. At the beginning of the story it starts off with loyalty.

Read More
903 Words | 4 Pages

When Abner hits Sarty after they are outlawed in the country, Sarty stays stoic, even when his mother offers to clean the wound and the blood off his face, he refuses. This implies that Sarty doesn’t want admit weakness to anyone, and won’t show his emotions to his family, to be brave and loyal to Abner. Sarty stays loyal due to the “the old fierce pull of blood” (148). The blood represents his family’s expectations such as faithfulness, loyalty, bravery, and protecting the family, while the pull represents the pressure to perform put upon

Read More
1410 Words | 6 Pages

The character feels an almost bittersweet sensation here due to his father not being there for him in times when he needs him. It is a tragedy that even though he is relieved that his health is in satisfactory condition, his father is not because of his own choices of an unsatisfactory

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

Though he later feels some reluctance to keep saving his father, at this point his only thought was to stay with his father no matter what the cost. He would go through intense pain in his foot and also a missed opportunity to be liberated along with the other

Read More
1439 Words | 6 Pages

The story “Barn Burning,” by William Faulkner is one that demonstrates a strong role of a young protagonist who is put in the situation of choosing between his morality or his loyalty to his father. Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty), a ten-year old boy and son of Abner Snopes, a man who commits arson, goes through several scenes that show his internal conflict. I will be analyzing as to why Sarty behaves the way he does, how Sarty would react in today’s world, if I were to personally make the same decisions as him, and if I know of an individual that is similar to him. Both parents influence Sarty heavily.

Read More
1848 Words | 8 Pages

Faulkner dives deeper into the pressure that Sartoris faced to remain loyal to his father when the family camped for the final night before they expected to arrive at the new home the father had found for them. After dinner, Sarty is called by his father onto the road where his father proceeds to accuse the boy of planning to tell the Justice of the Peace the truth, that his father was the one who burnt the barn down, even though Sartoris had silently made up his mind and was planning on defending him. His father then struck him in the face and with it came the words, "you got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain 't going to have any blood to stick to you" (par. 28). This line plays a vital role in the creation of the theme, inner conflict, as it further explains the situation that the young boy was in. The father was telling his young son that he needed to be for the family and protect it by defending the lies his father tells or do what Sarty 's heart was telling him to do and cost himself his family, and the people he loved.

Read More
297 Words | 2 Pages

He explains before how he was close to his stepfather and even considered him to be his real father. Not only did he refrain from keeping his grades up and doing good in school, but he deliberately started doing wrong. For example, “I snatched purses. I shoplifted. I even robbed a petty drug dealer once.”

Read More
498 Words | 2 Pages

In Tobias Wolff’s short story “The Liar,” the protagonist, James, lies to help him construct a new identity outside of his family. James tells morbid lies about his mother in order to distance himself from her. Since, the loss of his father, James no longer associates with people who are like him. The lies started after his father’s death and his mother starts noticing how much differently he was acting. Since his mother is treating him like she is disappointed in him, James begins to devolve into a state of repressed bitterness.

Read More

More about Character Analysis: Barn Burning

Related Topics

Open Document