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Morality And Loyalty In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

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A sacred belief around the world is that loyalty to one’s family is of the uppermost importance relative to any group. Despite this concept appearing pure, moral values and family loyalty often conflict, given the reality that relatives often make choices opposite of what another’s moral values may suggest. In “Barn Burning”, the main character Sartoris Snope is torn between these two concepts, morality and loyalty, as his father Abner Snope is a serial arsonist plagued with a short temper. Moving from town to town and landlord to landlord, Sartoris begins to battle with whether or not to support his father’s actions, eventually building to the climax of the story in which his decision leads to the demise of a main character. Author William Faulkner seeks to demonstrate that one’s own moral values are of paramount importance when compared to family loyalty through Abner’s hostile dialogue, indirectly characterizing Abner’s immature and violent nature, contrasting such characteristics against Lennie’s moral positions, Sartoris’s dynamic development, and Sartoris’s actions in the climax of the piece. The Snopes family’s lowly social position leads to Abner Snope, the father, to resent power and burn various establishments, barns in particular, out of frustration and utter hatred for those who have power over him, immediately identifying him as the antagonist. Such a position powers his immoral actions, which influences the message of the work the most. Abner’s bitterness towards more powerful individuals is evident as soon as he wanders into a …show more content…

Through various literary strategies and details, he succeeded in creating a story demonstrating such a message that extinguished any reasonable doubt that what he said was universally true. Despite being written over eighty years ago, “Barn Burning” addresses a concept that is struggled with

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The focus is more towards Sarty Snopes, but very well appears to focus on his father as well. The story wastes no time in establishing and showing the reader the relationship between Sarty and his father. His father immediately makes the connection between his son and himself hostile and toxic to a certain extent. What is used to paint such a distasteful collaboration of these characters is very real, earthly methods of manipulation. Sarty’s father turns a good value, loyalty, and twists it using it in a disgusting way to benefit himself.

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Loyalty is a common principle taught to children at a very young age. Society tells people that loyalty to one 's family should be held above all else, causing many to face the same challenges that Sartoris faced in William Faulkner 's "Barn Burning". Inner conflict is a reoccurring theme in Barn Burning and is highlighted when young Sartoris was called to testify against his father in a case of a barn burning and again when the child learned of his father 's intentions to burn another, causing Sartoris to make the choice between staying loyal to his family or doing the thing he knows is right and turning his dad in. Sartoris grew up in a tight-knit household where family loyalty was not to be broken; however, he knew in his heart that his father had

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Also ’’ In William Faulkner Barn Burning he says’’ he could not see the table where the justice sat and before which his father and his father’s enemy stood. ’’This shows loyalty and betrayal by the two people standing side by side together and what each one’s meaning means Faulkner shows a glimpse of this loyalty when in the beginning of the story “Barn Burning” the son, Sarty will not speak out against his father, Abner. At the same time in this story, due to his father's harshness and absoluteness in his power over his family, the son realizes that there are alternatives to this harsh absolute behavior of his

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