Resolution In William Faulkner's Barn Burning

In the walk of life, many different conflicts are often faced. Many conflicts can be resolved quite quickly, yet others tend to be rather complicated to resolve. When someone is indeed faced with conflict one must decide how they will seek resolution and move forward. Each person has a unique way of dealing with conflict which results in completely different outcomes. “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner takes place is an unknown county in the Southern part of the United States, and is a story about a sharecropper who burns barns to get revenge. Abner lived an estranged life, completely obliterating everything that he came in contact with or stood in his way. This is a story of a boy's struggle with his love for, and loyalty to his father and

He is in an emotional dilemma on what to do. Sarty knew if he told the truth, that his father would go to jail. As the judge called Sarty to come forward, he said 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, "Enemy! Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see the judges face was Murphy 2 friendly nor discern that his voice was troubled" (Faulkner

Abner told Sarty "You are 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?" (Faulkner 1018). It is clear that Abner maintains the us versus them mentality throughout the story. For Abner there are two types of people, his family, and everyone else are categorized as other Abners point of view is the only one he tolerates. Abner would cause conflict with anyone that had a diferent percpective that he did like the time he refused to fence in his hog allowing him to graze in the farmer’s field without permission. At Major de Spain's home Abner barged in saying "Get out of my way, nigger" and left footprints on his new rug. (Faulkner 1020) . The family has continually been forced to pack up camp and move to to Abner’s inability to get along with his landlords. Abner lacks respect for anyone. Abner shows this blantant disrespect when he burns down his landlord’s barns, and its clear that nooone, not even the law can stop him. In addition to the victims of the barn burning, it his clear that his family is alos hurt by his actions. The family was throw into a raging fire time and time again and forced to suffer the concecuenses . It was as if "fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father's being" (Faulkner 1018) The rest of Sarty's family