Sarty's Father Abner example essay topic

Re vonda Henry Pat Dans by English 1302 18 February 2003 A Characterization of Sarty Snoops in William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" Sarty, whose real name is Colonel Sartor is Snoops, is a poor ten-year old boy is described by Faulkner as being "small for his age, small and wiry like his father, in patched and faded jeans even too small for him, with straight, uncombed, brown hair and eyes gray and wild as story scud" (Giola 163). Undoubtedly, the wildness in his eyes is caused by the grief and despair he experiences in his struggle to reconcile his own innate honesty with his loyalty to his father. Faulkner demonstrates Sarty's struggle to reconcile these two qualities in three distinct occasions during the story when he is faced with making a decision between doing what he knows is morally right or standing with his family against a society which his father despises (O'Brien 1). The first occasion occurs in a trial being conducted in a small-town general store. Sarty's father Abner is being accused of setting fire to another man's property following a dispute.

Sarty's first response to the predicament is to convince himself that he and his father face a mutual enemy in the judge. Later, in the proceedings, when he thinks the judge is going to call him to testify, he panics and thinks; "He aims for me to lie, he thought, again with hat frantic grief and despair". And I will have to do it". (Ford 1). Actually, the ten-year boy doesn't have much of a choice because his emotional and economical security lies with his father and his family (O'Brien 1).

Yet, when the moment comes, it seems that Sarty's integrity is winning in his struggle of conscience. Both the judge and his father sense this. The judge, who evidently is sympathetic towards the small boy, makes his ruling without calling Smarty to testify. Leaving the store, Smarty shows his loyalty to his father by flying into the person in the crowd who called his father a "Barn Burner".

However, that night, as the family prepares to move on to another unknown destination, Abner hits Sarty with the back of his hand. However, the real pain is caused by his father's words"You were fixing to tell them. You would have told him-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" (Giola 164). Later that night, they packed their pitiful belongings-"the battered stove, the The broken beds and chairs, the clock inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which would not run, stopped at some fourteen minutes past two o'clock of a dead and forgotten day and time, which had been his mother's dowry", and moved to another dilapidated two-room house. The next day, when Sarty sees the well-kept yard and the big house of the de Spains, he thinks, "They are safe from him. People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond his touch" (Giao 166). However, as Sarty will discover later, his father is neither awed nor intimidated by the wealth of the de Spains. Soon, Sarty finds himself attending another trial.

In this second trial, father is suing Major de Spain because he feels the Major assessed too much in crops to cover the value of the carpet that he maliciously ruined. This time, although Sarty tries to help his father, he is banished to the back of the room to watch the proceedings with the other strangers. Being relegated to the back strengthens his own sense of justice because it releases him from the restricted perception of the family (O'Brien 2). After this trial, Sarty's father treats him more like a stranger than a member of the family. When Sarty attempts to comfort and reassure his father, saying "He won't get no ten bushels either. He won't git one.

We " ll... ". Abner answers him in a soft, gentle voice-quite unlike his usual harsh treatment-and says: "You think so? Well, we " ll wait till October anyway".

(Gioia) Then the father immediately repairs the wagon, and Sarty knows that the family will be making another move. Abner's actions contradict the words he just spoke to Sarty, showing that he no longer trusts him Sarty's third crisis between his honesty and loyalty happens the evening when he knows his father is about to burn Major de Spain's barn. "I could keep on", he thought. "I could run on, and never look back, never need to see his face again. Only I can't. I can't" (Giola 172).

This time, he realizes that his father is not going to send anyone to warn the de Spain's, and Smarty is finally able to break through all his family loyalties. He breaks away from his mother and aunt and runs to the de Spain's house to warn the Major that his father is going to set a fire. This decision liberates Sarty from "the old blood which he had not been permitted to choose for himself". The "pull of blood: is not strong enough to corrupt Sarty, to make him into what he seems destined to become, a man like his father and older brother (Kirzner 216).

Bibliography

Faulkner's Barn Burning", Explication. (Fall 2002): 1 p.
Online. San Jacinto Community College TexShare. 10 Feb. 2003.
Ford, Mary Claire. "Narrative legerdemain, Evoking Sarty's Future in "Barn Burning". Mississippi Quarterly. 51.3 (Summer 1998): 14 pp.
Online. 10 Feb. 2003.
Giola, Diane, and Kennedy, X.J. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York: Longman, 2002.
Kirshner, Laurie, and Stephen P. Mandrell. Literature: Reading, Reacting. Forth Worth: Harcourt, 1992.
O'Brien Dennis William "Faulkner's Barn Burning". 10 Aug. Online. Columbia State Community College. 10 Feb. 2003.