A Tale of Two Heroes
...as failed to accept authority from any man, and Major de Spain is no exception. Major de Spain’s position as an aristocrat who has lost his slaves after the Civil War, forcing him to rely on tenant farmers like Ab Snopes, but his profits were effected by the change. Fire was an element to be feared by people in those days, as livelihood could be quickly lost in its fury. Ab Snopes used fire as his powerful method of punishment and retaliation against any man who wronged him in his eyes. Faulkner uses contrast to illuminate the heroism of Sarty and Major de Spain by comparing Sarty to his father and Major de Spain to Sarty’s mother. Sarty’s father, Ab Snopes, has allegiance to no man and is described as having “wolflike independence.” During the war he was a thorn in the side of both the North and South by stealing horses and living the life of a criminal by only “burning a small fire [ . . . ] such fires were his father’s habit.” He continues to commit the same crime of arson after the war ceases. The crimes are out of anything but necessity and his rage grows with the fires. Sarty is a small boy, “crouching, small for his age” and it is easy to pity him. The beginning of the story paints him with having the internal conflict “of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood.” He knows that his father is morally wrong, but is trying to justify his actions and can’t find his feet to stand against it. In the beginning, prior to Sarty’s transformation, he refers to the Justice as “our enemy,” but is wrestling with whether or not to tell the truth. There is intense pressure from his father to “stick to blood or it won’t stick to you.” All odds are against him, making him the perfect underdog and the perfect hero who warns Major de Spain. In the end, he looks forward to a better future by gaining his independence and the opportunity to choose the moral high ground whenever he wishes. Maj...