"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner
...father’s enemy. Sarty is young and has not yet separated himself from his father. He has not yet formed his own identity. Sarty underestimates how dangerous his father is. Sarty knows that something is psychologically wrong with his father. They move more often than normal people because his father has a habit of getting angry and burning his enemy’s barns. The accusation that was made against his father the first time forced them to move. After the first case, Ab slapped Sarty because he doubted that Sarty would lie. He knew that his son’s morals were not corrupt like his own. He says “maybe he’s done satisfied now, now that he has…” he hopes that his father will stop. His father belittles him, he tells Sarty that he has to grow up and stick to his own blood or he’s not going to have any blood stick to him. Sarty is trying to find himself. He wants to tell the truth and be honest and live and honest life but he can’t because of this father. His father pressures him and does things intentionally which make him angry and lead him to burn the barn. As the story progresses Sarty finally starts to be independent. When Sarty and his father come to the de Spains house, the two men have different views about the de Spains. When they arrive to the de Spains beautiful plantation, Sarty feels safe and he thinks "People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are behind his touch, he no more to them than a buzzing wasp: capable of stinging for a little moment but that’s all; the spell of this peace and dignity rendering even the barns and stable and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive." Sarty doesn’t realize that his father is just as capable of burning the plantation down as he...