Barn Burning
...ttacks another boy for calling his father a barn burner. Harris explains this in Short Story Criticism, thus a pattern is established throughout the story in which Sarty defends his father, through speech and actions, as he struggles internally. Sarty hopes his father will change as evidenced by his thoughts as they leave the town, “Maybe he’s done satisfied now, now that he has…” (232). In this passage, Sarty mentally acknowledges his father burns barns but stops himself from saying it out loud. When viewing the de Spain home, Sarty thinks “Maybe it will even change him now from what maybe he couldn’t help but be” (235). When the family camps that night, Abner calls Sarty away from the other family members and falsely accuses him of being on the verge of telling the truth to the judge. Abner believes this is a betrayal, telling Sarty “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you” (233). Sarty does not answer his father, but he realizes that he probably would have told the truth had be been allowed to testify. The narrator relates that twenty years later Sarty would say to himself that if he had told his father “they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again” (234). As a sharecropper, Abner Snopes developed contempt for his rich landowner employers. The narrator describes Abner as having a “ravening and jealous rage” (235). This is evidenced by his arrival at the de Spain home, ignoring the servant at the house, storming in, and ruining an expensive rug. Upon leaving the house, he comments the house was “Pretty and white, ain’t it. That’s sweat. Nigger sweat” (236). In Short Story Criticism, Harris acknowledges that Abner strikes back at the aristocracy through barn burning. We are reminded of this when the narrator says “the element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father’s being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, as the one for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion” (233). His weapon was fire. Sarty views the de Spain home differently. He believes the de Spains and their property are safe from Abner's violence, “the spell of this peace and dignity rendering even the barns and stables and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive” (234). The house has a calming effect on Sarty, “and at that instant he forgot his father and the terror…” (234). The ruined rug triggers the conflict between Mr. de Spain and Abner, and ultimately forces Sarty to betray his father. Mr. de Spain charges Abner with twenty bushels of corn to pay for the damage. Abner believes this is too high a price and files suit against de Spain, another blow at the rich. The Justice reduces the fine to ten bushels of corn. Abner vows “He won’t git no ten bushels neither. He won’t git one. We’ll…” (239). A leisurely afternoon after the trial was calm before the storm. The stage is set for the final conflict. His mother’s cries alert Sarty that his father will burn yet another barn. Abner's practice in the past was to warn the owner their barn would be burned. But this time, he broke his own code, which pushed Sarty to make a choice – loyalty or betrayal. Sarty chooses to do the honorable thing and warn the de Spains. By betraying the blood, he is maturing and choosing his freedom. His mother attempts to hold him, but his aunt sides with Sarty’s decision to do the moral thing and orders her to release him. After warning the...