Loyalty in Barn Burning by William Faulkner

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Theme of Loyalty in Display of Sarty’s Inner Conflict
Conclusion
Work Cited

Introduction

Barn Burning is a short story written by William Faulkner that touches upon a very important theme that is loyalty and its manifestations. Throughout the whole story, the readers may see the ethical dilemma the protagonist, a ten-year-old boy Sarty encounters. He cannot choose between his loyalty to his father and his dedication to justice and law. The question of loyalty is presented in the story from different angles and makes the reader think what it really is.

Theme of Loyalty in Display of Sarty’s Inner Conflict

Since the very first scene where the boy is presented at a makeshift court session against his father, who burned his neighbor’s barn Sarty stays loyal to his father. He does not witness against him, so the jury asks the Snopes family to leave the town (Faulkner 2). Though on the outside, it may seem that the boy is completely loyal to his father and supports him, his thoughts and feelings the author describes in detail say the opposite to the reader. Thus, in the first scene where the boy looks at the jury, his father, and the neighbor, whose barn Mr. Snopes burned, he internally convinces himself that the neighbor is his and his father’s enemy. It means that even at the beginning of the story, the boy could not choose from loyalty to his blood or to justice because he clearly saw that his father did unfair things.

However, Sarty chooses loyalty to his father at the beginning of the story. He keeps defending his dignity and name despite the fact that he knows that Mr. Snopes’s deeds are unjust. Sarty believes that his father is a decent man who was a soldier in the past and defended his country and that he should support his actions because of the invisible but strong bond they have. However, the more Sarty thinks about his father’s actions and attitude towards other people, the more he realizes that Mr. Snopes’s doings are wrong. However, this understanding forms in the boy’s mind gradually, and the process of its formation is accompanied by the internal struggle between the loyalty to the family and the loyalty to justice.

The major part of the story presents the description of the inner conflict of the ten-year-old boy, who cannot choose between family loyalty and desire for truth since both of them are strong. Moreover, the father himself tries to convince Sarty that the men in court only want to revenge him since he is the only right person in the situation. The boy does not answer him, but the author’s remark states that twenty years later, he will understand that the only thing the jury wanted were justice and truth (Faulkner 7). Since the boy cannot choose what he should do – stay loyal to the family or to fairness, he continues the attempts to defend his father and justify his doings. That is why he protects him during the second court session when the jury chooses punishment for him for spoiling the rug in the house of Major de Spain. Sarty assures his father that the landlord will not get a single bushel from his family, which may be considered a manifestation of the loyalty to the family.

However, it is worth mentioning that it may be hard for Sarty to choose between his father and justice because he strongly believes that his father will soon change. He justifies Mr. Snopes’s actions and aggressive behavior towards everyone, including his family members, hoping that he is just in the wrong place and moving to a new place will help him change. The author demonstrates that in the boy’s thoughts after the family leaves the town at the beginning of the story since Sarty thinks that everything is over (Faulkner 6). However, Mr. Snopes does not change, but the boy is too young to understand that it is hard to make a person change. Thus, if people do not see any disadvantages in their demeanor, moving to another place will not prevent them from doing the same things as they did before, as it happened to Mr. Snopes.

It is clearly seen that Sarty’s father remained the same person since he decided to punish major de Spain using the same method of barn burning he once applied towards his neighbor. Even after realizing that, the boy seems to stay loyal to his father because he brings him oil to burn the major’s barn. However, in the very same scene, Sarty finally solves the inner conflict and chooses truth and justice over the bond with his father. He realizes that it is wrong to punish de Spain in such a cruel way, so he tries to prevent the barn from burning and openly confronts his father for the first time during the story. That is why he runs to warn the major about his father’s plans and, by the end of the story, turns away from the family.

Conclusion

Taking into account everything mentioned above, it is possible to conclude that the story Barn Burning by William Faulkner is deep writing about the hard choice between family and justice. The protagonist faces a cruel reality in which the actions of a person he loves do not comply with moral values. He is forced to betray either his family and his father or the truth, and the choice is extremely hard for the ten-year-old boy. However, he still manages to make it by the end of the story, turning back on his home and staying with the justice.

Work Cited

Faulkner, William. Barn Burner. HarperCollins Canada. 2013.

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Loyalty in Barn Burning by William Faulkner

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