Barn Burning
...estioning Sarty but decided not to. During the trial Sarty was uncertain of whether or not he should tell the truth. However, Sarty did not inform the Justice and instead his family was forced to damnation and made to leave the country to never return. Abner realizes the uncertainty of his son’s actions against the family and strikes Sarty across the face. “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” (484). Sarty yearned for a change in his lifestyle. Sarty did not want to keep moving from place to place. He knew that what his father was doing was wrong; he was just not sure what to do about it. Sarty knew if he turned his father in for barn burning it would destroy his family. He was torn between two ways. He was torn between satisfying his family and doing what he thought was morally right. Sarty and his family moved for the twelfth time to work for Major de Spain. From the beginning Sarty knew that something was going to happen. Once again Abner Snopes ends up in court with a trial against him. However, this trial is not for barn burning but yet the destruction of a one hundred dollar rug that de Spain owned. Abner ruined the rug when he rubbed his muddy feet on it. Sarty’s family is not sent to damnation; instead they must supply ten bushels of corn for de Spain. Sarty begins to realize that his father’s actions are not morally acceptable and begins to pull away from him. Sarty has finally had enough when his father decides to burn de Spain’s barn. Sarty is mortified when he finds out that this time his father is not even going to send someone to warn the de Spain family. His father realizes that Sarty may run so he considers tying him to the bedpost. However, his mother decides that she will hold him. Sarty struggles and is too much for his mother’s hold. Sarty’s aunt believes that barn burning is morally wrong as well and wants Sarty to tell. She even says “Let him go, if he don’t go, before God, I am going up there myself” (491). Sarty betrays his father and tells de Spain of the fire. “Barn Burning” uses the central issue of kinship bonds. Sarty Snopes grew up thinking that his father was admirably suitable. In the beginning he did not question his actions; he instead stood by his side and did as he wished. However, as the story progressed Sarty beg...