Great Works II

In Barn Burning, William Faulkner tells a story of a ten-years-old boy Sartoris who goes through serious inner conflict: he needs to decide what is more important, family loyalty or loyalty to the law. In the beginning of the story, Sartoris chooses family and lies to save his father, Abner Snopes, from charges in barn burning. Even though the boy seems to be completely overpowered by his father, the sense of justice infuses him. Sartoris has to deal with serious moral issues that would be hard even for a grown up person.

In his family, violence is one of the key elements of life, of becoming a man. From his father and his brothers’ behavior, he should have gotten the belief that to become a real man, he has to be cruel, rude, and oppressive. But in fact, Sartoris feels that he doesn’t want be such person. He experiences feelings of guilt and shame when he sits at the court. But since he is still a ten-years-old boy who gets constantly influenced by his cruel father, Sartoris defends his father and chooses to be loyal to his family. But as the story goes by, we can see that the boy gets more and more doubts, and finally gets to a point when he can’t stand his father’s disobedience to the law and his immorality. Sartoris he runs to de Spain and warns him about the coming burning.

The boy’s act can be seen from different perspectives; from the one point it can be seen as family betrayal, but from another point, it shows that his goodness and morality couldn’t hide inside him anymore. Actually, it is hard to believe that this boy was raised by a man with such low moral standards, cruelty, and disrespect to others. It is also hard to understand how such kind, caring, and emotional woman as Sartoris’s mother, Lennie, could marry such man as Abner Snopes. Unfortunately, Lennie is too weak and she can’t protect Sartoris from the destructive impulses of the rest of the family. Both Lennie and her son are overpowered by Abner Snopes. I believe that it is really hard to be a good person in a family of violent men. Especially it is hard for a ten-years-old boy and a fragile woman. But Sartoris finds the way to break through Snopes influence when he warns de Spain. I can make a conclusion that Sartoris, in fact, not only honest, but also brave and ready to protect his moral. He just was too young before.