Barn Burning, Essay Example

Faulkner’s Barn Burning

I like Faulkner’s short story, Barn Burning, for several reasons. First, Faulkner is highlighting a person’s sense of values. Sarty is a boy who finds that he is at a crossroad in his life. Is he going to be a good son, or is he going to be a good person? He finds no way to do both simultaneously. Abner, his father, finds that setting fires is his way of dealing with the pressures of life. What I like about the “fire” here is that Abner unintentionally lights a fire inside of Sarty, and this spark will cause Sarty to step out on his own path that leads, we presume, toward a purposeful life. I like that fact that Sarty overcomes who he easily could have been (a replica of his father) and absorbs the pain that accompanies his being who he needs to be.                                       I connect with Sarty, because sometimes I feel trapped too. Where am I going to college? What am I going to do for a career? Adults around me want answers today, right now, and I am unprepared to give them. I, like Sarty in the story’s courtroom scene, have felt pride in my parents and the adults who love me. I, like Sarty, have witnessed the adults I love do things that lack my endorsement. It makes me want to run as he did. I have not experienced anything to the extent that Sarty did, but when I read his story, it made me think about myself.

While reading, it occurred to me that Faulkner is a master storyteller. He talks about Sarty, the son, looking like Abner, the father. When I hear that I look like my father, I take it as a compliment, and yet it makes me want to say, “But I am not his clone. He and I have different interests.” I have never said that, but I have wanted to say it. Sarty begins as a boy who wants to please his father and winds up being a boy who wants to satisfy the truth even more than he wants to satisfy his kinship.

We all want to have a “do over” sometimes. When we are very young, it is a part of our playing. Each time a fire blazes in this Faulkner story, Abner’s “do over” is loud, warm, and clear. I am not sure that he is an evil man; he is merely a maladjusted man who is mad at the world and had rather run than change. He pays for this problem with his life. It is not his son who is responsible, it is not de Spain who is responsible, it is he. I recommend this story to anyone who wants to think deeply about life and his or her response to it. The tale assists its reader in surveying conflicting circumstances that pull and push the boundaries between right and wrong. We live lives that are free from regret when we distance ourselves from those who bring us down.

References

Faulkner, W. (1979). “Barn Burning.” Logan, IA: Perfection Learning.

McDonald, H. (2002). Faulkner’s Barn Burning. Explicator, 61(1), 46-48.