Barn Burning
A Review of William Faulkner’s Short Story
“Barn Burning” begins with a trial in which Sarty, the youngest member of a family of disgruntled sharecroppers, is called to testify against his father. His father, Abner, is on trial for allegedly burning down a barn. The judge finds him innocent, due to a lack of evidence, but advises him to leave the country in the interest of avoiding more trouble.
Trial and Error
The trial that opens the story is not the first time that Sarty’s father has been accused of destroying someone’s property. In fact, each time before the family migrated to another farm, the landowner’s barn was “mysteriously” burned down.
Abner’s villainous ways heavily influence Sarty, who is, at his young age, unable to decide what is right and what is wrong. When the family moves to a new farm and his father almost immediately picks a fight with the landowner, Sarty can no longer suppress his conscience, for he knows that it is time to finally make a decision.
“Burning” Bridges
When Abner demands that his son help with the burning of their new landowner’s property, Sarty finally stands up to him and refuses to help. Abner, thinking that Sarty will go for the police while he is gone, tells his wife to hold on to Sarty while he and his other son go to do the burning.
Luckily, Sarty gets free and runs to warn the landowners. Then, conflicted once again, he calls out for his father to warn him that the landowners are waiting for him, and ends up running into the woods alone, where he spends the night reflecting on the deeds, both respectable and dastardly, of his father. At the end, it appears that Sarty has given up on his father, and has chosen to live his life on his own, without the constant need to decide between right and wrong.
Power
“Barn Burning” is a page-turner, for it is unclear from moment to moment which direction the story is heading in. It is told from the third-person limited perspective, making Sarty the focal character. With each decision he is forced to make, the audience feels that they, too, must decide what is right and wrong.
Faulkner’s story is a comment on power, and what individuals would do to make themselves feel that they have it. Abner spends the entire story burning buildings because he feels like people owe him something. He also tries to exercise his power within his family, for he expects each of his family members’ respect and obedience, as evidenced when he tried to force Sarty to help him burn down the house. Sarty, however, is also looking for power, for throughout the story he struggles to find and embrace enough of his own willpower to escape from the invisible bonds of unearned loyalty that his father has saddled him with. All in all, it is a very intriguing story, and is a very interesting read.
Barn Burning was published in 1938, and was reprinted on pages 1048-1060 of The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Shorter Seventh Edition, Volume 2 in 2008. ISBN:978-0-393-93055-9
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