Essay on "William Faulkner Barn Burning"

Essay 5 pages (1430 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Growing Up With Fire:

Coming of Age in "Barn Burning"

Truth is word we like to throw around sometimes. It can be a heavy weight or a shining beacon of light depending on how we choose to deal with it. William Faulkner's short story, "Barn Burning," illustrates how truth can save a life when one is brave enough to reach out for something better. Sarty is faced with a puzzling father and the truth that he attempts to instill in Sarty about life in general. Sarty discovers his own version of the truth as he discovers his own feelings apart from his father's. He comes to see the futility and foolishness of his father's actions. He realizes that while he burns barns, he also burns the family's future. "Barn Burning" is a coming-of-age story that begins and ends with flames of hope.

Sarty must realize that family is not always everything. In doing so, he learns to accept himself as an individual independent from his father. While his father has been there for him most of his life, we can honesty say that he has not been the best role model for Sarty. That he realizes this about his father is commendable. It also demonstrates that he is becoming a man. Unfortunately, he learns his lessons about life the old-fashioned way -- from the school of hard knocks, one could say. He must experience the anguish and angst of the family to appreciate what it means. His family suffers because Abner's outrageous behavior. Sarty, an impressionable young man, is especially impacted by his father's actions, especially his anger. Abner is living a defeatist attitude because he does not think the family can live any different. He is resigned to the notion that there is no way out of these awful circumstances. At first, Sarty might feel some self-doubt because his father is his only role model. We might not be surprised if Sarty grew up to be just like his father. However, Sarty begins to look at things from his own perspective and what he sees is nothing that Abner would expect. This is fascinating, considering Sarty's surroundings. Instead of allowing himself to be governed by passions, Sarty learned to control his temper. We see this when we read that fire speaks to Abner and it was the "one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion" (Faulkner 476). Sarty decides not to be this way because he sees the results it brings about.

Sarty realizes at the end of the story that his father saw things from a different point-of-view and there was little he, or anyone could do to change his mind. Abner was a grown man and he was convinced about many things is life regardless if they were true. When Sarty thinks, "If I had said they wanted only truth, justice, he would have hit me again'" (477), we know that Sarty understands the possibilities of his future lie with him and not his father. We see a change in Sarty when he begins to responds to his father's anger with something other than fear. It takes courage to realize that the head of the household is actually doing everything he can to destroy that household and Sarty "divined the true reason" (Faulkner 476) of Abner's behavior as if it spoke to "some deep mainspring of his father's being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion" (Faulkner 476). This is the moment that Sarty begins to look as his father as just another man. When he changes this perspective, he can see that man, and the destruction he has caused, more clearly. Suddenly, Abner seems to be just as bad as Sarty believes him to be. This moment reveals a mature man making a decision he knows will affect the rest of his life. This decision, he realizes holds the key to his future and his happiness.

Sarty's family is constantly on the move and, as a result, never has a real sense of… READ MORE

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