Barn Burning

¶ … boy afraid? Why is the father able to escape punishment? At the beginning of the story, Abner Snopes is being tried for the burning of a barn that belongs to the man on whose land he is a sharecropper. The boy, Abner's son Sarty, is afraid because he is the lone eyewitness who could potentially testify against his father.

In some sense, Sarty's fear is the tipoff to the court that Abner did commit the arson, even though there is no incrimination -- without incrimination Abner is able to escape punishment for the felony of arson, but is nonetheless ordered to leave the county.

Why is the father, Abner Snopes, so angry with all of his employers? Why does he burn barns? Why is fire his weapon? Snopes's rage seems to relate to his status as a sharecropper: a man who owns no land or property, but who is permitted to exist -- almost in conditions of feudal serfdom -- on the land owned by wealthy men like Major de Spain.

The economic condition of a sharecropper is little better than that of a slave, and Snopes seems to know it -- his aggressive racism is meant to assert his value by reminding people he may live like a slave but he is still white. His anger therefore is directed towards property itself. Fire has the effect of making a building owned by someone vanish entirely -- it deprives the owner of landed property. 3.

Why does the father show no respect for the court system? For his son? For other members of his family? Snopes feels disenfranchised by his lot in life as a poor white sharecropper, and thus has to assert his own sense of dignity and agency through a belligerent and defiant attitude towards authority and propriety in general. He sees his family as essentially his property -- thus he can practically beat Sarty while preaching the necessity of close family bonds at the same time. 4.

How would you describe the value system that governs Abner Snopes' decision? Is he evil? Is he disturbed? How would you explain his way of solving what he perceives to be a problem? Abner Snopes is the product of his environment: a system of racist slavery that had only been partially reformed after a devastating war.

Whether he is evil or disturbed, Faulkner intends us to understand him as representative of the poor white population of the post-Civil War south, who were destitute and recently deprived of the ability to at least consider themselves a step above the black population. The stigmatizing term "poor white trash" is often applied to Abner Snopes, and the truth is that he may be evil, or certainly isn't good, but we can understand him as the product of a problematic social system.

His landowner is, after all, a military Major and thus a representative of the Old South aristocracy that started, and lost, the Civil War. Historically speaking, Snopes' poverty was caused by Confederate military types like Major de Spain. Then again, the Boston Tea Party will remind us that the American revolution began with acts of vandalism against property. Snopes is meant to be understood as a kind of revolutionary agitator almost. 5.

Why does he disregard the carpet in Major DeSpain's house? Why does he have no concern about cleaning it properly? Owning no property, Snopes behaves with an exaggerated disrespect toward property. This is similar to the exaggerated disrespect he shows toward authority as well. The disregard for property ultimately seems like a form of hillbilly Marxism, almost. If the society Faulker is describing were urban and industrialized, Snopes would be part of the poor who agitated for revolution. Instead, he burns down barns like a one-man revolution. 6.

How do you figure out what happens at the end of the story? Why does the boy warn Major Despain? How does the boy feel at the conclusion of the story? There is no way to figure out what happens at the end of the story, although the suggestion appears to be that Snopes shot Major de Spain. Faulkner filters the gunshots through Sarty's consciousness, and this time there is no eyewitness.

We must imagine that Snopes himself is too cunning and vicious to have permitted himself to be shot by Major de Spain -- the fact that Sarty refuses to return.