Conflict in "Barn Burning" Faulkner's

Conflict in "Barn Burning" Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" contains a conflict between family and duty. The protagonist of the story is Colonel Sartoris Snopes, a boy named after a famous military figure. In the story, Sarty (as he is known) must choose between staying with his family -- especially the story's antagonist, Abner Snopes, who is a bitter and sometimes violent man -- and heading off on his own so as not to be associated with his father's angry acts of arson any longer.

The story is set in the country a century ago, somewhere unspecified in the rural United States, probably in the Midwest farming belt. At the opening of the story, Abner Snopes is in a makeshift trial for setting a neighbor's barn on fire. Though he is not found guilty, he is told to leave town, and his family (including Sarty) must accompany him.

Sarty is used to moving around, but he realizes there is something wrong with a father that keeps burning down buildings, and his conflict is in determining where is loyalties should lie -- with his father or society. Sarty's dilemma is not as simple as it may seem. The choice between stopping a violent and mean-spirited arsonist or not does appear to be an easy one, even if that violent and mean-spirited arsonist is your own father.

But Sarty's tie to his father is very strong; in the opening scene, he won't even admit to himself what his father had done, thinking "Maybe he's done satisfied now, now that he has...stopping himself, not to say it out loud even to himself" (Faulkner, 162).

Sarty is really just a child, and though he has no fear and feels no pain fighting other children in defending his father's name, he cannot face the painful reality that his father will continue to make his life miserable through his uncontrollable anger and his unique and destructive way of expressing it. Even though his father has a kind of evil in his core -- or at least he seems to in this story -- Sarty cannot simply give up on the father he loves.

Abner Snopes makes matters worse when he tells Sarty, "You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain't going to have any blood to stick to you'" (Faulkner, 163). Sarty reflects that this is the only time his father has struck him and "stopped to explain after" (Faulkner, 164).

This makes the lesson very clear to Sarty; his loyalty to his family was already demonstrated in his unwillingness to admit his father's actions even to himself, and it is strengthened in the beginning of the story by this scene with his father. Ironically, his father hits him and gives him the lesson because he believes that Sarty was about to tell the men in court that Abner had, indeed, burned down the barn.

It is very doubtful that this would have occurred, but his father's fear of it makes it very clear to Sarty how important family loyalty is. Other family members are less important to the story, but their reactions to Abner's behavior is also very telling. He has complete control over each member of the family -- when they are leaving the court, Sarty gets in a scuffle with one of the young men outside.

His mother attempts to leave the wagon, were the family is waiting in order to get immediately out of town, in order to tend to Sarty's bleeding and bruises, but Abner tells her quite firmly to get back in the wagon. Her brief protestations are almost immediately cut off; Abner has command of his family, perhaps to replace the command he has lost of himself.

In general, the family all seems to know about Abner's behavior, and it is upsetting to them, but at the same time they seem resigned to it. For them, there is no choice between family and society. Sarty is the only one who seems to think that a different life, away from his father and the troubles he brings, is truly possible. For the others, leaving the family is literally unthinkable. In many ways, Abner is also symbolic. His anger comes from perceived injustices committed against him.

In the first instance of arson encountered during the time of the story, his hog had broken loose and done some damage to another's property, and that man held the hog until he received a dollar in payment. Later that night, Abner burnt his barn down, not out of spite but because he felt he was persecuted in the manner of the hog.

The same is truly later at Majr de Spain's, when he first burns the rug he feels he shouldn't have to clean, and then plans on burning down the whole plantation because of the judgment against him in the rug business. In this way, Abner Scnopes is a symbol of the frustrations of the poor itinerant farmer.

Though there might not be anything overtly unfair such a farmer's situation, it can still smart that others have so much, and Abner is a symbol of the anger that perceived unfairness carries with it. This interpretation is somewhat upheld by the Justice of the Peace's comment to Abner in passing judgment about the rug, when he says, "I'm going to find against you, Mr. Snopes. I'm going to find that you were responsible for the injury to Major de Spain's rug and hold you liable for it.

But twenty bushels of corn seems a little high for a man in your circumstances to have to pay'" (Faulkner, 168). Referring to Abner Snopes with the generality of "a man in your circumstances" underlines the poverty of Abner and itinerant farmers as a while. Furthermore, it would usually be considered somewhat shameful to get out of a debt -- even partially -- by being poor; the Justice of the Peace is rubbing Mr. Snopes' poverty in his face.

At the same time, the Justice of the Peace is trying to be somewhat kind to Abner Snopes; the ten bushels of corn is half of what Major de Spain had asked for, and far less than the rug was worth. Seen in this light, Abner could also be considered a symbol of the nameless frustration and rage of adolescence. Though Abner himself is long past this age, his son Sarty.