Fan-Lit: Review of Barn Burning

Review of "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner

Read the story here "Barn Burning"

The story takes place in the Southern countryside in the late 1890's. The main character Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes and revolves around his struggle between his morality and his loyalty to his family. The story opens with Sarty's father, Abner in the local courthouse trying to defend himself from accusations that he burned down a man's barn. Sarty is called to testify but his apprehension gets him dismissed. His father believes that Sarty would have told the truth instead of lying to save his family, and Abner beats Sarty. When they get a new job in a different county, Abner is up to his old tricks again. He dirties the new employer's rug and when tasked to clean it, he purposefully beats it with a rock. When called out by the new employer for damaging the rug, Abner decides to burn down the barn, again. This time Sarty does tell on his father, preventing him from burning down another barn. Unfortunately, his father is shot dead, and the story ends with Sarty contemplating his actions and how they affected his family.

The Snopes family live in poverty and are sharecroppers for landowners. Throughout the story, Abner is depicted as being ungrateful and angered at his situation. “Faulkner uses setting to evoke the class distinctions that fuel Snopes’s deep resentment” (Sparknotes.com). Burning a barn is Abner's way of avenging the life that he has been dealt. Almost a way of “sticking it to the man”, unfortunately he doesn't ever think about how his actions affect his family. Instead, he asked his sons to lie in court for him. This leads to the confusion that Sarty has, when dealing with his father.

Loyalty to family and to the law is the main theme of the story. Who or what is Sarty supposed to be loyal to? The Snope's family “moral code is based on family loyalty rather than traditional notions of right or wrong” (Sparknotes.com). In the beginning Sarty was going to tell the truth in the courthouse and then after his father hits him. In the second courthouse Sarty tries to defend his father but instead ruins his father's case and the family has to pay back the rug damage in corn bushels. Even though he didn't get beat, the outcome was not positive. When his father decides to burn down the barn again, Sarty finally learns “that family loyalty comes at too great a cost and is too heavy a burden” (Sparknotes.com).

Faulkner's writing style incorporates long sentences held together by commas, similar to the use of the stream of consciousness. “This unique style lends Faulkner’s work a sense of scope and continuity” (Sparknotes.com). Crafting the sentences this way, allows the reader into the mind of the character. It show the frantic and uncertain thoughts of the character and reflects the struggles that average people have every day. Faulkner's sentence structure makes it a bit hard to understand the order of events, a second reading is recommended to better understand the story.

"Barn Burning" is an interesting tale about morality and family, set in the country. A simple story about betrayal and family. While the story relies a lot on the setting, the theme is something can can still be found to this day. Again, I would recommend reading this at least twice to fully comprehend what is going on. I have not read much of Faulkner's work and while not impressed with his writing style in this story, I am looking forward to reading more of his work.

An excellent visual breakdown of the story is available here