William Faulkner portrays a family that exists with almost no human warmth, yet generates a feeling of loyalty from son to father. Sarty feels this in the makeshift courtroom, despairing over his testimony against his father, as the familiar “fierce pull of blood” and later the “grief of blood.” Part of that pull was the boy’s understanding that he must lie for his father, implying that at age ten, he has already done so before.
When Sarty physically attacks the other boy for whispering “Barnburner,” his parents do not discipline him, which suggests that physical fights are sanctioned. His father also speaks abruptly to his mother when she wants to tend to Sarty’s injuries; she continues to ask him about being hurt as he shrugs her off. Later, his father beats him because he believes the boy would have testified against him and refuses to believe when he says he would not have done so.
The family lives almost a nomadic lifestyle, indicating a lack of stability and security for the children, as Sarty has already moved a dozen times. The overall impression is that any affection the boy receives comes from his mother and that his father is physically and verbally abusive toward his family.
Further Reading
In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” readers get very little detail on the lives of the Snopes’ family. Much of the action is focused on Abner and his son, Sarty—the conflict between these two is the central focus of the story. The glimpses that are given of the family life are grim. Abner is shown to be a mean, controlling head of household who orders his family about with no emotion. They must listen to him or else. Their lives, then, are reduced to following Abner’s orders without resistance.
The wife herds the children around and packs up their meager belongings when Abner burns a barn and they must flee. She prepares the meals and keeps the children out of the way. The children have no friends that we know of, probably because they have been taught to keep to themselves by their father; also, they are constantly on the move. Thus, readers can deduce that the Snopes’ family life is a miserable one—one where they live in fear of the father and the law, where they just barely survive and have little happiness.
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