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Barn Burning
“Barn Burning” can be understood as a prequel of sorts to
INTR
INTRO
O Faulkner’s Snopes family trilogy, which explores the lives of a
number of members of the same family as they struggle to
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM FAULKNER ascend the social hierarchy—through any means necessary.
William Faulkner grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, part of a These novels, The Hamlet (1940), The Town (1957), and The
family that had been in the American South for generations. He Mansion (1959) concentrate mostly on Flem Scopes, the
was in the Air Force during World War I before studying at the brother of Sarty who remains unnamed in “Barn Burning,” as
University of Mississippi (though he never graduated). He well as a number of his cousins and other relatives. “Barn
began writing mostly poetry, and in 1924 he published a Burning” can also be positioned within what is known as the
collection of poetry entitled The Marble Faun. He worked for a “Southern Renaissance” in American literature: this literary
time at a bookstore and for a newspaper. But he is most known period sought to portray the South and its history in a more
for his fiction, his “golden period” beginning with the nuanced, often darker way than in earlier works (such as the
publication of The Sound and the Fury in 1929 and lasting until glorification of the pre-Civil War South in Margaret Mitchell’s
Go Down, Moses in 1942. Most of the works written during this Gone with the Wind); examples are Tennessee Williams’s works,
period are evidence of Faulkner’s fascination with the presence including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), which takes place in
of the past (particularly the Southern past), the way history New Orleans as well as the books of Zora Neale Hurston,
presses on individual people, and the bleak, immoral, or amoral including the 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God).
attitudes of the downtrodden. During this time, Faulkner also
supported himself and his family by writing screenplays for
KEY FACTS
Hollywood. For almost all of his life, however, Faulkner lived in
Oxford, Mississippi. In 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Prize • Full Title: “Barn Burning”
for Literature, and his acceptance speech is recognized as one • When Written: 1938-1939
of the best in the prize’s history. He died of a heart attack, • Where Written: Oxford, Mississippi
following a fall from a horse, at the age of 64.
• When Published: 1939 in Harper’s; 1950 in the Collected
Stories
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• Literary Period: Modernism, Southern Renaissance
While “Barn Burning” was written at the end of the 1930s, a
• Genre: Short Story
decade during which the Great Depression created its own set
of struggles for many people in the American South, • Setting: Yoknapatawpha, a fictional county in Mississippi that
serves as the setting for almost all of Faulkner’s works.
Faulkner—here as in his other fiction—reaches back to an
earlier moment for his setting. We know that Abner Snopes • Climax: Sarty breaks free from his mother’s grasp and races up
was wounded “thirty years before” during the Civil War, which to the de Spain house to warn the Major that Abner, Sarty’s
father, is about to burn down his barn—the first time Sarty
sets the story around the late 1890s. In the decades after the
blatantly challenges his father’s authority and chooses to
Civil War, known as the Reconstruction Era, the euphoria that
follow his own values.
followed the liberation of slaves led to a more somber
viewpoint. Many whites in the South strove, and were largely • Antagonist: Abner Snopes, Sarty’s father, is a complex
antagonist—in many ways Sarty admires him and searches for
successful, in keeping black people in a position barely a step
his love and approval. But Sarty also, for most of the story, is
above slavery, whether through sharecropping, extra-legal too reluctant to admit that in another way he despises his
violence such as lynchings, or discriminatory laws. Meanwhile, father, whose resentment, defiance, and bitterness Sarty tries
poor whites also continued to struggle, and some became to avoid and replace with another set of values.
increasingly bitter at having to compete with former
• Point of View: Faulkner is famous for his stream-of-
slaves—and at being considered like them, rather than above consciousness technique, which moves in and out of
them because of their race. While Reconstruction was meant to characters’ minds in a way that can be both powerful and, at
rebuild the South and reunite it with the North after the times, confusing. The third-person narration closely follows
material devastation of the war, by the 1890s it was clear that Sarty’s own perspective, and we do often gain access into
the effort had in many ways been a failure. Sarty’s thoughts at certain moments. But the narrator also
informs us of certain things that Sarty does not know and could
have no way of knowing. As a result, it is sometimes unclear
RELATED LITERARY WORKS

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whether the narration is taking Sarty’s perspective or is stone fragment into the homemade lye, ensuring that it will
enacting a broader third-person narration. streak the rug. The Major comes back to the house and, almost
EXTRA CREDIT shocked, tells Abner that he ruined a hundred-dollar rug, but
since Abner will never make that amount in his life, he’ll charge
Prized Goods. “Barn Burning” won the O. Henry award—a
him twenty bushels of corn against the next crop.
prize that is still given out today—the year it was published, for
the best short story written in 1939. Sarty works hard the rest of the week, and on Saturday his
father orders him to prepare the wagon. He takes his two sons
Post it? After briefly serving as a Mississippi postmaster, a to another courtroom. Sarty is confused and begins to protest
position he despised, Faulkner resigned in a letter that stated, to the Justice that his father didn’t burn anything, but his father
“I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every orders him out. Instead, however, he remains at the back of the
itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage courtroom, where he can see the Major de Spain, incredulous
stamp.” that Abner has dared to sue him for charging him the bushels of
corn. The Justice finds against Abner, but thinks twenty
bushels is too much for a sharecropper, so he modifies the
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY amount to ten.
After the trial, Abner takes the boys to the blacksmith’s, where
“Barn Burning” opens in a general store that is being used for a he regales the shop owner with false stories about his prior
courtroom, where a ten-year-old boy—Colonel Sartoris (Sarty) days as a horse trader. He buys the boys some cheese, then
Snopes, though he’s usually referred to as “the boy”—is takes them to a horse lot, where he watches the horses and
crouching in the back, barely able to see his father, Abner comments on them. They finally return home.
Snopes, and his neighbor, Mr. Harris, who has made a
Soon, however, Sarty hears his mother’s cries, and realizes that
complaint against Abner. According to Harris, Abner allowed
his father is filling a kerosene can with oil. He orders Sarty to
his hog to get into Harris’s yard several times—after Harris
get more oil from the stable, and although Sarty doesn’t want
finally kept the hog and ordered Abner to pay if he wanted it
to, he can’t stop himself from racing to get it. Once back, he asks
back, Abner allegedly set his barn afire that night. Since Harris
his father desperately if he’s going to send someone to warn
has no real proof, he wants Sarty to testify. With a rush of fear,
the Major, like he did last time. His father orders Sarty’s mother
Sarty realizes he’ll have to lie and defend his father, but then
and aunt to restrain him. They do so, although the aunt claims
Harris changes his mind. The Justice says he can’t find Abner
that if Sarty isn’t let go, she’ll go up to the main house herself.
guilty, but advises him to leave town: Abner says he was
Finally Sarty wriggles his way out of his mother’s grasp and
planning to anyway.
races up to the main house, where he shouts, “Barn!” in the
Abner, Sarty, and his brother go outside, where his mother, Major’s face before wheeling around again. He hears the Major
aunt, and two twin sisters are waiting with their meager on his horse behind him and waits in a ditch for him to pass;
possessions loaded into the wagon. That night they stop and then he continues to run, this time away from his house—as he’s
make a small fire. Abner pulls Sarty aside and accuses him of running he hears one shot, then two, and begins to cry out for
having wanted to betray him to the Justice during the trial. He his father. He reminds himself that his father was in the war,
hits Sarty, deliberately but without rage, and tells him that though he doesn’t know that his father was only it in for his
being a man means being loyal to one’s own blood. own, private gain. Cold and grieving, Sarty prepares to continue
The next day the family arrives at a two-room house, just like all walking away from his home and family.
the other ones where the family has lived. Abner tells Sarty to
accompany him to the main house where his employer, the
Major de Spain, lives. Upon seeing the mansion Sarty feels a CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
surge of joy, imagining that it’s impervious to his father’s
Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes – The youngest son of the
destructive tendencies. But as Abner marches up to the house,
Snopes family, ten-year-old Sarty is named after a Confederate
he (seemingly on purpose) steps in horse droppings; a black
officer named Colonel Sartoris who comes up in a number of
servant opens the door and says the Major isn’t at home, but
William Faulkner’s other works. The story often calls Sarty
Abner brushes past him and stamps his foot into the fancy
simply “the boy.” Sarty is in the process of developing his own
imported rug, soiling it. He turns around, Sarty following him,
character and values over the course of the story. He feels a
and after they leave he scoffs at the fact that black laborers
fierce, instinctive loyalty to the rest of his family, but that
built this house.
loyalty coexists both with a feeling that his connection to his
Later that day, the servant brings the rug to the Snopes family family is inevitable, and with a hunger after other, alternative
house to be cleaned. Abner orders the two sisters to clean it, kinds of connections. Sarty has an implicit idea of justice that
and they do reluctantly and lethargically—but he throws a conflicts with his father’s, for instance, and he also—unlike

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other members of his family—manages to retain a sense of household who, ultimately, will give in to Abner’s desires. Only
hope for the future, as epitomized by his reaction to the at the end does she begin to assert her own opinions, when she
elegant, welcoming-looking home of Major de Spain family. claims that she’ll tell Major de Spain that Abner is planning to
Abner Snopes – The patriarch of the Snopes family, Abner burn the barn down if Lennie doesn’t release Sarty.
claims that he was once a “horsetrader,” though he was actually Major de Spain – Abner’s new employer after he is asked to
little more than a stealer of horses during the Civil War, as well leave his former community, the Major de Spain is a wealthy
as a mercenary (someone who fought for money rather than rural landowner and is the Snopes family’s landlord as well as
out of loyalty or patriotism). This is perhaps the reason he was their employer. He thinks of himself as fair and even-tempered,
shot during the wary by a member of the police, and now walks but he also is incredulous at the idea that his authority might be
with a limp. Now, Abner attempts to support his family through questioned, as it is by Abner.
sharecropping, though he never lasts long in one place before Mr
Mr.. Harris – Mr. Harris is a fellow farmer and a neighbor of the
being forced or pushed away. Tall, stiff, and somber, Abner’s Snopes family at the beginning of the story, who takes Abner to
physical appearance is bolstered by his psychological trial for burning his barn, after Mr. Harris complained about
resentment and bitterness with respect to his position in Abner’s hog constantly getting into his own pen. While he
society. His rage against what he sees as the unfairness of this initially asks the judge to make Sarty testify against his own
position leads him to ultimately self-defeating actions, like father, he ultimately gives up and retracts his wish.
burning barns and soiling Major de Spain’s rug. Abner cannot
see any way out of his predicament other than defiantly The Justice (I) – The judge in the Snopes family’s first
challenging the status quo, despite (or perhaps because) he community finds that Mr. Harris has insufficient proof that it
knows nothing will change. was Abner who burned his farm; even so, he suggests that the
Snopes family leave the community for everyone’s peace of
Lennie Snopes – Abner’s wife Lennie is only named once in the mind. Sarty describes him as a bespectacled, aging, and shabby-
story; she is usually referred to as Sarty’s mother. Unlike Abner looking man.
and Sarty, Lennie does not seem to have much of an
independent life outside the home, where she dutifully works in The Justice (II) – The story’s second judge presides over the
support of her family’s needs. Instead she lives in perennial fear community where the Snopes family has just moved, and
of Abner’s next moves, even while she understands that it’s oversees the case in which Abner has sued Major de Spain
useless to try to stop his actions. Lennie loves her children, but over the twenty bushels of corn that, the Major has calculated,
her main emotion is desperation: just as Abner sees himself as Abner owes him for soiling the rug. The judge is immediately
unable to control society, which he so desires to conquer, she recognizable to Sarty as a judge because of his glasses and air
feels out of control within the family. of authority. This justice does find against Abner, although he
lessens the punishment, given the Snopes family’s poverty.
Sarty’s sisters – While Lennie faces the difficulties of
sharecropping life within the home with quiet determination, Major de Spain
Spain’s
’s servant – A black man who works at Major de
Sarty’s sisters deal with their lot with pure passivity. The sisters Spain’s house, this unnamed character is elderly and neatly
are described (from Sarty’s perspective) as large, lazy, and dressed, contrasting with Abner’s own shabby appearance in a
“bovine” or cow-like. Dressed in flouncy dresses and tacky way that makes Abner cling to his racial prejudices even more.
ribbons, the girls seem out of place, if not merely irrelevant to Miss Lula – A female servant, also black, who works for the de
the struggles with justice and authority that characterize Spain family, and reacts with despair to Abner’s soiling of the
Sarty’s childhood. Lennie deals with their passivity and rug.
unhelpfulness as with any other difficulty: even as their mother,
she refrains from trying to mold or change them.
Sarty’s brother – Also unnamed, the brother is older than Sarty
THEMES
and seems to have traveled farther along the path of becoming In LitCharts each theme gets its own color and number. Our
their father. Sarty considers him to be more an adult than a color-coded theme boxes make it easy to track where the
fellow child: several times Sarty becomes confused when he themes occur throughout the work. If you don't have a color
assumes that not he but his brother is being spoken to. The printer, use the numbers instead.
brother is mostly sullen and quiet: we don’t learn anything
about his own fears or desires, though it does seem that he
1 RESENTMENT, RACE, AND PREJUDICE
either agrees with Abner most often or else is willing to choose
loyalty over any other sense of values. The Snopes family is made up of poor white sharecroppers, an
economic class from the post-Civil War American South
The aunt – Lennie’s sister, Sarty’s aunt, lives with the family,
through which poor farmers earned their living by working off
but is mostly portrayed as simply another woman in the
land of owned by another, a landowner who provided certain

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materials and sometimes housing in exchange for the labor and family deal with their economic reality differently. Sarty’s
a percentage of the resulting crop. While former slaves often sisters, for example, who are described somewhat
became sharecroppers in the upheaval after the Civil War and condescendingly as “bovine” and passive, embrace lethargy
Reconstruction, struggling white people increasingly turned to rather than actively trying to defy the system. His mother, in
it as well, even though the system could be grueling and turn, seems mainly fearful and desperate. She knows that
unforgiving, with many sharecroppers entering a cycle of debt there’s little she can do to stop her husband’s defiant actions,
to their landowners from which they might never emerge. though she frets over them all the same.
Abner Snopes, the patriarch of the Snopes family, is deeply Abner, indeed, chooses an openly defiant attitude, one that
resentful of his economic situation—but this resentment is also embraces actions that seem to do nothing other than signal his
racial. Economically, the Snopes family has much more in refusal to accept his lot—and he seems, initially, to be
common with other black sharecroppers, or even with the black succeeding in encouraging his two sons to adopt the same
servants who work at the de Spain house, than with the white stance. Like the other adults in the family, Abner sees the
landowners. And racial prejudice is not, of course, limited to the wealth and success around him and recognizes that it is outside
Snopes family, in American history or in this story. It appears his reach. Because he likes to think of himself as a once-
that part of the reason the black servants at Major de Spain’s successful “horsetrader,” his social and economic descent is
house are so terrified when Abner soils the rug is that they live only more painful. At the same time, he’s fully aware that
in such fear of their master. setting a barn afire or soiling an expensive rug will ultimately do
But Abner in particular finds it vital to distinguish himself from little to nothing to change things. But his destructive bent is
black people in order to cling to one last sense of superiority also a kind of self-destructiveness—and, at the same time, a
and self-respect. And Abner uses his prejudice to justify his reminder that for the family’s place in Southern society at this
own superiority to everyone else. For instance, he positions moment in history, passivity and defiance are in many ways the
himself as superior to the much richer de Spain family because only choices available to the poor.
their house is built, he says derogatorily, from “nigger sweat.” In The only way the story challenges this attitude, is through the
other words, Abner has found a way to make his own status as a ambivalence of Sarty regarding his father’s choices. In many
poor white person one of “purity” based on his prejudice. He ways, Sarty wants to align with his father’s defiance: he babbles
holds black people as naturally inferior to him because he is on about how they’ll refuse to give up the ten bushels of corn
white. But he also holds wealthier white people as inferior to due to the de Spain family for the soiled rug, for instance
him because they use their money to hire black labor, and (though much of this may well stem from his general desire to
thereby are surrounded by black people. Under this prejudicial be loved by his father). At the same time, though, Sarty does
logic, Abner as a poor white person is superior because he have the imaginative capacity to picture other realities, to
neither is black nor can hire blacks. And his ideas seep into the choose a posture that wouldn’t be his sisters’ passivity,
rest of the family—Abner’s son, Sarty, also uses derogatory mother’s desperation, or father’s defiance. That posture is one
language in talking about blacks, even if he hasn’t developed as of hopeful aspiration, epitomized by the sense of “peace and
full-bodied a logic of racism as his father. joy” that he feels in looking up at the de Spain home. When
Yet the story also makes clear that Abner’s viewpoint is Sarty looks at wealth, he sees not inequality, unfairness, and
ultimately motivated by resentment at the fact that he and the unattainable dreams, but safety and security, as well as an idea
black servants are in the same position, his “white sweat” that things could be different for him.
mixing with theirs. Such ugly prejudices are, the story suggests,
meant to be seen in part as an element of Abner’s own personal 3 INDEPENDENCE AND JUSTICE
resentment and selfishness. But they are also portrayed, The Snopes family is entirely dependent on their landowners
through the story’s broader portrait of the society in which for their livelihood, but Abner Snopes constantly tries to assert
Abner lives, as indicative of the larger racial and economic his own independence anyway—even when that involves
relationships that underlie—and warp—the entire American bending the wills of the other members of his family, too, to his
South. own desires. Abner deeply resents having to work for other
men to support his family, and many of his defiant actions, his
2 ASPIRATION, DESPERATION, AND DEFIANCE lack of concern towards the rules and regulations of others, can
The world of “Barn Burning” as Abner Snopes sees it—and as be understood as stemming from such resentment. Yet even
his son Sarty originally does as well—portrays social and while asserting independence, Abner also appeals to other
economic inequalities as a given. One’s professional and class- systems, such as the courts, becoming dependent on them at
based identity, as a judge, sharecropper, servant, or landowner, the same time as he refuses to play entirely by their rules.
is understood as inescapable, and Abner seems to feel these Justice, then, plays an ambivalent role for the Snopes family,
inequalities more acutely than most. Other members of the even as ten-year-old Sarty—watching his father as well as the

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other characters in the story—struggles to determine what being irrevocably severed—with his father and brother shot by
“justice” might mean for him. Abner’s activities entangle his de Spain and possibly dead, Sarty’s sense of justice or honor
family, and Sarty in particular, in so many court proceedings has physically and not just emotionally separated him from his
that Sarty—who is eventually able to recognize any judge by his family and blood. And whatever has happened to his father and
formal, bespectacled appearance—has trouble keeping them brother, at the end of the story Sarty walks away without
straight. Indeed, at one point Sarty confuses one trial with looking back, making clear that he will never return to his
another, and as he and his father enter the courtroom, begins family. In acting in a way that led to his father’s shed blood,
defending his father against the charge of burning a Sarty has shed the “blood” of his ties to his family. What does
barn—when, in fact, it’s his father who is suing Major de Spain. remain an open question in the story, though, is the extent to
Abner may appeal to official court-sanctioned justice just as which Sarty’s escape will, or won’t, prevent him from following
often as other people make formal complaints against him—but in his father’s footsteps and fulfilling what is contained in his
when justice doesn’t go his way, he’s willing to disregard what blood.
he’s told and claim independence once again. When a judge
tells him he’ll owe ten bushels of October corn to Mr. de Spain,
for instance, he tells his son that they’ll just wait until October
SYMBOLS
and then see. Once again, Sarty seems to want to support his Symbols appear in red text throughout the Summary and
father even as he possesses a distinct, more innate sense of Analysis sections of this LitChart.
justice. It’s Sarty, for instance, who objects to the fact that his
father appears to be planning to burn the de Spain barn
without sending a man ahead to warn the de Spains, like he did FIRE
the last time. And it’s Sarty who ultimately warns the Major as a Abner Snopes asserts his independence, his defiance, and his
result. But it is as a consequence of what Sarty understands to own view of justice through fire – by setting fire to the barns
be justice that his father and brother (presumably) are shot—in owned by those who he feels have slighted him. But fire, in
the Major’s own form of vigilante justice. In the stuffy “Barn Burning,” is not solely related to Abner—it is a generally
courtroom, verdicts can often seem unfair; yet as Sarty learns, ambivalent element that can signal both creative power and
the apparently independent system outside it turns out to comfort as well as destruction. The Snopes family, for instance,
function along an even more unpredictable logic of individual crouches around a small, “neat” fire while they are between
“justice.” homes on the road, using the fire to warm themselves, to cook,
and to keep themselves comfortable by a potent source of light.
4 LOYALTY, FAMILY, BLOOD Fire was, after all, necessary to the development of civilization
at all. And yet this same element can also be used for
What “Barn Burning” calls the “old fierce pull of blood” is a
destruction and retribution, as Abner lights up both Mr.
profound motivating force for Sarty—a force that, he both
Harris’s barn and Major de Spain’s, enlisting both Sarty’s
expects and fears, may turn out to determine his own life as
brother and Sarty (at least at first) in these tasks by filling up
well. In the story, blood is referred to in almost a genetic sense:
cans of kerosene. While fires can be restrained through
young Sarty has inherited his father’s blood, and various
vigilance—Abner’s neat, “niggardly” (that is, stingy) fire is an
similarities can be traced between the other family members as
example—they can also quickly careen out of control. Fire’s
well. By discussing both past and future generations of the
dual function thus represents the junction between authority,
family, the story suggests that this blood lineage makes certain
control, and desperation at which the Snopes family’s
features, certain attributes, crop up again and again in a family
experiences are located.
through history.
The stable, enduring legacy of blood has several implications
BLOOD
for Sarty. It suggests that he must be loyal to his father, putting
blood above justice or truth, for instance, and being willing to While “blood” can be a metaphorical way of referring to genetic
lie in order to do so. But it also suggests that Sarty may well be relationships—an important theme in “Barn Burning”—blood is
fated to repeat his father’s actions. also referred to symbolically on a more basic, visceral level
throughout the story. Sarty’s mother attempts to wipe off his
Indeed, the bonds of blood can seem like real, physical chains to
bloody face after he fights with other children who call his
Sarty, wedding him to his family even when he wishes he could
father a barn burner, thus attempting to express her own
escape them. When he first thinks of running away, Sarty
affection for him, even as he brushes her off. Abner Snopes, in
realizes that he simply can’t—that he’s indelibly bound to this
turn, is referred to as “bloodless,” an adjective that only
family. He does, nonetheless, end up betraying his father by
underlines his generally strict, stiff, and rigid attitude.
warning Major de Spain that Abner is going to burn down his
barn. Yet this betrayal results in Sarty’s bonds to his family

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Much of the thematic significance of blood in the story has to •Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
do with its inevitability: the adjective “old” is often affixed to the
word “blood,” as in “the old fierce pull of blood.” Surviving 4
through various generations, blood represents (as in terms of
“bloodline”) the way in which the past works inexorably on the
Maybe he even won’t collect the twenty bushels. Maybe it will all
present, even in ways that are not immediately evident. In
add up and balance and vanish—corn, rug, fire; the terror and grief,
addition, though, the fact that Sarty cannot escape from his
the being pulled two ways like between two teams of horses—gone,
family heritage, the physical presence or absence of blood is
more related to how the family responds to such bonds—with done with for ever and ever.
affection, for instance, or not. •Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes
•Related themes
themes: Aspiration, Desperation, and Defiance,
THE RUG Independence and Justice
The rug at the entrance to the home of Major de Spain •Theme T
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acker
er code
code:
becomes the crux of one of the Snopes family’s numerous
struggles with justice and authority. After Abner defiantly steps 2 3
in horse droppings and then drags his shoe across the rug’s
surface, he orders his daughters to clean the rug (which the
Major has dropped off at the family shack), and he himself uses But there was no glare behind him now and he sat now, his back
a rough, jagged stone, which ensures that the delicate object toward what he had called home for four days anyhow, his face
will not be left unscathed. Both within and beyond the family, toward the dark woods which he would enter when breath was
then, the rug allows Abner to assert his own authority over strong again, small, shaking steadily in the chill darkness,
others, while he can maintain a superior position with respect hugging himself into the remainder of his thin, rotten shirt, the
to them. grief and despair now no longer terror and fear but just grief
and despair. Father. My father, he thought.
We later learn that this rug, adored by Mrs. de Spain cost a
hundred dollars and came from France. Its exotic provenance •Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes
and enormous cost—it’s worth more than the Snopes family will •Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Abner Snopes
ever make in their lifetime, as the Major says—lend the rug
•Related themes
themes: Aspiration, Desperation, and Defiance,
symbolic importance in terms of the entrenched inequalities of
Independence and Justice, Loyalty, Family, Blood
Southern life following the Civil War. The Snopes and the de
Spain families live near each other, and yet occupy entirely •Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
separate worlds. While Abner may never be able to afford the
2 3 4
rug himself, what he can do is ruin it for good—the only way out
of such vast social difference that he can imagine.
He could see his father against the stars but without face or
depth—a shape black, flat, and bloodless as though cut from tin
QUO
QUOTES
TES in the iron folds of the frockcoat which had not been made for
The color-coded and numbered boxes under each quote below him, the voice harsh like tin and without heat like tin: “You were
make it easy to track the themes related to each quote. Each fixing to tell them. You would have told him.”
color and number corresponds to one of the themes explained •Speak
•Speaker
er: Abner Snopes
in the Themes section of this LitChart.
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty”
Snopes
BARN BURNING QUOTES
•Related themes
themes: Loyalty, Family, Blood
“You’re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to
stick to you.” 4
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Abner Snopes
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” He saw the man in spectacles sitting at the plank table and he
Snopes did not need to be told this was a Justice of the Peace; he sent
•Related themes
themes: Loyalty, Family, Blood one glare of fierce, exultant partisan defiance at the man in

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 LitCharts The best way to study, teach, and learn about books.
collar and cravat now, whom he had seen but twice before in his •Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Abner Snopes
life, who wore on his face an expression not of rage but of •Related themes
themes: Resentment, Race, and Prejudice, Aspiration,
amazed unbelief which the boy could not have known was at Desperation, and Defiance, Loyalty, Family, Blood
the incredible circumstance of being sued by one of his own
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
tenants.
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” 1 2 4
Snopes, Abner Snopes, Major de Spain, The Justice (II)
•Related themes
themes: Resentment, Race, and Prejudice, Aspiration, Hit’s big as a court house he thought quietly, with a surge of a
Desperation, and Defiance, Independence and Justice peace and joy whose reason he could not have thought into
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: words, being too young for that: They are safe from him.

1 2 3 •Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Abner Snopes

It was as if the blow and the following calm, outrageous voice •Related themes
themes: Aspiration, Desperation, and Defiance
still rang, repercussed, divulging nothing to him save the •Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
terrible handicap of being young, the light weight of his few
years, just heavy enough to prevent his soaring free of the 2
world as it seemed to be ordered by not heavy enough to keep
him footed solid in it, to resist it and try to change the course of
And now the boy saw the prints of the stiff foot on the
its events.
doorjamb and saw them appear on the pale rug behind the
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” machinelike deliberation of the foot which seemed to bear (or
Snopes, Abner Snopes transmit) twice the weight which the body compassed.
•Related themes
themes: Aspiration, Desperation, and Defiance, •Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty”
Loyalty, Family, Blood Snopes, Abner Snopes
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: •Related themes
themes: Resentment, Race, and Prejudice, Aspiration,
Desperation, and Defiance
2 4
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:

It was not even sadistic; it was exactly that same quality which 1 2
in later years would cause his descendants to over-run the
engine before putting a motor car into motion, striking and
“Ain’t you going to even send a nigger?” he cried. At least you
reining back in the same movement.
sent a nigger before!”
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Abner Snopes
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes
•Related themes
themes: Aspiration, Desperation, and Defiance,
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Abner Snopes
Loyalty, Family, Blood
•Related themes
themes: Independence and Justice, Loyalty, Family,
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:
Blood
2 4 •Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code:

3 4
And older still, he might have divined the true reason: that the
element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father’s
being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, “Pretty and white, ain’t it?” he said. “That’s sweat. Nigger sweat.
as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath Maybe it ain’t white enough yet to suit him. Maybe he wants to
were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with mix some white sweat with it.”
respect and used with discretion. •Speak
•Speaker
er: Abner Snopes
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes •Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Major de Spain

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 LitCharts The best way to study, teach, and learn about books.
•Related themes
themes: Resentment, Race, and Prejudice BARN BURNING
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: The story opens in a general The fact that a country store is
store that is also being used also being used as a courtroom
1
for a court of the Justice of the underlines the rural setting of the
Peace, where a boy—Sarty story, while Sarty’s sensitivity to
Then he was moving, running, outside the house, toward the Snopes, though we’re not yet the smell of meat and cheese
stable: this the old habit, the old blood which he had not been told his name—is crouched at suggests that he may be hungry
permitted to choose for himself, which had been bequeathed to the back, smelling the cheese and his family poor. That he sees
him willy nilly and which had run for so long (and who knew and processed meat that his “sense of loyalty to his blood”
where, battening on what of outrage and savagery and lust) crowds the shelves. He tries to as a feeling also establishes how
before it came to him. I could keep on, he thought. I could run on identify a number of his that feeling of family loyalty is
and on and never look back, never need to see his face again. Only I feelings, from fear, despair, and treated in the story as instictual,
can’t. I can’t. grief to a sense of loyalty to his as being a deeply embedded and
blood. inescapable part of a person.
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes
3 4
•Related themes
themes: Aspiration, Desperation, and Defiance,
Loyalty, Family, Blood Sarty can’t see his father With a fierce burst of loyalty,
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: (Abner Snopes) nor his Sarty aligns his own feelings with
father’s “enemy” at the front; those of his father. He sees – has
2 4 then he tells himself that it’s been trained to see – anyone
both his and his father’s opposing his father as not just
enemy. someone who disagrees but as
He could not see the table where the Justice sat and before “enemy.”
which his father and his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought
in that despair, ourn! mine and him both! He’s my father!) stood. 4
•Speak
•Speaker
er: Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes The Justice asks the other man Mr. Harris is describing the
(the enemy), Mr. Harris, for his actions of Sarty’s father, whom
•Mentioned or related char
characters
acters: Abner Snopes, Mr. Harris,
proof. Mr. Harris says that Harris portrays as wilfully defiant
The Justice (I)
Abner’s opponent’s hog got and careless about other people’s
•Related themes
themes: Resentment, Race, and Prejudice, Aspiration, into his corn several times: first property. This is also the story’s
Desperation, and Defiance, Independence and Justice, Loyalty, he warned him, then gave him first case of derogatory language
Family, Blood wire to fix his pen, then told used to describe African
•Theme T
Trrack
acker
er code
code: him to pay him a dollar to get Americans, a word that was
his hog back. That night a black often used by whites at the time.
1 2 3 4 man, a “nigger,” he says, came
with the dollar and warned him 2 3 4
that wood and hay can
SUMMARY AND ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS burn—later that night, his barn
The color-coded and numbered boxes under each row of burned to the ground.
Summary and Analysis below make it easy to track the themes
throughout the work. Each color and number corresponds to
one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this
LitChart.

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 LitCharts The best way to study, teach, and learn about books.
Since Mr. Harris doesn’t know Sarty initially imagines that he’s Finally, after a long pause, Harris has some basic decency,
anything more about the man only an observer, that he can’t Harris violently curses and and realizes – despite his
who threatened him, the have any part to play in this trial. yells, “No!” For Sarty, time frustration – that it’s unfair to
Justice says this doesn’t count But in being called on to testify it seemed to have halted, but make a boy testify against his
as proof. Harris says the boy is made clear that he is now begins to flow again. The father. Abner’s defiance is
should come up and vouch for implicated in his father’s actions. Justice says he can’t find evident in his insistence that the
Abner—not the protagonist’s His resemblance to his father Snopes guilty but advises him Justice’s advice is no
brother, who’s older, but the further highlights that familial to leave the area for good. punishment, and instead is just
boy, who looks so muich like connection, while also suggesting Snopes agrees, saying he what he already wanted. His lack
his father. the way that inheritances are doesn’t want to stay in a place of decency is evident in his
passed down in families in ways with certain people—and he unprintable curse.
that the family-members curses them in an unprintable
themselves can’t control. way. 2 3 4

3 4 Sarty follows his father in his Sarty often thinks of his father as
stiff black coat out of the room. stiff and upright, an aspect both
Sarty looks at the serious faces Sarty knows what Mr. Harris is His father walks stiffly, since a of Abner’s old war wound and of
and at the shabby, older saying is true, and that lying Confederate musket ball had his general demeanor. Sarty’s
Justice beckoning him up. His would mean going against lodged in his heel when he’d brother seems to fashion himself
father doesn’t look at him, but justice, but he can’t imagine stolen a horse thirty years after his father more naturally
he realizes his father wants another option. Yet his frantic before. The brother also joins, than Sarty.
him to lie, and he frantically realization that he will lie chewing tobacco, and as they
realizes he’ll have to. suggests his discomfort with leave someone whispers, “Barn 1 4
being made to lie, even if his burner!”
loyalty to his father compels it.
Sarty whirls around and sees This impressionistic scene is
3 4 the face of another boy in what confusing, but its confusion
looks like a red haze: he mimics Sarty’s own frantic
The Justice asks for his name, Colonel Sartoris is a character in feelings as he lunges unthinkingly
pounces on the boy and begins
and he whispers “Colonel some of Faulkner’s other stories in his father’s defense.
to beat him until the boy runs
Sartoris Snopes.” The Justice who was a noted Civil War
away. Sarty’s father grabs him,
says a boy with that name officer. Naming Sarty after that 2 4
ordering him to get in the
must tell the truth, while the office suggests that Abner has
wagon.
boy continues to think “enemy” some sense of honor about his
when he looks at Harris. He service during the civil war Sarty’s two “hulking” sisters, The clock, stopped at an
doesn’t notice the justice’s kind (though later in the story this his mother, and his aunt are unknown day and hour, reflects
face or worried tone when he sense will be deeply waiting for them with their old, the family’s poverty, the mother’s
asks Harris if he really wants complicated). Anxious and afraid, run-down pieces of furniture attempt to cling to any small
the boy to testify. Sarty deals with these feelings by loaded into their wagon, symbol of past joy, and the way
continuing to remind himself of including the broken mother- in which life for the family
the loyalties he must keep. He of-pearl clock that had been repeats itself, making time
can’t recognize the kindness in his mother’s dowry. She begins irrelevant. Sarty’s mother cares
the judge’s face as his world is to cry once she sees that Sarty for him in ways his father simply
defined solely by a sense of is hurt, but the father orders doesn’t, but she can never stand
justice on one hand and loyalty her to get back in the wagon. up to Abner.
to his family/father on the other.
1 2
3 4

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 LitCharts The best way to study, teach, and learn about books.
Abner gets in the wagon and Abner’s viciousness toward the The family camps that night The narration here uses a
strikes the mules savagely: it is mules reflects his actual and makes a small, neat fire, number of hypotheticals to, once
the same movement with resentment and anger, despite something the father excels at. again, shuttle between the past,
which his descendants in later his assertion that he wants to If Sarty was older, he might present, and future, as well as to
years would over-run a car leave this area. Also, note how have wondered why the fire allow the reader to enter into
engine before starting it. the story often moves back and was so small, given his father’s knowledge of the father that
forward in time, making the experience in war and his own Sarty does not now possess,
family’s saga a multigenerational voraciousness with whatever including that his father’s role in
one, and further establishing the is not his. He might then have the Civil War was not as
idea that a family’s traits are imagined that this small blaze honorable as Sarty thinks, as it
naturally and inevitably passed was what resulted from his seems to have involved stealing
down. father’s nights spent during horses from both sides.
those four years of war hiding
1 4 from both sides of the conflict 2 4
Sarty wonders to himself Sarty wants desperately to be with his “captured horses.”
whether his father is satisfied, loyal to his father, but he also And if Sarty was even older, In another hypothetical, the
now—maybe it’s over. His knows that what his father does the story suggests, he might narration settles on what is
mother asks Sarty if his is wrong, but finds it painful to have realized that fire spoke to actually the case: that there is a
shoulder hurts, and he brushes think about. Here he hits upon something deep inside his deep connection between fire
her off. He doesn’t know the thought that his father might father and was his only and Sarty’s father, for whom it
where they’re going—no one in have set up this next house weapon. Now, though, Sarty represents a way for him to
the family ever does, though ahead of time, which would just thinks of it as normal. He is maintain control over a world in
it’s always some house waiting imply that he burned down almost asleep when his father which he otherwise feels
for them a day or more away. Harris’s barn not in a fit of rage tells him to follow him up to powerless.
It’s even possible his father but in cold blood. But Sarty stops the road, where he looks at his
had already arranged a job at that thought before he has to father’s stiff, sharp outline. 1 2 3 4
another farm before… but here face the implication.
the boy stops his thoughts. When they are alone, Abner In the courtroom, Sarty had
3 4 says that his son was going to believed it was necessary for him
tell them during the to lie, but it appears that his
His father, Sarty knows, Sarty’s father is not just rigid and father saw only his fear and
trial—would have told on him.
always can stop himself—he despised: here we learn that his anxiety and interpreted that as
He strikes Sarty on the side of
has a “wolflike” independence faults can also be strengths, and disloyalty. Again, the story moves
the head like he’d struck the
and courage that impresses in another situation could well forward in time to suggest that in
mules. He tells Sarty that he
strangers, in his insistence that benefit the family. the future, Sarty will have a more
must learn to stick with his
his actions are right and that own blood in order to survive. confident, rational
anyone who shares his 2
Twenty years later, Sarty understanding of his father, and
interests will also share his would understand that if he his father’s belief that family
advantages. said the men only wanted loyalty, and loyalty specifically to
truth or justice, his father Abner himself, outweighs any
would have hit him again. Now, other principle. Now, though,
though, he says nothing, and Sarty can only obey.
then simply whispers, “yes,”
before his father sends him 2 3 4
back to bed.

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The next day they arrive at a This particular journey of the Abner’s stiff foot comes down Sarty still has the capacity to
two-room house identical to all family from one place to the next into a pile of fresh horse imagine that his father might
the dozen others they’ve lived is the only one in this story, but droppings, which he could change, that he might be affected
in since Sarty was born, ten we are meant to understand that have easily avoided. Sarty by the beauty of the house just
years ago. The mother and such journeys define the family’s wonders if his father’s rage will like he was. But his father’s
aunt begin to unload the existence. While the mother and be tempered by falling under purposeful step into the horse
wagon, while one sister says aunt are stoic and dutiful, the the spell of the house. They dung along with his stiffness and
the house probably isn’t fit for sisters deal with their reality with cross the portico and the rigidity signal that Sarty’s dreams
hogs. But her father tells her lazy passivity. father marches up to the door, of his father changing are no
to help unloading, and the two his wide black hat formal but more than that: dreams.
sisters, bovine and passive, 2 ratty.
wearing ribbons, begin to 1 2
unload as well. An old black man in a linen Abner’s behavior here, insane as
Abner tells Sarty to Abner’s claim about ownership jacket opens the door and tells it is, seems completely planned
accompany him to see their underlines his resentment, but it the “white man” to wipe his out: from stepping in the horse
new employer, who the father also highlights the very real feet, and that the Major isn’t dung to soiling the rug. It is clear,
says will own him for the next nature of sharecropping in the home. The father orders the then, that Abner is purposely and
eight months. Sarty recognizes South, which is barely a step up servant, calling him “nigger,” to proactively announcing his
that before last night, his from slavery (a fact that of get out of his way, and flings defiance, that regardless of his
father had struck him but course only increases Abner’s open the door. Sarty watches a status as a sharecropper he
never explained why. Young as resentment, but also levels a dirty footprint appear on the refusese to acknowledge the
he is, Sarty is both “heavy” subtle condemnation of the pale rug inside the door, as if superiority of the landholders for
enough to prevent him from structure of Southern society his father is stamping the whom he works. That the black
taking pure joy in the world, more generally). Sarty, in turn, footprint in. The servant servants are so much better
but not “heavy” enough to take feels out of place, too old for shouts for Miss Lula: a lady in a dressed than Abner only further
a stand in it, to try to resist or innocence and too young for gray lace-necked gown and emphasizes his social position,
change it. responsibility or control over his apron rushes down, looking and feeds his resentment and
social familial situation. amazed and incredulous. need to assert superiority, which
he does by ordering the servants
1 around and calling them by racial
epithets.
The two come to a huge house: Sarty’s feelings of joy and
when Sarty sees it he forgets security on seeing the house 1 2
his father, his terror and make a notable contrast to his
despair. He’s never seen father’s sense of resentment and Shakily, Miss Lula asks Abner Abner has such contempt for the
anything like this house, and, defiance. Here, Sarty allows to go away. He doesn’t speak servants that he barely considers
with a feeling of joy, he thinks himself to separate himself a again or look at her: he pauses, them as other people: instead, he
to himself that the owners of small amount from his father in then just as deliberately pivots, is fixated on the defiant purpose
this house are safe from his imagining this massive home as smearing the stain into the rug at hand, ruining the rug.
father, beyond his touch—even an impervious, safe one. His without looking at it, and Meanwhile, the story subtly
their barns are stable and sense of his father’s inability to marches back out with the implies through the black
impervious to his flames. This touch it is not a source of sound of a woman’s wail servants horror that they don’t
feeling ebbs, though, when he frustration but one of hope that behind him. just fear Abner but also what de
looks at his father’s stiff, such places might exist, even, for Spain will do to them when he
limping figure and realizes his him. And yet this sense dissolved finds out what they couldn’t stop
father never seems dwarfed by when he looks again at his father happening. The story thereby
anything, even this house. and sees his inexorable subtly portrays how racism in the
resentment and anger. South was deeply embedded
everywhere (not just in Abner),
2 4 even if it took many forms.

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Abner stops to clean his boot, Abner’s ugly prejudices reveal Sarty watches them all Abner seems to enjoy ordering
and looking back at the house, that he feels himself superior afternoon, lazily and his daughters to work. However,
tells his son disparagingly that than both the blacks who built reluctantly cleaning the rug in throwing the stone into the
“nigger sweat” built it, and now the house, and the whites who with harsh homemade wash pot he also renders the
the Major presumably wants deigned to hire them. He detergent while the father washing effort useless, since now
to mix “white sweat” with it. manages his resentment and stands over them implacably. the rug will be stained and even
prejudice in such a way that, by Then the mother comes over more ruined. His wife fears this,
his logic, only he is truly pure or and looks at them in despair. but Abner seems unable or
superior. Abner picks up a fragment of unwilling to stop himself from
field stone and puts it into the defiantly showing his
1 wash pot, though his wife is independence from his
Two hours later, Sarty is Sarty, his mother, and his aunt all begging him not to. “superiors” through destructive
chopping wood while the take up the necessary work of acts.
women of his family are inside chores and errands, while his
2
preparing food (though not his sisters refuse to join in (and their
sisters, who are lazy and idle). mother seems unwilling to force They eat the cold food left Sarty often perceives his father
Sarty watches the male them to). Sarty may be too young over from their afternoon meal as almost two-dimensional, a flat
servant trot by on a horse, to influence his father, but he is and then go to bed. Abner, though intimidating silhouette: it
followed by a black boy, his aware enough to pay close though, is not yet in bed, and is as if flattening his father in his
face angry, on a carriage horse attention to everything around the last thing Sarty mind is a way for him to try to
carrying the rolled-up rug. him. Meanwhile, the dropping-off remembers before going to come to terms with his father’s
They deposit the rug at the of the rug indicates that de Spain sleep is his harsh silhouette incomprehensible decisions and
corner of the house where his expects Abner to clean what he bending over the rug. It feels impenetrable mind.
father and brother are sitting soiled, but the passive aggressive like he’s hardly slept when that
and gallop back. way in which it is dropped off same silhouette is standing 2
also shows the way that de Spain over him, and his father orders
simply and naturally expects him to get the mule.
such cleaning to occur not only
When Sarty comes back with Abner often does seem to want
because Abner should clean up
the mule his father is standing his son around, but not to help or
the mess he made, but because
with the rolled rug over his assist him in anyway—merely as
Abner, as an inferior, should of
shoulder, and he orders his son a witness to his actions. Perhaps
course show deference to de
to help him onto the mule. he is providing a model for his
Spain.
Together they go back up to son to follow, as Sarty’s brother
1 2 4 the now dark house. He asks seems to have learned to do, or
his father if he wants help, but perhaps for Abner his defiance
The father begins to shout for While it was Abner who soiled Abner doesn’t answer. He only can register if it is witnessed.
his daughters, one of whom the rug, he now takes pleasure in walks up to the portico and
drags the rug into the house, asserting his own authority thunderously dumps the rug 4
and tells the other to set up within the family by ordering his onto the ground. A light goes
the wash pot (though she tells wife and children around. His on, but they don’t stay and
Sarty to do so). With the wife wants to avoid conflict at all return to their shack together.
mother looking on anxiously, costs, but even that is something
he orders the daughters to overrules.
clean the rug: lethargically,
they pick it up. The mother 2 3
says she’ll do it, but he orders
her to go back to making
dinner.

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 LitCharts The best way to study, teach, and learn about books.
Early that morning, father and Major de Spain seems more On Saturday, Sarty’s father This court scene is in many ways
son are equipping the mules surprised than angry, which only orders him to gear up the a repetition of the one that
for plowing when the Major underlines the rarity of someone wagon, and the father and two started the story, though this
rides up. He tells Abner, who in a position so far beneath him sons go to the store, mounting time it’s Abner who is trying to
remains stooping with his back ever even being able to cause the steps and once again turn the system of justice to his
to the Major, that he must him harm. Their economic looking at a sea of faces. Sarty own advantage by bringing a
realize he ruined the rug, statuses, indeed, are so radically sees a man with glasses and case against de Spain. Once
which cost a hundred dollars. distinct that the Major struggles understands it’s another again, the Major seems more
Since that sum is far too large to find a punishment that might Justice of the Peace, and also incredulous than angry that
for Abner, the Major be “fair” for both, as the rug in sees the Major in collar and Abner has dared to challenge his
continues, he’s going to charge house costs more than Abner will cravat. The Major has an proper place in the world.
Abner twenty bushels of corn make in a lifetime. The economic expression of unbelief, not
against his crop—it won’t make inequality on display in the story rage, at being sued by his 3
Mrs. De Spain happy, but it is staggering. tenant (though Sarty doesn’t
might teach Abner a lesson. know this).
Then the Major leaves. 1 2
Sarty goes up to the Justice To ten-year-old Sarty, his father’s
Sarty calls to his father and Sarty almost instinctively begins and cries that his father didn’t various misdeeds meld into one.
cries that he did the best he to blurt out expressions of loyalty burn—but his father interrupts He thinks he’s been given
could. Mr. de Spain won’t get to his father about how they’ll him and orders him back to the another chance to defend his
his twenty bushels: he’ll gather never give up the twenty bushels, wagon. Rhe Justice is father and does so with vigor –
and hide it, he says. His father yet despite Abner’s prior confused. he’s always looking to gain his
simply asks if he’s put the insistence that Sarty be loyal to father’s favor, to show his loyalty
cutter back like he asked, and him, here he’s just as to his blood, though such a desire
when Sarty says no, he orders dispassionate to his son as to the to do so communicates Sarty’s
him to do it. Major. conflicted feelings about that
loyalty.
4
3 4
For the rest of that week Sarty Unlike his sisters, and unlike his
works steadily and dutifully, father, Sarty knows how to work Rather than go to the wagon, At first, Abner does seem to want
which he’s learned from his hard and obey authority—an Sarty remains in the back of the Justice to understand him
mother. With the older element of his “blood” that seems the room, where he can hear and confirm his sense of his own
women he builds pens for the to stem from another member of the Justice ask if Abner thinks rightness. When it looks like the
animals. One afternoon, when the family, his mother. As he has twenty bushels of corn is too Justice is challenging his
his father is absent, Sarty goes before, here Sarty tries to high for the damage done. account, however, Abner refuses
to the field where his father is imagine an alternate reality to Abner says he washed out the to participate any longer.
plowing. He wonders if his situation in which his father tracks and took the rug back,
perhaps the twenty bushels changes and does not pursue the but the Justice says he didn’t 2 3
will be a cheap price to actually kind of “justice” than the one his carry it back in the same
change his father. He thinks father insists on. That Sarty even condition—and Abner refuses
that perhaps Major de Spain thinks of “fire” as part of the to answer.
won’t try to collect the twenty “balance,” though, shows that
bushels, that somehow the Sarty already senses that his
whole thing will all balance out father is going to resort to
between the corn, rug, and fire, burning things. Even as he hopes
or between the terror and that things will change, Sarty’s
grief. inclusion of a “fire” that has not
occurred in his thoughts shows
that nothing will.

2 4

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The Justice says he’s going to This time the Justice does find The father gives his two sons Abner is perhaps in a better
find against Abner, but twenty against Abner, but like the Major some cheese and crackers to mood while boasting about horse
bushels seems high for he tries to find a fair balance eat and they sit silently, eating trading: Sarty does get to eat
someone in his circumstances. between the two parties’ vastly and drinking. Still they don’t go some cheese, which he could
October corn will be worth different social situations—but home, instead heading to a only smell at the general store at
fifty cents, and given that such “fairness” only further horse lot, where his father the beginning. Though, again,
Abner can stand a five-dollar highlights that ultimate comments to no one in Abner’s cheer might actually be
loss he hasn’t yet earned, he’ll difference between de Spain and particular about some of the an indication of a planned
hold him responsible for ten Abner’s situations, and that is animals being shown. response to the court decision
bushels of corn to be paid out never something Abner will against him.
of the crop then. abide.
2
3
After sundown they reach After a more pleasant lull amid
After the trial, while Sarty Sarty continues to try to win his home and eat supper. the anxious activity that has
imagines they’ll return home, father over by showing that he’s Suddenly, as Sarty is sitting on characterized most of the story,
his father instead marches on his father’s side. Abner’s the doorstep, he hears his Abner puts his new plot in
past the wagon to the uncharacteristically gentle mother cry her husband’s motion. This time Sarty’s mother
blacksmith shop. Sarty response that they’ll wait until name and repeat, “No!” He attempts to resist, but
whispers to his father that de October seems to indicate a kind turns around and watches his ineffectually. Abner’s
Spain won’t get even one of mellowing, but also might father empty the lamp combination of cruelty combined
bushel. He continues to indicate that his father already reservoir back into the with a lack of outright
whisper until his father glances has a plan. kerosene can as his wife tugs viciousness captures the sense
down at him, his voice almost at him, until he flings her back, that he feels that he is following a
gentle and pleasant, and says 4 hard but not viciously, into the kind of principle rather than just
they’ll wait until October wall. rashly acting out: he believes he
anyway. must assert his defiance and
independence.
In the blacksmith shop they fix The narrator, and thus the
some of the problems with the reader, know more than Sarty 1 2
wagon, which has become run- does about his father’s true past
down, and then Abner orders occupations. Here Abner Abner orders Sarty to get the As he does only rarely, Sarty
Sarty to hitch up the mules. exaggerates in order to make his can of oil from the stable. Sarty allows himself to imagine a life
Sarty listens to his father tell relationship to horses sound begins to ask why, but his beyond and apart from his father,
the blacksmith and another more glamorous (rather than a father orders him to go. Out of from the pull of his “blood.” But at
man a long story of when he horse-trader he stole horses the “old habit of blood” Sarty this point his connection to his
was a professional during the war). What is evident, rushes to the stable. He father and hgis blood remains
horsetrader. As he listens, nonetheless, is that he does imagines continuing to run, too strong for him to disobey
Sarty stares at posters of last genuinely love horses. Sarty never looking back to see his Abner.
year’s circus taped up on one staring at the circus poster is a father’s face again—but he
reminder of his youth, but also a can’t make himself do it. 4
side of the store.
reminder of the sort of world of
fun and entertainment that is
inaccessible to him.

2 3

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Sarty runs back and hands the Even though Sarty could not Behind Sarty, the Major Now Sarty is caught between
can to his father, crying that at bring himself to disobey his shouts for his horse. Sarty two homes, the mansion and the
least his father sent a “nigger” father, he continues to retain his thinks he should cut across the shack, and between two worlds.
before as a warning. Instead of own sense of justice—he thinks it park, but doesn’t know how He knows, however, that his
striking him, his father grabs only fair for his father to warn high the fence is, so he word to the Major has been
him by the back of the shirt. the Major de Spain of what he continues down the drive, effective, as he hears the man’s
Sarty’s brother advises his plans to do. Now Abner is once hearing the galloping horse horse behind him. The Major’s
father to tie Sarty to the again convinced that Sarty, behind him and then own brutality in pursuit of
bedpost, but Abner only unlike his brother, is the one overtaking him. Sarrty throws “justice” is evident in the way he
responds by ordering the whose loyalty is up for question. himself aside into the ditch to disregards Sarty’s safety, such
brother to empty the smaller avoid it. that Sarty has to thrown himself
can into the bigger one. He 2 4 from the road to avoid being
then drags Sarty into the other trampled.
room, telling the mother,
“Lennie,” to hold him, or else 2 3 4
he’ll escape to the main house. Then Sarty springs up and We are not told what has
Abner departs. continues racing, though he happened, but are left, like Sarty,
Sarty begins to struggle, while This is the only moment at which knows it’s too late. Even after to conjecture that Abner and
his mother catches him in both Sarty’s aunt seems to express her he hears one, then two shots possibly Sarty’s brother have
arms. Sarty cries that he own opinions and desires—she he keeps running, crying, been shot by the Major. The
doesn’t want to have to hit her, too thinks that what Abner is “Pap!” and then “Father!” and Major has enacted his own
and the aunt cries to let him doing is wrong, and that Sarty glancing backward at the glare brutal “justice” in response to
go, or else she’ll go up to the should be allowed to escape to of the burning barn. Abner’s “justice.”
house himself. His mother warn de Spain.
2 3
cries that she can’t, and
protests as Sarty struggles out 2 3 4
of her grasp and races out of
the house.
His mother cries at his sister Running as before, this time
to grab him, but his sister—a Sarty’s desperate racing allows
twin, we now learn—is too him to refrain from thinking too
large, slow, and impassive. long about what he is doing, the
Sarty races out of the house disloyalty that he is showing to
and up to the gate, running up his father. Instead he simply
to the big lighted house. Sarty works based on his own instinct
bursts in, gasping for breath, of justice, even as he refuses to
and sees the black man say more than a word to the
looking astonished. Then a Major.
white man, de Spain, emerges,
and Sarty cries, “Barn!” into his 2 4
face before wheeling around
and back out the door.

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By midnight Sarty reaches the While on his race to de Spain’s While Sarty will soon be Sarty’s stiffness serves as a final
top of a hill, not knowing how mansion Sarty was momentarily hungry, for now he is only cold, suggestion of his father’s own
far he’s come, his back still to poised between two worlds, the so he decides to keep walking, stiff gait, creating a physical
the shack that was his home very position of his body now the sound of the whippoorwills image that challenges the notion
for four days. His face is underlines the fact that he has telling him that it’s almost that Sarty might ever be able to
towards the woods, which he’ll left his family behind. Once again dawn. He’s a little stiff, but rid himself of his father’s heritage
enter when he’s recovered his the narration separates from counts on walking to cure that. for good.
strength. Shaking and sobbing, Sarty’s own mind, in an instance He doesn’t look back behind
he thinks of his father, then of dramatic irony in which we him. 2 3 4
cries aloud that he was come to know more about Abner
brave—he was in Colonel than his son does. Sarty
Sartoris’s cavalry. He doesn’t continues to feel the pull to find HOW T
TO
O CITE
know that his father had things to love and honor in his It's easy to cite LitCharts for use in academic papers and reports.
actually served in war as a father, and finds it in his father’s
“true private,” giving no one military service as part of
authority, and interested only Colonel Sartoris’s cavalry. But
MLA CIT
CITA
ATION
in booty from any side. the story makes it clear that his Baena, Victoria. "Barn Burning." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 12 Jan
father, in fact, was just a 2017. Web. 12 Jan 2017.
mercenary looking for money.
Sarty will never know this fact CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL CIT
CITA
ATION
which makes his own name, Baena, Victoria. "Barn Burning." LitCharts LLC, January 12, 2017.
given to him by his father, a kind Retrieved January 12, 2017. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/barn-
of lie. And so, even as Sarty burning.
leaves his family, separates from
his “blood,” the story makes it
murky indeed about whether he
can ever actually escape his
familial “inheritance.”

2 3 4

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