William Faulkner's " Barn Burning " William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" presents a dichotomy of thought. On one hand, it is a heroic tragedy about Sarty Snopes growing into awareness and morality. On the other, it is a story describing a moribund southern aristocracy built on a tainted ante-bellum foundation of slavery and decaying on a post-war economic oppression of white agrarians. Sarty rightfully looks at this old order of life as a symbol of hope. However, to …showed first 75 words of 1018 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1018 total…collides with his disappointment and suppressed dislike of his own father. He tends to hide his feelings by denying the facts, "our Enemy he though in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He's my Father!" and "The boy said nothing. Enemy! Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see that the Justice's face was kindly." The story's emotional turns are clearly defined by Sarty's thoughts and Abner's actions.