The main character in William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," is 10-year-old Sarty Snopes. As Sarty observes his father's behavior, young Sarty must make a life-defining decision. What is the choice that Sarty must make and what makes this decision so diffcult? Reread the final paragraphs of the story and discuss how Sarty has changed; what does Sarty understand differently after making his coming-of-age decision? 
Sarty father did a lot of wrong things. His father told his mother to hold him and not let go. Sarty finally go out of his mothers grip and ran, while his mother, aunt, and sisters were yelling for him and trying to grab him, however he was just out of their reach. Sarty sprinted up to the house and uttered the words “barn” that’s all he could muster out. The white man knew exactly what he was talking about. He cried out “Get Him!” and that’s what he did. The white man got his horse and raced down to the barn. Sarty ran as fast as he could back to the barn. He heard two big bangs. As he was stumbling and running he yelled out “father father!!” Sarty made the decision to go and tell the white man about the barn. He went against his father and family and did what was right.
ReplyDeleteThis fits into the Coming of Age perfectly because it may not be with your family but we as teenagers are faced with the challenge of doing the right thing every day. We watch people make the wrong decisions daily and most of us do nothing about it. Sarty decided enough was enough and did the right thing. Yes he went against his father but while growing up and maturing he realized what his father was doing was wrong and he made the decision to try and fix it.
I feel that Sarty realized that no matter who it is and no matter the consequences you need to do the right thing. You can’t go through life seeing wrong be done and just allow it to happen and have the people who are doing to wrong thing allow you to help and lie for them. I think Sarty realized the fact that he was part of the wrong doing just by lying. Yes family is family and I would do anything for my family but I feel that I would have done the same thing as Sarty and said enough is enough.
Sarty has to go through a lot in this story. His father had been accused of burning a barn down, and he also ruined a very expensive rug for no reason. The problem that he goes through is that he has to choose between family, and doing the right thing. Sarty was told that family always sticks together and no matter what happens never rat out family. But he also knew that he couldn't allow his father to burn another barn. Back in those times a barn held absolutely everything for a farmer. It contains things like the animals, stacks of hay, grass cutting instruments, seeds, soil, and much more. If a farmers barn burns down then they will have nothing left and the farmer will never be able to recover from the loss. So this choice for Sarty was extremely difficult. It was either protect his father and hide the truth or stop him and tell the police. Sarty i believe made the right choice and realized he can't protect someone who wants to ruin another person's life.
ReplyDeleteIn the story “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner Sarty Snopes is the main character. In the story Sarty has to make a very difficult decision. His decision is to pick between the morals of the society we all live in or his family. This decision is very difficult because he has to pick between his family who is his reason for existence and what he feels inside him is right and wrong. If he doesn’t tell on his father who is going to burn down the barn he will always know that he let him do it. He was always loyal to his family, but in the end of this story he makes the decision to try to warn the man who owns the barn that his father is going to burn down. I believe that this is a coming of age event because Sarty realizes that he can’t always stay loyal to his family that sometimes he needs to do what he feels good about, what he feels is the right thing to do. Otherwise he would always feel bad inside himself and have an ongoing internal conflict. I also think Sarty has a new understanding of family loyalty because he realizes that his father is asking him to do the wrong thing and that he is not really being loyal to his son by asking him to do something this wrong.
ReplyDelete"Barn Burning" By: William Faulkner
ReplyDeleteSarty Snopes comes a family with intimidation to his father. He's taught that you must always stand by your family no matter what the situation. Sarty grows up with almost more fear of his father than love. His father is a harsh very stern man who expects his family to back him up no matter what the situation might be. But during the story Sarty finds the breaking point to this loyalty when his father attempts to burn down another barn due to his anger. Although the first incident of barn burning left Sarty feeling un sure about the situation, He knew that breaking his families trust is forbidden. But when the second event occurred something about Sarty changed. Instead of going along with such an act of anger he went to the barn owner to let him know what was happening. I feel Sarty grew up at little at this point, because he stepped beyond what he thought was wrong and did the right thing.
This is very "coming of age" in my mind because, as teenagers or even as a person there is so much we need to think about all the time. I agree with Jordan when she says “as teenagers are faced with the challenge of doing the right thing every day." This is very true, and this is why I feel Sarty in the story experiences a very coming to age experience. Growing up with a parent or parents who are always telling you "family first", you will eventually just start to live this way. And there's nothing wrong with this in most cases but, in Sarty's case he found his own character from his father’s situation. Sarty could have easily just let this event occur again. Instead he looked beyond his families morals and did the right thing. It’s very hard for most teenagers to do the opposite of what their paints want them to do in a situation like Sartys. Most teenagers do feel that it's family no matter what the situation. But in Sartys case he revised his feelings and did the right thing. Although to his father it might have been the wrong thing but Sarty I feel learned at this point that it's okay to grow out of your parent’s opinions and into your own person.
In the story Barn Buring, the main character Sarty Snopes is faced with a rather difficult decision. Sarty, has to choice between family, and what society views is right and wrong. Why is it so hard for Sarty to choice, well for one, Sarty is only ten years of age, and two, I feel Sarty fears his father. Sarty's father hits Sarty, and though the blows are never hard, or as the author calls them "without heat", I still feel that for a ten year old boy, being hit when he doesn't agree with his father, can be very frightening. In the end, Sarty does end up going against his father, and tries to warn the owner of the barn of his father's intentions. I feel Sarty learns a lot from going against his father. For one, Sarty learns that you can be loyal to your family, but not always agree with what your family thinks or is doing. Sarty also learns the tell tale old lesson or right and wrong. Sarty knows that his father buring down the barns is wrong, and when he finally speaks up against it but warning the owner, Sarty also learns that things would have been much worse for him and his family if he didn't tell the owner of his father's plans. Had Sarty not told the own of his father's plan, and the owner and people of the town discovered that Sarty knew and did not tell, the people of the town would give Sarty the name of barn burner as well. At least now, Sarty has a chance to make a different name for homself, as well as his family.
ReplyDeleteThe main character in William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," is 10-year-old Sarty Snopes. As Sarty observes his father's behavior, young Sarty must make a life-defining decision. Sarty doesn't really like his father because he sees him as a mean person. He's basically afraid of him, which isn't good because that's his dad and he should love him and not be afraid of him. You're supposed to back whatever your families decision to a situation, with whatever it may be, except for Sarty goes against his father when his father burns another barn down. It's a difficult decision because he's going against what his family is doing, and that's hard because you don't know if your family is going to accept you now or if they're going to want nothing to do with you. It's coming of age because the older you get, the more decisions you can make on your own. You become your own person and can tell the difference between right and wrong and can make your decisions based on that.
ReplyDelete10 year old Sarty Snopes has to make a decision between right and wrong. His decision is all the more difficult since it involves his family. The choice he must make is whether to let his father burn down another man’s barn or go tell the man what his father is going to do. The decision is so difficult because Sarty knows that burning down the barn is the wrong thing to do, but he should not betray his own family. Sarty changes considerably since in the beginning he would lie for his father. In the ending of the story Sarty realizes that after all the beatings he has taken from his father he should go tell the man that his own father is going to burn his barn down. However, in the end Sarty sees his father as brave. He is confused considerably.
ReplyDeleteThis story is part of the coming of age because each day we have to make decisions. We have to decide whether to make the right decisions or back the people that we care about the most. Sarty had the very same experience. He had to decide whether to stick with his own blood like the story says or have no blood at all. Sarty now learns that once he makes a decision there is no looking back. Sarty did just that he never looked back. Sarty’s experience changed his life and his family. He became a new man that day.
The choice that Sarty must make is to tell the man that his father is going to burn down his barn or protect his father by not saying anything. What makes his decision so difficult is to stick by your family who raised you and who have taken care of you all your life or doing what is right. He has changed in the way that he no longer respects his father. In the end he sees his father as brave but he never looks back on telling the man that his father was going to burn down his barn. For the coming of age we all have to decide what is right and wrong. We have to make these decisions everyday and some of them are between sticking between your family and doing what is right. These decisions come up everyday and that’s why I think this related to the coming of age decision.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "Barn Burning" by William Faulker, 10 year old Sarty Snopes is taught life lessons such as standing by the ones you love no matter what. Sarty grew up having fear as the highest emotion towards his father. Sarty's father burned down barns and he knew this, but he would not turn his back on his father, mostly because of his intense fear towards him. His father strikes him, althought Faulker says "without heat" that doesn't make it any better.
ReplyDeleteThis story definitely shows the theme of "Coming of Age" because everyday we are forced to make decisions based on what is right and what is wrong. We don't always know the answer to those questions, so possibly we just do what is best for us. In the case of Sarty, he did what was best for his family. However, towards the end of the story, Sarty realizes that he should warn the man whose barn is going to be burned down next. I feel this is when Sarty realizes that he doesn't have to hide in the shadows of his father anymore and he could stand out and speak in his own voice. This experience changed Sarty's life considerably. He realized he was his own person.