"Barn Burning" by Faulkner

“Barn Burning” by William Faulkner’s

                Colonel Sartoris Snopes, who goes by Sarty, is a 10 year old boy that is called into a court room to settle a dispute about whether or not his father burned down a barn. Sarty is torn between telling the truth and telling a lie that will clear his father’s name. Sarty’s father, Abner Snopes, had a pig that kept getting lose his neighbor gave him three chances to fix the pen, even supplying the fence to fix it with. After the third time his neighbor refused to give the pig back until the pen was fixed. The next night the neighbor’s barn burned down. The neighbor knew it was Abner who burned it down but he could not prove it.

The family moved to a new house, one of many they had lived in because the father had no respect for his family or others, causing them to move for one reason or another. When they arrived at the new house Abner decided to go talk to the man who owned the house, his neighbor and the man he worked for. Abner made Sarty go with him to talk with his neighbor; one could say to maybe teach Sarty how to handle people. After being told by the help that Major de Spain was not home he barged into the house, with mud on his boots, leaving a foot print on the very expense rug. When Major de Spain returned he took the rug to Abner and insisted he clean the foot print off.  Abner, after making his daughter’s clean the rug, ruined the rug. Upon seeing the rug Major insisted he pay for the rug. Abner who thought the price was too high took him to court and got the price lowered. Abner was still not happy. Abner knew Sarty was not a spiteful person. He made the mother hold Sarty while he went to the neighbors to burn down there barn. Sarty broke loose and ran to tell the neighbors what his father was doing. The neighbor went out the door with a gun and two shots were heard. The story ends without an ending.  The author leaves it up to the reader to decide how the story ends. Does the father get shot?   Does the father die? What happens to the family, to Sarty after that night? Did the events that happened that night turn Sarty into an honest man or a man just like his father?