“Barn Burning” Lecture Notes OVERVIEW “Barn Burning” is a powerful short story by William Faulkner, first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1939. It explores themes of loyalty, justice, class struggle, and the moral awakening of a young boy in the post-Civil War American South. The story is part of Faulkner’s larger fictional universe, Yoknapatawpha County, and reflects his signature style of complex sentence structures and stream-of-consciousness narration.
PLOT SUMMARY The story centers around ten-year-old Colonel Sartoris “Sarty” Snopes, who faces a moral dilemma between loyalty to his family and his growing sense of right and wrong. His father, Abner Snopes, is a bitter and vengeful man who burns barns as a form of retaliation against perceived slights from wealthier landowners. After being forced to move from farm to farm due to his father’s destructive behavior, Sarty must ultimately decide whether to protect his father or to stand up for justice.
1