Barn Burning

"Barn Burning" is a short story by the American author William Faulkner. First appearing in Harper's Magazine in June 1939, it has since been widely anthologized. The story deals with class conflicts, vengeance, and family ties as viewed by a child. It precedes The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion—the three novels that make up Faulkner's Snopes trilogy. Largely set in Faulkner's fictional Mississippi county, Yoknapatawpha, "Barn Burning" centers on a young boy, Sartoris Snopes, and his tyrannical father, Abner Snopes. Abner, patriarch of his family, is discontented with the sharecropping system he is trapped in, and is accused of damaging the property of every place he farms and moving farms frequently to avoid punishment. The story explores the conflict of the young boy Sartoris, nicknamed Sarty, as he contemplates if he should continue to follow the lawless path his father has conditioned him into.