William Faulkner is remembered for his many fictional short stories and essays. One of his best known, and most beloved stories, is a tale titled “Barn on Fire,” a coming-of-age narrative set in the aftermath of the war-torn south. Here, a young protagonist, named Colonel Sartoris Snopes, faces off against his antagonistic father, Abner. Named for a fictional Civil War hero, Colonel Snopes, or Sarty as he called him, he is a ten-year-old boy born into a poor family of sharecroppers headed by a ruthless, vengeful and angry man. Faulkner describes Sarty physically as a boy, small for his age, lean, with faded, patched jeans that are too small for him, no shoes on his feet. He has tousled brown hair, gray eyes, and is “wild as a storm” (179). Emotionally, Sarty is a desperate, heartbroken, and fearful young man who learns to overcome these limitations to make the most important decision of his life and, in the process, becomes a man.

Faulkner does a masterful job of giving the reader an undeniable sense of Sarty’s despair. At Harris’s trial, while waiting to be called as a witness, Faulkner claims that the boy is filled with a mixture of emotion but “mostly despair” (178). The cause of this discouragement is twofold; he is expected to lie and adopt his father’s enemies as his own. The pressure to lie is exerted by his father. Sarty thinks to himself: “He aims for me to lie … with that frantic pain and despair. And I’ll have to make him hit” (179). It is quite evident that Sarty was no stranger to his father’s demand for unity and yet it is equally evident that he feels a great degree of desperation intimidating. Enemies are a different matter. This is self-imposed discouragement. In his teenage mind, he can come to no other conclusion than that his father’s enemies must be his. He sees the “enemy” of his father and reflects “in that despair” that they are “ours! Mine and his! He is my father” (179). Despair comes from the feeling that he must hate those his father hates.

This hopelessness gives way to another even more bitter emotion, that of pain. While the words despair and grief have similar connotations, it seems clear that Faulkner viewed them as clearly separate characteristics of this young man. Faulkner repeatedly states that Sarty is full of “pain and despair” (179) both. Despair refers to the hopelessness Sarty feels, while pain refers to the intense regret over the decision he must make. Sarty understands the morality of problems. Although he is hampered by his surroundings, he nevertheless has an internal principle of moral decency. A war in his mind rages between his loyalty to the blood and his civic responsibility. It is said to be like “being pulled in two ways … between two teams of horses” (186). This jerk shakes him deep down and demands a response. Sarty knows her father is wrong, but she also feels intense pain at the inevitable choice she must make; this is the source of your pain.

Such a young child, faced with such a difficult situation, cannot help but feel fear. In fact, Sarty is described as a person full of “fear” (178) and “terror” (182). Faulkner tells us that Sarty’s youth, coupled with his father’s brutality, creates a longing to be “free” (182) and at the same time generates “enough weight to keep him rooted in place” (182). “Fear,” says the Bible, “has torment” and Sarty is undoubtedly a tormented soul. That is, until they arrive at Major De Spain’s house and Sarty sees his house: “at that moment he forgot his father and his terror and despair at the same time” (182). And this sets the stage for our hero to shine.

On this visit, Sarty comes to understand that it is possible to free herself from her father’s influence. For him, the house looks like a “Palace of Justice” (182) which is a symbol of civic justice and is undoubtedly the impression given to the young man by his inner desire to hold his father accountable for his deeds. He knows that his father’s crimes cannot continue. This visit marks the turning point in his mentality, the point at which the ten-year-old boy decides to become a man.

It seems that Faulkner wants us to see through the eyes of the child the fact that each of us must choose our own path, that life is a series of decisions that begin early in our childhood and define who we will be later in life. . We control our course, not the blood of our ancestors, not the family relationship, and we can change our direction if we stay true to our convictions and choose to do good as opposed to doing evil.

Sarty makes her choice; he will be true to himself. As he runs down the dirt road that leads to the De Spain house, Sarty can feel his blood rushing and his heart pounding, but his blood doesn’t stop him as he had supposed, but rather urges him on; overcoming despair, overlooking her fear and ignoring her pain; he is now, for all intents and purposes, a man. His childhood is as dead as his father seems to be; his future as dark and uncertain as the night sky and the dark forest he walks in, as uncertain as adult life really is. The story ends with the dawn of a new day; symbolically representing the new life opportunity that this young protagonist has gained. The old and familiar feelings of “despair” and “pain” (191) are still present, but the “terror and fear” (191) have disappeared. No future decision in life can be that difficult; no other night can be so dark, because now he is the master of his own destiny.