Barn Burning by Faulkner

What does one of the men call as they leave the court?

"Barn burner!"

What does Sarty think as they get into their wagon and leave?

"Forever he thought. Maybe he's done satisfied now, now that he has..." > He's wondering if his father will change. Now that...

What does Abner tell Sarty?

"Go to the barn and get that can of oil we were oiling the wagon with."

What does Sarty think as he approaches the front?

"He aims for me to lie. And I will have to do hit." And that the judge is the enemy. "Enemy! Enemy! he thought."

What does Sarty cry out upon seeing the judge?

"He ain't done it! He ain't burnt . .." This is incriminating, of course, and foretells what Abner is going to do.

What happens once it's dark?

Abler goes for his horses - and his wife cries, "Abner! No! No! Oh, God. Oh, God. Abner!" Abner then prepares a kerosene can: "emptying the reservoir of the lamp back into the five-gallon kerosene can from which it had been filled." > He's actually taking kerosene from the lamp to have more with which to start the fire.

What happens that evening?

Abner and Sarty return the rug - Abner dropping it loudly and carelessly on the porch of Major's house. hunch: shove or push. "The rug, hunched, not flung from his father's shoulder struck the angle of wall and floor with a sound unbelievably loud, thunderous,"

What happens instead?

Abner walks into and through horse-sh*t - which he then drags into the house, spoiling it. In itself, this is an important metaphor. Not only does he not appreciate the house. He literally bring sh*t into it.

What does Mr. Harris say Abner did?

Abner's hog got into his corn. It happened a few times, and the last time, Mr. Harris kept the hog, saying he can have it when he pays him a dollar.

Who answers the door?

An older black man

What happens to Sarty as they leave?

Another boy strikes him. "feeling no blow, feeling no shock when his head struck the earth, scrabbling up and leaping again, feeling no blow this time either and tasting no blood, scrabbling up to see the other boy in full flight."

Why?

Because Abner is suing Major! ie. a tenant is suing his own landlord and employer. The judge, ie. Major: "now wore on his face an expression not of rage but of amazed unbelief which.. was at the incredible circumstance of being sued by one of his own tenants."

What does Major say?

That it cost $100, and that he'll charge him twenty bushels of corn. "It cost a hundred dollars. But you never had a hundred dollars. You never will. So I'm going to charge you twenty bushels of corn against your crop. I'll add it in your contract"

What are Sarty's siblings likened to?

Cows. ie. Abner speaks to "the older brother who leaned against the table, chewing with that steady, curious, sidewise motion of cows." "The two sisters got down, big, bovine, in a flutter of cheap ribbons" "her head, face, alone merely turned, presenting to him in the flying instant an astonishing expanse of young female features untroubled by any surprise even, wearing only an expression of bovine interest"

What's Sarty's reaction to the shot?

Grief. "running on among the invisible trees, panting, sobbing, 'Father! Father!'"

When the judge demands proof, what does Mr. Harris do?

He asks that Sarty be put on the stand, saying "he knows." > That's important. Sarty knows what happened; he witnessed the whole thing. He knows his father burned down the barn.

How does Abner respond?

He calls his daughters, gets them to pick up the rug, then "drives them" to clean it...

What's Abner's response to Miss Lula?

He doesn't answer her. Instead, he pivots and leaves, never looking down at the rug. "Then with the same deliberation he turned; the boy watched him pivot on the good leg and saw the stiff foot drag round the arc of the turning, leaving a final long and fading smear. His father never looked at it, he never once looked down at the rug."

What's the judge's decision?

He finds against Abner but reduces the price by half - to ten bushels of corn. "I hold you in damages to Major de Spain to the amount of ten bushels of corn over and above your contract with him, to be paid to him out of your crop at gathering time. Court adjourned."

What does the judge find?

He has insufficient evidence - but tells Ab to leave the county. "I can't find against you, Snopes, but I can give you advice. Leave this country and don't come back to it."

What does Sarty do?

He hesitates - but then goes. "Then he was moving, running, outside the house, toward the stable: this the old habit, the old blood which he had not been permitted to choose for himself, which had been be- queathed him willy nilly and which had run for so long (and who knew where, battening on what of outrage and savagery and lust) before it came to him."

How does Sarty then react?

He tells Abner's he done what he could - and that Major doesn't deserve the 20 bushels. IOW he defends his father, instinctively. And perhaps in some way hoping to appease him. "You done the best you could!" he cried. "If he wanted hit done different why didn't he wait and tell you how? He won't git no twenty bushels!" Abner ignores him, asking him whether he put the "cutter" back the way he asked.

What does Abner do in response to Mr. Harris?

He threatens him via a black messenger - then burns down his barn. • That evening a ****** came with the dollar and got the hog. He w as a strange nigg*r. He said, 'He say to tell you wood and hay kin burn.'

What's Abner's response?

He's going to get revenge and burn Major's place down, of course - BUT he hides this from Sarty. As he speaks to his elder son, he interrupts himself: "He won't git no ten bushels neither. He won't git one. We'll . . ." He interrupts himself because Sarty's there - and he's not about to say aloud what he's going to do. *So he lies. That's what this is - a blatant lie. Said precisely because he knows Sarty isn't on his side, because he knows Sarty knows he's wrong - and that he's an evil man. He's lying to him, saying they're going to wait some weeks or whatever, when the reality is that he's fully intent on revenge, on getting his idea of justice.

What word is used a couple times to capture Sarty's response to the house?

He's in a "spell." The "the spell of this peace and dignity..." He walks on "in the spell of the house, which he could even want but without envy"

How does Abner receive him?

He's rude, not looking at him, but turning to continue buckling his horse (not sure what a "hame" is): "his father merely looking up once before stooping again to the hame he was buckling, so that the man on the mare spoke to his stooping back:"

What image captures Sarty's state of mind at this point?

He's weightless. He's terrified. He's fearful of falling. It's like deep down he knows what to do, what's right. But then there's what his father is telling him. *"It was as if he had swung outward at the end of a grape vine, over a ravine, and at the top of the swing had been caught in a prolonged instant of mesmerized gravity, weightless in time." > There's a comparable image later. Return and find later. When he is relieved of this duty, it's like he returns to solid ground: "Now time, the fluid world, rushed beneath him again"

What happens when Sarty sees the house?

His terror and despair leave him. He's awe-struck. "They had sojourned until now in a poor country, a land of small farms and fields and houses, and he had never seen a house like this before."

What happens the next morning?

Major arrives, furious, and not even wearing a hat or proper shirt with a collar. "This time the sorrel mare was in the lot before he heard it at all, the rider collarless and even bareheaded, trembling, speaking in a shaking voice."

What happens two hours later?

Major de Spain brings the rug to Abner to be cleaned. Sarty hears "the hooves and saw the linen-clad man on a fine sorrel mare, whom he recognized even before he saw the rolled rug in front of the Negro youth following on a fat bay carriage horse"

Who does the negro call?

Miss Lula - ie. Major de Spain's wife. She's "a lady... in a gray, smooth gown with lace at the throat and an apron tied at the waist." "Perhaps he had never seen her like before either." She's later called "Mrs. de Spain."

What happens next?

Sarty breaks free, runs to Major's, cries "barn." Major immediately gets his horse, goes to the barn, and shoots Abner. We hear about this as Sarty runs, having returned to the road. He's running along when he's passed by Major. He then hears the shot that takes his father's life. "He could not hear either: the galloping mare was almost upon him before he heard her, and even then he held his course" "and he springing up and into the road again, running again, knowing it was too late yet still running even after he heard the shot and, an instant later, two shots, pausing now without knowing he had ceased to run, crying 'Pap! Pap!'"

The next morning?

Sarty gets up, sets off - and doesn't look back. "He got up... He went on down the hill, toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called unceasing —the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quiring heart of the late spring night. He did not look back."

What happens at midnight?

Sarty sits alone on the crest of a hill, facing the "dark woods" which he'll enter the next morning.

What happens between Wedn and Sat?

Sarty works away - and fantasizes that his father might still change. Helping his brother hold the plow on the field, he dreams, "Maybe this is the end of it. Maybe even that twenty bushels that seems hard to have to pay for just a rug will be a cheap price for him to stop forever and always from being what he used to be."

How does Abner walk?

Straight ahead no matter what. "The boy remarked the absolutely undeviating course which his father held and saw the stiff foot come squarely down in a pile of fresh droppings where a horse had stood in the drive and which his father could have avoided by a simple change of stride"

What does Abner do?

Tells his wife to hold Sarty. "Take hold of him. I want to see you do it. You'll hold him better than that. If he gets loose don't you know what he is going to do? He will go up yonder." "Maybe I'd better tie him." "I'll hold him," his mother whispered.

What's Sarty's hope?

That Abner will feel what he feels - and change his ways. "Maybe he will feel it too. Maybe it will even change him now from what maybe he couldn't help but be."

What does the older brother recommend?

That Sarty be tied to the bedpost. "Better tie him up to the bedpost," the brother said.

What does Sarty think as he goes to the barn to get the oil?

That he could run and keep running. "I could keep on, he thought. I could run on and on and never look back, never need to see his face again. Only I can't. I can't,"

Once they're camped, what does Abver say/do to Sarty?

That he would have tattled on him - ie. accusing "You were fixing to tell them. You would have told him." He adds that Sarty's got to stick to his own family - ie. blood. "You're getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain't going to have any blood to stick to you." And he hits him - hits him the way he hit his mules: "His father struck him with the flat of his hand on the side of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules at the store."

What does he think about the occupants of the house?

That they're safe from his father. That Abner could burn down their place and still not take from them their peace and dignity. "They are safe from him. People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond his touch... the spell of this peace and dignity rendering even the barns and stable and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive."

What happens next?

The judge asks Harris, : "Do you want me to question this boy?" > He asks this because Sarty is a pathetic spectacle - ie. "crouching, small for his age, small and wiry like his father, in patched and faded jeans"

What happens Saturday?

They go to court.

What does "quiring" mean?

Unclear. Choiring? Enquiring? He's describing the calls of the birds, of the whippoorwills. N. the repetition of "urgent." The "heart" must be his own; it's unclear how it could apply to the birds. His heart is urgent and querying. It beats the way the birds sing - rapidly. One thing seems clear - there's life in him! Strong, pounding, human life, which contrasts strongly with his father and all of his family members, who are heartless, inhuman, more like cows and wolves than human beings.

How do they clean the rug?

Using "harsh homemade lye" and a "fragment of field stone." Abner's wife knows he's ruining it - "Abner. Abner. Please don't. Please, Abner." And presumably Abner himself knows this - and just doesn't care.

What does Abner do?

Walks right in, shoving aside the negro. "flinging the door back and the Negro also and entering, his hat still on his head."