Barn Burning by William Faulkner Essay

For old age, literary works have discussed the difference of nature vs. nurture, William Faulkners Barn Burning universe one of them. Nurture in the debate refers to the vogue a person is brought up through his or her life. The argument is that the nurturing of the child in its early years is what ultimately defines how that person will act. On the other hand, a nonher way of thinking is that nature defines who a person is. That it is not how a person is brocaded or what they grew up around, but who that person is inside. The fundamental difference is that said person is born the way they are going to grow up to be and is not shaped by his or her parents and how they act. In Faulkners Barn Burning, Sartoris Snopes is nurtured by his ill-willed father but ultimately takes the high road and chooses to be his cause person rather than follow the road of his father.Sartoris life had previously been defined by instability and always covering for his father, until they came along the de Spain house. From the beginning of the story, Sartoris wanted to communicate the truth at the court room but got slapped by his father for even the thought. Youre getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your get blood or you aint going to have any blood to stick to you. Do you think either of them, any man on that point this morning would? Mr. Snopes was just trying to make sure that his son would always protect his twisted ways in any future court room. He did not care about teaching his son a life lesson about loyalty or that blood was thicker than water, which was not what the talk that night in the woods was about. It was just simply Mr. Snopes warped way of assuring he would not get in trouble for future acts of harm. And sure enough, there were more than acts.Even though Mr. Snopes slapped Sartoris and told him to stay true to his family, the de Spain house sparked a change in Sartoris and marked the end of following his fathers footsteps. His f athers way of raising him was almost a reign of terror. No one ever knew what to expect from him. He was not a good man in any sense of the word. He stole horses in the war from the Confederacy for his sustain benefit, having no loyalties to either side. The only loyalty he has ever had has been to himself. His maimed leg, as a result of the war, symbolizes the weight he carries around by living his perverse way of life. That is, feeding off of the harm he has caused to others he has always felt that most people have short-handed him. The incident in the story in which Mr. Snopes ruined the one hundred dollar rug focused on how the leg was the major part of his body that took part in the smearing of the dung. It also was the main factor that let the de Spains know he had returned the ruined rug. Once they realized that he had permanently altered the rug, it was back to court for the Snopes family. Again, Sartoris witnessed his father being untruthful in the court of law and once again his innate nature was to tell the truth. Yet always in the background is the gnawing feeling of what his father would do to him if he was disloyal. So when does he go against what he was raised to do and become his own person? Sartoris entire life had been to follow behind his father without question if it was right or wrong. As a small child he might not have wondered whether Snopes actions were morally acceptable or not, but as he grew older and developed his own conscious, he soon realized that he was a different person with a different way of thinking than his father. For his father, barn burning was his way of purgative anger and getting back at the people who have done wrong in his mind. Even though the nigger at the de Spain house did not do anything personal to him, Snope thought that because he told him he could not be on the rug, that he should destroy it so no one else could be on it either (symbolically.) When his son made the brave decision to tell the de Spains about his fathers plan, it was the turning point in his life. He last diverted from his life-long path behind his father and started to plot a new course for himself. A life that would be defined by justice and virtue. Faulkners Barn Burning deals with nature vs. nurture in a coming of age story by which Sartoris untimely chooses nature and to chart his own way in life. After his fathers death, Sartoris Snope is described as walking into the darkness of the woods ahead without looking back and hearing the song of birds in the distance. He is forever cut off from his family and must survive alone. The only thing he has left is his integrity and strong sense of justice, but hopefully for him that is all he needs.