Sarty's Reliability as Narrator in "Barn Burning"
The question of whether or not Sarty Snopes is a reliable narrator is sure to raise debate among various literary critics. Although the story is told from Sarty's perspective twenty years later, Faulkner also leads the reader to believe the events taking place are happening in real time. The essence of the story is actually more about how Abner's obsession with fire and disregard for authority and conformity affect the grown up Sarty rather than the trials he endures with his father when he is ten years old. Since Abner's actions have an enormous influence on the man Sarty becomes it is difficult to place complete trust in the accuracy of Sarty's account.
"Barn Burning" is essentially Sarty's reflection on the events of his childhood that molded him into the man he is in the present. By interjecting the mature Sarty's thoughts into the story while at the same time allowing the reader to see how the ten year old boy reacts, Faulkner reiterates his idea that the thirty year old man is driven by emotion when recounting his story.
English: William Faulkner's signature
William Faulkner, 1954
William Faulkner, 1954The reader should notice that emotions run high throughout the entire story. Sarty observes the men in the courtroom with a sort of blind loyalty to his father:
He could not see the table where the Justice sat before which his father and his father's enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! Mine and his both! He's my father!) stood, but he could hear them, the two of them that is, because his father had said no word yet [. . .]. (Faulkner 177)
In this passage, Faulkner illustrates Sarty's youthful desire to believe his father's actions are justified. Sarty's childlike instinct to protect his father demonstrates...