Abner Snopes is a poor sharecropper and onetime horse thief who take's out his frustration against the upper-class by burning their barns. William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" published in 1939 tells about the Snopes family. The story is a recollection told by Abner Snopes' youngest son Sarty. At the time the story takes place Sarty is a adolescent who has grown to despise his father and his destructiveness, "he could see his father against the stars but without face or depth-a shape black, flat, and bloodless" (496).
             Faulkner shows that human sensibility can be changed by social and economic conditions; social and economic conditions can also hinder human relationships. "Barn Burning" begins with the adolescent Sarty sitting in court hoping he will not have to testify against his father who has been charged with burning down his neighbor's barn; Sarty knows his father is guilty. Sarty can understand that the judge is being fair and honest; nonetheless Sarty has been taught that authority is the enemy because it is his father's enemy. Sarty has not yet separated himself from his father's values. Sarty is just beginning to understand that his father is a victim of poverty. Sarty regrets that at the time these things are happening he is too young to help his father, "the terrible handicap of being young, the light weight of his few years, just heavy enough to prevent his soaring free of the world as it seemed ordered but not heavy enough to keep him footed solid in it, to resist it and try to change the course of events" (497).
             The story shows how economic class structures and social pressures served to keep segments of the population oppressed. Sarty's family are poor sharecroppers; they move around more than is typical because of his father's attacks against upper-class society every time he feels threatened by them, "Si...