Compare And Contrast: Barn Burning

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Comparison and Contrast: Barn Burning Sartoris Snopes is a young boy with a major conflict in his life; “be true to his blood”? or tell the truth. His father, a shady character with very cruel intentions has had to relocate his family because he is a “barn burner”. After one of Sarty’s fathers pigs gets loose for the second time, one of his neighbors tells him he can have it back for a dollar fee which angers the father so much that he burns down the neighbors’ barn. So Sarty’s father is asked to appear before the Justice of the Peace to settle the matter. The neighbor gives the Justice his side of the story and the Justices tells him that there is not enough evidence to prove that Snopes did, indeed, burn down the barn. “I can’t…show more content…
After they go back to town to settle the matter about the rug, Sarty immediately starts shouting to the Justice that his father did not burn down the barn. When they relocate to the new house and go to the De Spain’s home, Sarty is in awe of how his father carries himself, even though he is somewhat disabled because of the musket ball that was shot at him by a confederate policeman. Sarty does not understand how a man of his fathers stature can walk with such clock-like finality. They make their way up the stairs, and through a door where the father dismisses the slaves comments and asks to see Mr. De Spain. The lady of the house asks that they please leave because De Spain is not home. The father takes one last look around the room before pivoting on his good foot and leaving the house with Sarty on his heels. Much later, a man arrives on horseback toting a rug, slung over his shoulder. Sarty recognizes this rug as the one that they had been standing on when they talked to the woman in De Spain’s home. The black man carrying the rug tells Sarty’s father that he has ruined the rug with the mud from his boots and De Spain asks that he either clean it or pay one-hundred dollars. After all, that’s what the rug had
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