Family Burning

Perhaps my favorite short story that I've read so far is William Faulkner's Barn Burning, which has some incredibly interesting ideas such as that of family loyalty vs loyalty to the law.  In fact, Faulkner doesn't present it as a conflict so much as a complete binary, where only one is allowed.  You can't really be both completely loyal to your family and the law at the same time.  At any given point in the story, Colonel Sartoris allegiance lies only with one.  For most of the passage, it was his father.

However, despite the fact that he was loyal to his father for much of the passage, the story seems to believe that loyalty to the law is the better of the two options, at least in Sartoris' case.  When he is loyal to his father, he is constantly hung over with feelings of "grief" and "despair", as well as a constant sense of terror because of his dominating father.  When he finally obey's his lawful instincts and turns his father in, he becomes at peace. The final paragraph's imagery suggests that after his father's death, Colonel Sartoris will emerge from the stressful, dark times to some somewhat happier times, as "soon there will be sun".  However, at the same time, as Colonel Sartoris' is leaving in the final few sentences, he is going to the "dark woods".

I think that perhaps the reason the story leaves the ending as both peaceful but a little ominous is because Colonel Sartoris might be destined to repeat the same things his father did, as in be a dominating man prone to mischief and abuse.  That was how he was raised, and even at the end, after his father is shot and killed, he believes that he was a brave man worthy of respect.  Despite the fact that he was able to escape his family's domination, he still fails to see the true evil of it, and therefore it can't be said with certainty that he will be better off.

Faulkner seems to believe that there is no perfect way out of a poor family situation such as Colonel Sartoris, though it seems that he does seem to favor loyalty to the law over blind loyalty to the family because Colonel Sartoris is marginally better off without his family, at least until he takes up the role of his father.