After I read the ending of "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner, I couldn't help but think about the ending of the movie Blade Runner, which we watched in Ms. Kinnan's class sophomore year.
The movie revolved around a man whose job was to identify "replicants" (genetically engineered humans) who are unaware that they are not actually human. At the end of the movie, we are left unsure of whether or not the man is a replicant or a human, suggesting that the character would be the same either way.
In class we were trying to decide whether Sartoris Snopes' father was shot, but to me the answer to that question is irrelevant. By ending the story so ambiguously, I think Faulkner is trying to suggest that by taking action and breaking down the binary between himself and his father, Sartoris would be free from his father's abuse, whether he was dead or alive. Sartoris would be the same either way.
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