In this, another story written by William Faulkner in 1939, he uses a great deal of language to paint a .
vivid picture of life in the mythical county of Yoknapataupha, Mississippi. This story is recounted from .
The memories of a man named Colonel Sartoris Snopes (named after Colonel Sartoris whom his father .
served in the Civil War).
His father was obviously a man of little or no education who had developed an attitude in life of serving .
himself and no one else. He, at any perceived or real injustice always took matters into his own hands. The .
story begins with him on trial for burning a neighbors barn after sending a black man over for his hog and .
actually warning the man that hay and wood burn. Shortly thereafter the neighbors barn burned and the .
story opens in a court of the Justice of the Peace. The then young boy is remembering all this and the .
details of the court room which was actually a storeroom in a grocery apparently based on the tin goods .
stored in the room. The man whose barn was burned asks that the boy testify and the judge is incredulous .
as this was not proper decorum in that time. Finally, the man relents and says the boy does not have to .
testify and the case is dismissed due to lack of witnesses. Interestingly, the boy says he would have had to .
tell the truth had he been forced to testify even though he has a very real fear of his father. Later, the father .
actually hits the boy who had defended the family honor by fighting someone in the crowd calling them .
barn burners. The reason being that the father knows the boy would have testified and he tells him that they .
have to stand together against the world. This is obviously a common occurrence in the young mans life and always ends up the same, they are told to move on and never come back. They all gather in their wagon and leave, by all, this means the wife, her twin sister, his 2 sisters, and his older brother.
