Blood Thick and Sticking

     In William Faulkner's 1939 short story, "Barn Burning," what stood out to me was the way Faulkner used blood as both a theme for the story and a motif. Blood equals family loyalty (theme) and the word "blood" is used repeatedly throughout the story to represent the hopelessness, fear and grief felt by the main character, ten year old, Colonel Sartoris Snopes at the hands of the patriarch (motif).
     The  pyromaniac father, Abner Snopes, takes Sartoris out onto a road in the middle of the night and strikes him in the head while accusing him of thinking of betraying his family by telling the judge about his father's arson. "You were fixing to tell them. You would have told him...You're getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain't going to have any blood to stick to you" (8). This part of the story was particularly poignant to me. This could have been the "coming of age" father and son talk that usually begins with, "Son, you're getting to be a man...," a time in a boy's life when he should be provided with the tools he needs to have a successful future as a man. Instead, he is terrorized by his own father and what he learns is that he must stay within the bounds of his family or face the consequences of betrayal. Sartoris knows from experience the violence that emanates from his father.
     Although Faulkner may be telling readers that not having "any blood to stick to you" is a reference to Sartoris losing his family, it also sounds like a veiled threat that Snopes will kill his son if he exposes his father's criminal activities. No wonder the motif of hopelessness, fear, and grief are so clear in the story. He has no role model, nothing to look forward to and no one to turn to in his darkest hours.

We know from reading the story that twenty years later Sartoris thinks about the things that transpired in his family. What we don't know is how his life really turned out. What do you think Sartoris' future held for him?