I would want to answer this question by looking at the
inconsistencies of Abner Snopes in terms of his words and actions. Firstly, it is highly
paradoxical that Abner Snopes lectures his son, Sarty, about the importance of family
bonds whilst at the same time beating him for the way he perceived that Sarty would have
testified against him. Note how this section of the text is
presented:
"You were fixing to tell them. You would have
told him." He didn't answer. His father struck him with the flat of his hand on the side
of the head, hard but without heat, exactly as he had struck the two mules at the store,
exactly as he would strike either of them with any stick in order to kill a horse fly,
his voice still without heat or anger: "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."
Abner beats
his son like he would his mules, and whilst we can appreciate the sentiment behind his
advice to "stick to your own blood," at the same time the way he encourages his son to
do so indicates that Abner himself is a pathetically violent man who only gives his son
extra reason to not "stick to his own blood" through his actions and treatment of
him.
Secondly, I would want to talk about the actions of
Abner and how he responds to his situation. Although he clearly resents being beholden
to those who are socially superior to him, Abner never tries to escape the cycle of
land-tenancy that he subjects his family and himself to. At each stage he seems to
deliberately annoy or slight his employers, bringing down trouble upon himself, to give
him a reason or a "justification" for barn burning. He seems to deliberately provoke
conflict so that he can engage in his acts of arson. He seems to have condemned himself
to his own personal hell and desires to do nothing to escape it. It is Sarty's
realisation of this that forces him to leave his father's
tyranny.
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