Sarty's betrayal of his father in William Faulkner's story "Barn Burning" is justified. The reader is introduced to Sarty's father as he is on trial for burning Mr. Harris' barn. Due to lack of evidence, the justice of the peace dropped the charges against Abner Snopes, Sarty's father, and he was ordered to leave the country. A harsh image of Sarty's father is presented in the line, "he [Sarty] followed the stiff black coat, the wiry figure walking a little stiffly from where a Confederate provost's musket ball had caught him in the heel on a stolen horse thirty years". there is” (2177). The reader gets a glimpse of Snopes' dark past and learns that he was never a law-abiding citizen. Sarty's inner turmoil focuses on his sense of loyalty to his father and his own conflict with knowing that his father's actions are wrong. Through Faulkner's use of stream-of-consciousness narration, the reader is aware of Sarty's thoughts. In one instance, Sarty refers to Mr. Harris as "his father's enemy (our enemy, he thought in his despair, ours, mine and his both! He's my father!) » (2176). Hearing the whistle of someone accusing his father of burning barns, Sarty feels "the ancient fierce rush of blood" and is blindly plunged into a fight, only to be physically shaken by his father's hand and voice cold ordering him to enter. As the Snopes family leaves town, Sarty consoles himself with the hope that this will be the last time his father commits an act he can't even think of: "Maybe he's satisfied now, now that he has” (2177). Deep down, Sarty knows that his father is not going to put an end to his destructive carnage. Ten-year-old Sarty cannot understand the real reasons for his father's actions: "that the element of fire spoke to a deep spring in his father's being" and, more importantly, fire served as "the only weapon for the preservation “of [its] integrity” (2178). Sarty's thoughts when he realizes he might be questioned about the barn fire reflect the fear and despair he feels: "He wants me to lie and I'll have to hit him" (2176). . Later, Sarty's father violently reminds him that blood is thicker than water when he accuses Sarty of being ready to betray him..