An Analysis of Sarty in Barn Burning by William Faulkner

William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” is a short story whose main character is an uneducated boy who can’t read named Sarty. The opening paragraph of the work provides us with an insight into the at first seemingly uncomplicated consciousness of Sarty, but through the use of signs via the food that Sarty sees, we come to understand the true complexity of Sarty’s consciousness as we realize that the hunger he has for the sealed food in the store symbolizes the same hunger or desire he has for the simple delights of the world that are likewise sealed off from him as well.

Not once in the opening paragraph does Faulkner outright or directly say ‘Sarty was hungry’ or anything along those lines. But he does directly inform us that that Sarty is illiterate when he writes, ‘from where he sat he could see ranked shelves close-packed with the…tin cans whose labels his stomach read, not from the lettering which meant nothing to his mind…’.

Since Sarty cannot read the words on the labels, he instead ‘stomach reads’ the symbols on the labels, indicating his hunger.

The ‘scarlet devils’ and ‘silver curve of fish’ that Faulkner writes of are signs that also clearly indicate or at the very least imply the physical hunger that Sarty is feeling inside of him. The chances are still very low, however, that Sarty would be able to communicate or convey what he sees in the form of metaphors. Subsequently, we cannot read this opening paragraph as a report of Sarty’s thoughts.

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Rather, the symbols that Faulkner is describing escapes the confines of Sarty’s knowledge and language system.

But since we, the reader, have a significantly less limited knowledge than Sarty does, the signs that Faulkner is describing have a different meaning for us than for Sarty. Both the reader and Sarty know that the ‘scarlet devils’ refers to canned ham and the ‘silver curve of fish’ refers to either salmon, trout, or a similar type of fish. Yet the ‘scarlet devils’ in particular is referring to something deeper than just the physical canned ham.

The word ‘devils’ indicates another undertone entirely, namely evil or malevolence, that highlights the despondency or misery that Sarty is feeling. Sarty cannot read the words on the food labels, but the images that he is thinking of in his mind have revealed to us a more complicated meaning that Sarty himself is unable to comprehend due to his illiteracy and lack of education.

Furthermore, all of the food are closed or sealed in tin cans. The problem, however, is that the hungry Sarty can’t eat the food because the food has been sealed! This is another sign that symbolizes how Sarty greatly desires the simple delights of the world that he lives in, yet he is cut or sealed off from all of these delights. It’s likely that the main reason Sarty is cut off from all of these things is due to the actions of his father that we see later on in the rest of the short story.

In conclusion, when Sarty ‘stomach reads’ the cans of food in the first paragraph of ‘Barn Burning’ it implies to us the hunger he is feeling. But as a result of his illiteracy, he cannot read the actual words on the labels and instead only understands the pictures or symbols that are on the labels such as the ham and the fish. The way Sarty describes these symbols, such as the ‘scarlet devils’ for the ham is a sign that indicates the deeper feelings of despair he is having. This despair is highlighted by the fact that all of the food is sealed off from him despite his intense hunger for it, a symbol of how the delights of the world Sarty desires are also sealed off from him too.