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My Way or the Highway: Sarty’s Moral Dilemma As "Barn Burning" by William Faulkner opens, an adolescent boy named Sartoris Snopes is in court, hoping he will not have to testify in the arson case against his father. A charge of which Sarty knows his father is absolutely guilty. Mr. Harris, who has never done anything to Sarty himself, is nonetheless Sarty’s enemy because he is his father’s enemy, and Sarty has not yet separated himself from his father. Sarty’s attitude changes in this coming of age story when Sarty changes from being loyal to his family, to knowing the difference between right and wrong and doing something about it. Throughout the story, it is show many times that Sarty has not yet separated himself from his father. For example, Sarty does everything his father says without questioning, which is probably due to the fact that if he does not, his father will abuse him, but Sarty also probably believes that his father knows best. Sarty’s father says, “You got to learn to stick to your blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you” (227). This was drilled into Sarty’s head throughout his life and is the reason that Sarty fights the guy in the courtroom, not because the guy does