Morality v. Loyalty – heavy stuff here.

My dude, Abner, is a mess. He’s a war vet who could have potentially been dishonorably discharged and may also be suffering from some mental illness that manifested before he went off to war. Old Abner is cranky and generally unpleasant – to everyone.

His father spoke for the first time, his voice cold and harsh, level, with-out emphasis: “I aim to. I don’t figure to stay in a country among people who…” he said something unprintable and vile, addressed to no one.

He likes fire. I mean, likes it a lot.

[T]he element of fire spoke to some deep mainspring of his father's being, as the element of steel or of powder spoke to other men, as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity, else breath were not worth the breathing, and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion.

Or, you know, to be used when slights both real and imagined are thrown in your direction.

This felt tense up until the very end when little Sarty makes his decision on whether to be moral or be loyal. ( )

This is the first I’ve read by Faulkner and it would have been the last had I not been a member of Good Reads’ Short Story Club and been given another of his stories to read.

The present story is seen from the viewpoint of a 10-year-old boy, Sarty. His father is cold, harsh and cruel and often beats him. The family also consists of the mother, an older brother, obese twin sisters and an aunt.

The mother’s heart is in the right place but she can’t protect Sarty because of the savage father, Abner.

Abner has a stiff back and ”a stiff and ruthless limp” owing to a war injury; his physical stiffness is symbolic of his mental stiffness.

Sarty admires his father for having been in the war but he doesn’t know that he was in it purely for the sake of the booty and not from any feeling of patriotism.

When visiting the fine house of Major de Spain where he hopes to obtain work, Abner deliberately refrains from walking around some manure and subsequently spoils a rug.

But he can’t stand being judged as being in the wrong and punished, so he attempts to burn down De Spain’s barn.

Sarty tries to warn the occupants of the place.

He hears three shots, in all, and we don’t know but assume Abner has been shot.

Sarty runs away, but not home.

Faulkner’s powers of description and turns of phrase are amazing.

But I found the story enigmatic.

Why did Sarty not return home to the mother and rest of the family? I don’t know. ( )