In a child's life, making the morally right choice can be difficult, especially when the choice goes against someone you are supposed to respect, like a parent. “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner is a coming-of-age story about a poor and evil sharecropper's son. Showing the difference between good and evil, Faulkner uses character descriptions and plot, revealing Sarty's struggles as he chooses between making the morally right decision or being faithful to a dishonest father. The description of the father's character and plot shows his evilness. Abner is described as having an “inscrutable face and gray eyes” that, Faulkner writes, “glimmered coldly” (342). The description of the father's voice as “cold and harsh” and the fact that Abner often wears a stiff black coat paint a picture of evil in the reader's mind (340). Making the connection with the color black to represent evil, Faulkner often uses black when describing his father. For example, when Sarty states that he “could see his father against the stars, but without face or depth, sharp, black, flat and bloodless as if he had been cut from tin in the iron folds of his frock coat, the voice as harsh as tin and without heat like tin” (341). Throughout the story, the father burns the barns of people he assumes are his enemies. The father resents the rich and does not adequately support his family financially, placing them in the low-income class. Faulkner represents a theme of good versus evil through the plot. During the first conflict in the story, the justice of the peace is described as “gentle [and one could not] discern that his voice was troubled when he spoke” (340). If Sarty could have seen the justice of the peace's kindness, Sarty might have... middle of paper... been killed by the landowner. Although his father dies, Sarty's decision frees him from terror but not from pain and despair. Sarty rationalizes his father's death and wickedness by thinking, “He was brave!... He was at war!. . .He was in Colonel Sartoris's cavalry” (349). Young Sarty did not know that his father was a mercenary soldier and fought only for money, not honor. Difficulties in learning life's lessons can be difficult. Learning to make good choices in life and lead a righteous life can be difficult, especially when dealing with family members who don't make the right choices themselves. It's hard to make good life choices when you're surrounded by people who always make the wrong choice and lie. Parents should be respected, trustworthy and role models for the development of their children's minds. Like life, not all choices can be black or white.