By Joseph M. Flora (excerpt from Reference Guide to Short Fiction, Detroit and London: St. James Press, 1999.)
The story asks reader, to ponder how two brothers in the same family could be so different. Flem accepts the vision of the world that his father expounds; Abner declares that family loyalty is the only reality. Unfortunately he pushes that premise to an extreme: vindication of the self transcends the well-being of his family. Thus family pride become, a mockery, something worthy of ridicule. Ridicule is central to the comic mode of the works, but there is little that is comic in "Barn Burning." As Faulkner's title suggests, Abner Snopes is a threat to the community; his path leads to destruction and to death. Faulkner shows that the Snopeses as well as the Compsons (The Sound and the Fury) and the Sutpens (Absalom, Absalom!) can touch the tragic notes.
By the time of the action in "Barn Burning," the course of Flem Snopes's life is set. Abner can trust him absolutely. But when brought to trial for burning a barn Abner senses that his younger son is inclined to speak the truth. For Sarty there may be loyalties that transcend family loyalty. Abner intends to teach his son otherwise, and that becomes his primary goal when the family takes up a new sharecropping contract in another community. As he begins that contract he takes Sarty with him to see Major DeSpain, intending to make his son see DeSpain as the oppressor. Thus "Barn Burning" becomes a story of education in which parent and child make a journey together and discover more than either anticipated.