When Sarty discovers that his father must appear before the Justice of the Peace, he does not know that his father is the plaintiff and not the defendant. In the courtroom, he cries out to the judge, "He ain't done it! He ain't burnt . . ." before his father shuts him up. Instinctively, Sarty comes to his father's defense, which emphasizes his family loyalty, although we know that he remains upset by previous barn burnings.
After the judge rules that Snopes owes 10bushels of corn rather than 20, Sarty, still loyal to the family, sides with his father and says that de Spain "won't git no ten bushels neither. He won't git one." Snopes tells his son, ". . . we'll wait," implying that the matter is still open to debate — de Spain does have a barn that can be burned. Although we are not aware of it until later that night, Snopes feels defeated again by the aristocracy; he feels inferior. His determination to revenge the court's decision is revealed by the simple statement he gives his son.
That night at home, we hear Sarty's mother cry out suddenly, "Abner! No! No! Oh, God. Oh, God. Abner!" Having lost his lawsuit, Snopes is preparing to set fire to de Spain's barn. After Sarty hears his mother's cry, immediately he sees a horrifying image: His father is still dressed in his black suit, "at once formal and burlesque." This same black suit that Snopes wore to the legal hearing now becomes a suit for some "shabby and ceremonial violence." The irony lies in the fact that Snopes, by his formal dress, is preparing for his ritualistic act of burning barns.
