At midnight, Sarty sits on the crest of a hill, his "grief and despair now no longer terror and fear but just grief and despair." He attempts to reassure himself that his father had been in the Civil War and had served honorably in Colonel Sartoris' cavalry. Faulkner comments that Sarty is unaware that his father went to war not out of a sense of loyalty, but for "booty — it meant nothing and less than nothing to him if it were enemy booty or his own." Later, Sarty realizes that he must have fallen asleep because it is almost dawn. He gets up and continues walking down the road.
The central image at the end of "Barn Burning" is one of rebirth and renewal, a typical image to end an initiation-into-manhood story. Sarty is headed "toward the dark woods," from which he hears birds calling. Their "liquid silver voices" symbolize the vitality of the spring morning and, by extension, the unceasing spirit of Sarty Snopes. We feel certain of his devotion to the justice that he has sought throughout the story; as Faulkner notes of him, "He did not look back."
These final images focus on Sarty: He is alone — he has cut himself off from his family and now must face the world by himself, possessing nothing but his own integrity and a strong sense of justice. He never again appears in any of Faulkner's works, although Abner Snopes and Sarty's older brother become central figures in other stories and novels. It is as though Faulkner did not want a male Snopes with a moral conscience present amidst the other amoral, unethical, thieving, and degenerate male members.
