William Faulkner's The Bear
The balance between nature and “progress” plays out with dramatic tension in William Faulkner’s short story, “The Bear.” Progress will be our downfall, Faulkner seems to suggest through this complex tale of a boy’s evolving understanding of nature, experienced through the annual ritual of a hunting expedition in pursuit of an imposing and elusive bear, Old Ben. As we destroy the wilderness, the story tells us, we lose ourselves. Heavy on symbolism and characterized by numerous sub-themes that weave throughout the story, “The Bear” conveys the central notion of humankind’s frailty and impotence against the forces of nature, despite our pride in the steps we have taken toward harnessing the wilderness for our own purposes in the name of progress.
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The dog is a bundle of untamed energy, a force of nature that acts on sheer impulse without fear of consequences. Upon spotting the bear, the fyce excitedly runs directly at it, apparently undeterred by the bear’s imposing stature or likely response to its noisy attacker. Alarmed by the dog’s reaction and fearing for the animal’s life, the boy stifles any fear and chases it, capturing the dog only once he is close enough to the bear to be able to see a tick on the inside of its leg. Significantly, the boy does not use his gun to eliminate the threat when he had the, but puts himself in the middle of the action instead. In an article entitled, “The Hero in the New World: William Faulkner’s ‘The Bear,’” R.W.B. Lewis makes note of this choice: “[The boy] has two occasions on which he might use his rifle against Old Ben: the first time, he abandons it in order to present himself in evident humility to the bear; the second time, he throws it away and risks his life in the charitable act of rescuing the little fyce” (658). Both times, the boy could have killed the bear. Both times, the bear also could have killed the boy. Faulkner upholds the truce between the bear, symbolizing wilderness, and the boy, representing mankind, when the trappings of progress are put aside favor of an authentic experience in
The dog is a bundle of untamed energy, a force of nature that acts on sheer impulse without fear of consequences. Upon spotting the bear, the fyce excitedly runs directly at it, apparently undeterred by the bear’s imposing stature or likely response to its noisy attacker. Alarmed by the dog’s reaction and fearing for the animal’s life, the boy stifles any fear and chases it, capturing the dog only once he is close enough to the bear to be able to see a tick on the inside of its leg. Significantly, the boy does not use his gun to eliminate the threat when he had the, but puts himself in the middle of the action instead. In an article entitled, “The Hero in the New World: William Faulkner’s ‘The Bear,’” R.W.B. Lewis makes note of this choice: “[The boy] has two occasions on which he might use his rifle against Old Ben: the first time, he abandons it in order to present himself in evident humility to the bear; the second time, he throws it away and risks his life in the charitable act of rescuing the little fyce” (658). Both times, the boy could have killed the bear. Both times, the bear also could have killed the boy. Faulkner upholds the truce between the bear, symbolizing wilderness, and the boy, representing mankind, when the trappings of progress are put aside favor of an authentic experience in