The_Bear

The Bear “The Bear” By William Faulkner William Faulkner makes extensive use of setting and themes in the story “The Bear”. The most important idea of Faulkner’s are the relationship of man to nature, the brutal racial conflict at the heart of southern life, and the nature of inheritance, which specifically deals with the property and characteristics, particularly as passed down from father to son. The idea of nature relates the impact on the pathway of individual life and on the public, cultural society at that period of time. Faulkner’s most intense, focused, and symbolic exploration of the relationship of man and nature are the characteristics of stories in which every action is connected to nature; it is hard to control Mother Nature. He also makes use of the animals to represent the values held by the main characters and to reflect the state of mind of the characters. Old Ben, the legendary bear, is the symbol of the power and inscrutability of nature. “He is nearly immortal, nearly invulnerable, capable of overpowering virtually anything, and capable of wreaking havoc on human settlements and establishments”(P.212). The men, who put their mind to work on the single purpose of bear, old, nature, issac, woods, south, represent, property, man, idea, hunting, faulkner’s, characters, ben, because, work, very, values, story, repudiate, men, main, land, human, held, grave, freedom, fierce, faulkner, death, virtually, view, time, takes, smell