Cole Elliott
ERH-481
16 October 2017
Initial Capstone 2-page Draft
William Faulkner’s “The Bear” exemplifies southern culture in a clear and concise way. Telling the story of a boyhood hunting expedition, the short story captures the South’s methodology of bringing a boy along and—through the passage of time and events—transforming him into a formidable man. In addition to the “right of passage” theme that eloquently connects the reader to southern ideology, the South is well identified through the story’s ability to portray what southerners are truly like. He effectively captures the event of hunting and how it is about the players involved in the process—not mere blood lust that is a common perception of the sport.
Faulkner writes in “The Bear”, “It was of the men, not white nor black nor red but men, hunters, with the will and hardihood to endure and the humility and skill to survive, and the dogs and the bear and deer juxtaposed and relieved against it, ordered and compelled by and within the wilderness in the ancient and unremitting contest according to the ancient and immitigable rules which voided all regrets and brooked no quarter” (Faulkner 181-182). The men—regardless of their background, ethnicity, or any other defining trait—are instead defined by the quest of completing the task, hunting “the bear” for the right of passage beyond boyhood and into manhood. Faulkner later writes, “There was always a bottle present, so that it would seem to him that those fine fierce instants of heart and brain and courage and wiliness and speed were concentrated and distilled into that brown liquor which not women, not boys and children, but only hunters drank, drinking not of the blood they spilled but some condensation of the wild immortal spirit, drinking it moderately, humbly even, not with the pagan’s base and baseless hope of acquiring thereby the virtues of cunning and strength and speed but in salute to them” (Faulkner 182). It is in the interest of “saluting these virtues” that hunters, and hunters only, can work to “acquire” them. The notion that hunters, and hunters only, can work to “acquire” these virtues is beautifully asserted by Faulkner and effectively introduces the idea of southern identity.
In describing this great beast that the hunting is centered around, Faulkner works to provide an image that commands reverence and respect. Faulkner writes of the bear’s demeanor, “a corridor of wreckage and destruction beginning back before the boy was born, through which sped, not fast but rather with the ruthless and irresistible deliberation of a locomotive, the shaggy tremendous shape” (Faulkner, 183)—establishing the bear’s powerful existence as a warrior that through years of experience, has become a worthy adversary for hunter’s wishing to conquer the feat of defeating. This ability of being a “ruthless and irresistible deliberation of a locomotive” empowers Faulkner’s audience to understand how the value in what the bear’s physique and determination challenge the hunters of to be creative, stealthily driven, and must possess an endurance that is unprecedented.
Because of Faulkner’s creation of such an adversary, the rite of passage presented in “The Bear” is not an easy one. In order for the transition to be complete, chasing the bear must happen, and although he may not be conquered, the journey is what is really the essence of completing the transition. The passage that must be reached lay in the act of being in the woods, wondering what will happen, won’t happen, and what experience this time will occur and what can be taken away from it. It isn’t about achieving total success, it’s the drive for such success that results in a successful transition away from boyhood.