The Bear by William Faulkner Literary Analysis Essay Sample

People love to categorize things, and for good reason. “Categorization is fundamental in language, prediction, inference, decision-making, and all kinds of environmental interaction,” but there comes a time when you have to reevaluate (Lumen Learning). William Faulkner has been shoved into the category of Southern Gothic; considering most of his stories deal with Southern Gothic ideas such as the cruelness of humankind, isolation, and grotesque and disturbing images this makes sense, but that doesn’t mean all of Faulkner's stories have to be viewed through this lens. In fact, Faulkner's story, “The Bear '' is an example of Romanticism because of its emphasis on nature, simplicity, and beauty. Throughout the story we follow a young protagonist as he learns to hunt and take on the large, seemingly immortal bear named Old Ben. The protagonist works to hunt the bear for many years, but when given the chance to finally kill it, he freezes, awed by how powerful the bear actually is. The story ends with Old Ben still alive, and the main character having a better understanding of nature and his place in it. William Faulkner's “The Bear'' is a Romantic story because it contains elements such as being inspired by nature, and supernatural interests.  Many Romantic stories are inspired by nature, and “The Bear” is no exception. Although Faulkner wrote 50 years after what would be considered the Romantic era he still drew inspiration from the nature around him; in fact Big Ben may even be a metaphor for nature itself. Through the story we watch men grapple to tame nature- to kill Old Ben. It’s only when our protagonist accepts that he cannot kill the bear that he finally grows up, and the story ends. Faulkner has a brilliant line that reflects just how untamable the wild is.  “The wilderness, the big woods, bigger and older than any recorded document of white man fatuous enough to believe he had bought any fragment of it or Indian ruthless enough to pretend that any fragment of it had been his to convey” (Faulkner 6). He really fires home the point that no man can own nature; we can only live beside it.  Faulkner also creates vivid imagery surrounding nature. “He ranged the summer woods now, green with gloom; if anything, actually dimmer than in November’s gray dissolution, where, even at noon, the sun fell only intermittently dappling upon the earth,” (Faulkner 4).  Couple this with the fact that the entire story revolves around the relationship between wilderness and man and it’s obvious that this story draws inspiration from nature.   Supernatural interest is also a key element in Romantic writing. In “The Bear '' there are dreams that seem to tell the future, and a bear that seems to live forever. The protagonist tells us that he saw this bear in his dreams before.  “It ran in his knowledge before he ever saw it. It looked and towered in his dreams before he even saw the unaxed woods where it left its crooked print” and later, when he finally comes face to face with this beast he says it’s just like his dreams. “Sprawling, he looked up to where it loomed and towered over him like a cloudburst and colored like a thunderclap, quite familiar, peacefully and even lucidly familiar, until he remembered: This was the way he had used to dream about it” (Faulkner 6). This proves that there is something not quite ‘normal’- perhaps something supernatural. The bear also seems to live forever. The protagonist says that unless something changes it would go on like this forever. “So I must see him, he thought. I must look at him. Otherwise, it seemed to him that it would go on like this forever, as it had gone on with his father and Major de Spain, who was older than his father, and even with old General Compson, who had been old enough to be a brigade commander in 1865. Otherwise, it would go on so forever, next time and next time, after and after and after” (Faulkner 3). A normal bear could not live this long, but it doesn't appear that this is a normal bear. Though the story offers no explanation for how this could be possible, it would require something magical, something supernatural. William Faulkner's “The Bear'' is a Romantic story because it contains elements such as being inspired by nature, and supernatural interests.  While it’s true it wasn’t written by a romantic writer, or during the romantic era, its focus on nature and the supernatural means it earns a spot amongst pieces written by Longfellow, Holmes, and Bryant. Maybe it’s time we realize that authors, that people, can’t always fit in one category- they can’t be shoved into perfect little boxes.