A Study Guide for William Faulkner's Bear

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide to William Faulkner's Bear, excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students series. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: May 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535819206

Book preview

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The Bear

William Faulkner

1942

Introduction

Although several versions of The Bear exist, the one most commonly read comes from William Faulkner’s 1942 novel, Go Down, Moses. Isaac (Ike) McCaslin, the young hero of The Bear, remains a central figure throughout the novel as well. The story of a young man’s development against a background of vanishing wilderness was well received by readers and critics alike. Today it appears in many anthologies. Faulkner did not add the long fourth section of the story until it appeared in Go Down, Moses, and he argued that its primary role was to connect the story to the rest of the novel. If read alone, the fourth section of The Bear should be omitted. Yet the fourth section puts into context the relationships and events that contributed to young Ike’s upbringing in the woods. It is learned that Major deSpain and Colonel Compson received their commissions in the Civil War, an historical event of resounding importance. In addition, Ike’s decisions in the fourth section are primarily due to the lessons he has learned in the wilderness. Thus the fourth section shows how he translates the morality of the woods into social responsibility. Whether read alone or as part of the longer novel in which it eventually appeared, The Bear provides a unique glimpse into the Mississippi region where Faulkner, himself an avid hunter, was born and raised. As Ike McCaslin learns about his family’s past, Faulkner portrays a varied cast of characters in a tale about the wilderness destroyed by human greed and a man who refuses to further this destructive trend.

Author Biography

Born on September 25, 1897, William Faulkner belonged to a once-wealthy family of former plantation owners. Raised among a circle of acquaintances similar to General Compson and Major deSpain, Faulkner knew first-hand about life in the South after the Civil War. His fictional Yoknapatawpha County, and its county seat, Jefferson, represent the actual Lafayette County and the city of Oxford, Mississippi, where Faulkner lived most of his life. Although Faulkner dropped out of high school and never finished college, he was a passionate fan of poetry and originally planned to become a poet. He worked for a brief period as a bank clerk before being accepted into the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I, although he never saw