Lit Analysis #2: The Bear

1. This story takes place in the South and time passes differently at different parts of the story. A boy named Isaac is hunting an old bear with a group of men. Countless times the men have not been able to defeat the bear until they eventually they found a dog that wasn’t afraid of him. When they finally kill the bear, the dog that killed it also dies, and a couple men die. Isaac returns to the farm a grown man to receive his inheritance, a plantation but gives it to his cousin. He goes through life retracing the incident with the bear.

 2. William Faulkner was born into a time period of machinery. This machinery was taking over nature. Forests were cut down to make room for production. The masterminds that built these machines did so because they wanted to move into a new age which would require the removal of nature’s power. The Bear is a short story that explores the theme of man v. nature. When man is compared to nature, it can seem insignificant. It has only recently come into existence whereas nature has been here for billions of years, striving until man came. The bear that the men hunt represents nature as old as time and power it has had. Multiple men have continuously tried to defeat nature and eventually they did. But what satisfaction does this bring them?

 3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

4. Personification- " He had already inherited then, without ever having seen it, the tremendous bear with one trap-ruined foot which, in an area almost a hundred miles deep, had earned itself a name, a definite designation like a living man."

Metaphor-“ and even rifle charges delivered at point-blank range and with no more effect than so many peas blown through a tube by a boy”

Parallelism-“ too big for the dogs which tried to bay it, for the horses which tried to ride it down, for the men and the bullets they fired into it, too big for the very country which was its constricting scope”

Simile- “like pygmies about the ankles of a drowsing elephant: the old bear solitary, indomitable and alone, widowered, childless, and absolved of mortality”

Allusion- “—old Priam4 reft of his old wife and having outlived all his sons.”

Inference- “a moiling5 yapping an octave too high, with something more than indecision and even abjectness in it”

Colloquialism- “He do it every year ”

Repetition- “With the gun which was too big for him, which did not even belong to him, but to Major de Spain, and which he had fired only once”

Euphemism- “Sam said, had had to be brave in order to live with herself”

Imagery- “tasting in his saliva that taint as of brass which he knew now because he had smelled it”

 CHARACTERIZATION

 1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

 2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

 3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

 4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.  After reading this, I felt like I had known a person. “”