The Themes of Wilderness and the White Man in William Faulkners The Be

The Themes of Wilderness and the White Man in William Faulkners The Bear William Faulkners The Bear is bilateral in subject and plot. The first half of the account statement looks at the natural state and the virtues man can gain vigor from it. The second half applies these virtues to civilization, exposing the white mans corruption and misuse of the land. A careful look at the interaction of these two halves reveals a single unifying theme man must learn virtue from nature. Faulkner believed humility, pride, courage, and liberty would be almost impossible for man to learn without the wilderness to teach him. The first half of the story tells a bittersweet tale of a boy who wished to learn humility and pride in high society to become skillful and worthy in the woods but found himself becoming so skillful so fast that he feared he would neer become worthy because he had not learned humility and pride though he had tried, until wizard day an old man who could not project defi ned either led him as though by the hand to where an old bear and a little mongrel dog showed him that, by possessing one thing other, he would possess them both. (283) The old man is Sam Fathers, son of a Negro slave and an Indian king. While he could not spend a penny defined either pride or humility, he nevertheless understood them through his Indian and Negro heritage. The boy is Isaac, or Ike, McCaslin, the protagonist who learns virtue from the wilderness and repudiates his grandfathers corrupt inheritance. The above passage describes the high point of the first half of the story in which Ike saves his little dog from the crush of the towering bear. Ike is so finis to the bear he can see that there is a big wood tick just inside his off hind leg. This act gives h... ...ty at a time had pride and humility in the wilderness, but abandoned it along with the wilderness. Faulkner illustrates these differences with the storys two contrasting themes. Yet by melding the two parts into one and tying them inseparably together, he effectively communicates the duality of grief felt by the boy. Isaac loses the wilderness he so loved and respected, and in doing so, the heritage he otherwise baron have. Works CitedBrooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner Toward Yoknapatawpha and Beyond. New Haven Yale University Press, 1978.Evans, David H. Taking the Place of Nature The Bear and the Incarnation of America. Faulkner and the Natural World Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1996. Ed. Donald M. Kartiganer and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson UP of Mississippi, 1999.Faulkner, William. The Bear. Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner. Vintage 1997.