Summary:
Bear by William Faulkner - His experiences and pursuit of manhood.
Bear
The Bear, by William Faulkner is a short story about a boy named Ike, who goes on two pursuits. The first hunting for a bear named Old Ben and the other the truth of his heritage.
Ike, awaits until he is old enough to go on the hunt with his family and their hunting group. "With Sam Fathers beside him he began his apprenticeship" to become a more skillful hunter. On his first day out in the woods he learns how to be observant and how to prepare himself to shoot. When he kills his first deer, Sam Fathers makes tribal marks on Ike's face with the deer's blood, the mark of a true hunter and the growing of a man. With a compass and a gun of his own, he begins to venture out to learn the land and its ways. At age 13 Ike knew the land better than most grown men. Ike could go out on the land anywhere and find his way back with any problem.
The main reason for going on the hunts was in hopes of some day killing what seems to be an immortal bear, Old Ben. They did not go thinking they were going to kill Old Ben but to keep yearly rendezvous with the Ben. Old Ben is legendary in how he has stayed alive so long, and how he has always outsmarted the hunters. The only time a person could finally see Old Ben is when a hunter proves himself worthy and "discards all items that are emblems of mechanized civilization" and with many more attempts, he becomes more mature builds up knowledge of the land and of Old Ben. Finally with the right dog, Lion, that isn't afraid of anything, they are finally able to bay Old Ben. With the help of Boon, him and lion are able to kill Old Ben. After the killing of the legendary Old Ben, the thrill of going hunting seems to become a thing of the past and becomes dormant.
As Ike gets older, he begins becoming more aware of what goes on in his life at home. He realizes that the ledgers written by his father, uncle, and in the past his grandfather, had written of history that should not be disclosed but kept a secret within the family; the white family that is. Ike, after reading the ledgers, he comes to the adherence that his family-line also descends into slavery. As a man he accepts that there are "more men than Father and Uncle Buddy" that are also his ancestors and more family that he has not ever considered. When Ike becomes the rightful age of 21, he is to assume control of the family plantation, which is his by inheritance. Instead of accepting his inheritance, Ike declares that land can not be owned and for the money that he is to gain he has plans for. Thus forth Ike set out on his second hunt for the rest of his family by traveling to Arkansas to give part of the money to Sophonsiba, one of his relatives, a former slave to the McCaslin family. All the money and the plantation that he was to inherit, he "renounces" it, as a way of trying to mend the things done in the past he gives it to the part of his family that has been kept a secret.
As Ike grew up, in his journey of life he learns how to become a man. He becomes a man that is honorable, respectable and intellectual. The two main hunts that made him the man that he is and that had the biggest impact on his life are the hunts for Old Ben and the hunt for his black relatives. As Ike grew to become a man he realizes mans mistakes and tries to correct them and make them right.
This is the complete article, containing 645 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
