FREE ESSAY ON THE BEAR

THE BEAR

In many books, there are characters that are written into the story to show the strengths
of the main character. In this case it is Ike who because of Boon we see as a main his
weaknesses and his strengths. Ike is a young boy who has just come unto the age of a
hunter. He's first time at the camp we see that Ike is a strong young boy whose main
fault is his youth. However we meat Boon in the beginning of the story and slowly through
out the story we learn that Boon is not perfect and that he is related to Sam Fathers,
who is Ike's teacher. Ike like all main characters show some prevalence over the thing,
which holds him back, the woods. Ike slowly becomes a great woodsmen and tracker. Boon is
still a man verging on hunter but not one because he doesn't have the ability to be
patient and non-violent when he kills.
Ike runs into the indestructible bear Old Ben two times in his growth towards manhood but
never with the intention to kill him. So, Ike who Sam Fathers and maybe even Ike himself
thought would kill the bear did not get to. Ike even though not able to kill the bear
becomes an awesome tracker and a great woodsman. He says at one point in the book that he
knows the woods better then Sam Fathers. Ike is slowly becoming not only a man but also a
hunter. He loves the wilderness and has gone into the woods with nothing except his close
and come back out fine, This is to prove though that even in his youth Ike is a great
hunter and that it is his right to kill the bear and not anyone elses, however Faulner
decided that Boon should kill the bear.
Boon ends up killing the bear that everyone thought was invincible with a knife which
seems very much the way a real hunter would have done it, this shows that Boon in his own
way is a hunter and not a straggler who just hangs around the camp for free drink. Since
boon killed the bear, he becomes insane and once more becomes a pygmy as Faulkner says.
Someone who is afraid of the woods and kills with the intent to kill not eat. At the end
of the book, we see Ike go meat with Boon under a tree with lots of squirrels in it,
which is in the middle of an open area. When we see Boon, he is banging two pieces of his
gun together and getting ready to kill ever squirrel that is in the tree. This shows that
Boon goes crazy with out the wood, which is symbolized as the bear. Therefore, in a way
Boon is the ender of the woods and his sanity.