The Bear

The Bear, novelette by William Faulkner, early versions of which first appeared as “Lion” in Harper’s Magazine of December 1935 and as “The Bear” in The Saturday Evening Post in 1942 before it was published that same year as one of the seven chapters in the novel Go Down, Moses. Critical interpretations of the story vary depending upon whether it is judged as an independent work or as a chapter in the larger novel.

“The Bear,” set in the late 19th century, is a hunting story told from the perspective of Isaac (“Ike”) McCaslin, a young man from an old family in Yoknapatawpha county. In the first three parts of the novelette, Ike trains under the expert tracker Sam Fathers and hunts down the legendary bear Old Ben. The fourth part (omitted in some publications) comprises a long, convoluted dialogue between Ike and his cousin Carothers (“Cass”) Edmonds, in which Ike repudiates his inheritance after he discovers incest and miscegenation in the family history. The final part concerns Ike’s affinity for nature and his dismay at its gradual destruction.