The Hunting Culture in William Faulkner’s The bear

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0 Introduction

Widely anthologized and acclaimed as a masterpiece of modern American literature,William Faulkner's The Bear is considered among the best stories written in the twentieth century.The Bear is a short novel in an anthology that begins in Yoknapatwpha County sometime after the Civil War.The story deals with loyalty,honor,truth,bravery,courage,fear,nature,history and choices.The paper introduces the hunting culture in the story and also gives modern people the revelation of respecting your opponent and being harmony with the nature.

1 Hunting as a Trip

The opening lines of the book introduce the reader to several important characters.The first character is Old Ben,a bear who has become infamous in the forest and has earned himself a human name.Second is a man named Boon who we learn later is the man who kills Old Ben.Next is Sam Fathers,a man who is a mentor to the narrator.Finally,we learn the name of Lion,who is the unloving dog that hunts Old Ben.

1.1 The Annual Hunting Festival

Since a big bear named Old Ban was found in Yoknapatwpha County,a place south of America,there was an annual festival to hunt the bear.The bear was famous and couldn’t be killed.Because of the bear,there had a professional hunting group,and because of the bear couldn’t be killed,every November;the hunters would come and join in the group.It was a big group including some important persons in the place.As a child,Ike watched the men leave for their November hunting trips,and finally at ten he is allowed to join his cousin McCaslin,Major DeSpain,and General Compson to go to the woods.They took everything they needed for the trip.With guns and dogs on the carriage,they headed for the forest where they had a camp.It was a long ride to the woods.

1.2 To Enjoy the Life of Hunting

After the long trip,they finally reached the camp.In the following days,Ike practiced how to use the gun and to be patient before shooting at his place.At one time when he was practicing shooting under the guidance of Sam,he heard the noise of the hounds.From the sad and scared noise of the hounds,Sam knew that it was the appearance of Old Ben.The hounds barked but they were scared by the big bear,but to behave bravely,they had to fight with the bear.When Ike got back to the camp,he was told that the bear tore one dog up and left.Seeing the wounded dog and the nervousness of Sam Father,Ike feared living in the woods.

2 Searching For Quarry

Since the group has hunted for the bear for some years,they knew where they could find the bear.The bear would come to the area near the camp because the bear is the head of other bears;he came to run other bears away.Every day,the woodsmen set out the hounds and rode on the horse.They followed the hounds,once the hounds found an animal,the hounds would bark and chase the animal,so they saw the animal and rode the horse to chase the animal.When they came close to the animal,they could shoot the animal.

3 Tracking the Quarry

The bear was seen several times.Every year the hunting group came to hunt him and let him escaped.The reason was notbecause the bear was smart,it was because the woodsmen didn’t want to kill the bear.They thought they could come next year.The other reason was the big bear scared the hounds.When the group found the bear,the hounds made a lot of fearful noise.They were afraid to get close to the bear,but to behave bravely and to prove that they were hounds,they had to track the bear,and the woodsmen rode on the horses to shoot the bear.Boon’s horse ran close to the bear,he shot five times,but he missed all.General Campson shot the bear twice;the bullets were in the bear.The bear bled but still ran away because the old bear was big and the two bullets were not fatal.When they tracked the bear to a river,the bear dived in the river.Boon searched him along the river for a long time,but he didn’t see the bear.So the group had to go back to the camp.

4 Fighting Against the Quarry

As the hunting party surveys the aftermath of the battle,they find that not only Lion,but Sam as well,are in grave condition,and both soon die.As the chapter closes,Edmonds confronts Boon about Sam,wondering if Boon has had some part in Sam’s death.In the end it is not worth celebrating the death of the bear,but with the great opponent dead,the hunter Sam has no meaning to live.Boon went insane and Ike‘s personality had changed much which we learn in chapter 4 that he decide not to take over his father’s manor.So the story puts us in deep thought.

5 Learning From Hunting

We want to fight with the people who have opposite idea of us.How can we fight with him?We need a strong body and a clever mind to win.So we do a lot of sports to be body strong and learn a lot of knowledge to be mental smart.If you want to kill your opponent,you will have no people to force you to be body strong and mental smart.So we should respect our opponent.

Since Old Ban was dead,the small train of the wood company went into the forest.The primal forest became the settlement of the modern people.The temperature in the world was getting higher,so people realized the importance of protecting the nature.Only if the nature develops in harmonious can the man develop in harmonious ways.Only if we protect the nature,the nature will be loyal to the man.

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