The Bear: Single-Sentence Story

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the destruction of the wilderness and the ushering in of the modern era is underway, as railroads and lumber companies intrude into the wilderness after the death of Old Ben-- and Boon Hogganback, emblem of the modern age, still appears at the end of the story to be trying to cling to the nature he symbolically helped bring an end to, sitting under a tree swarming with squirrels that he can't shoot because his gun is-- broken?-- off-sight?-- he probably wouldn't be able to hit a single one of the twelve billion squirrels in that tree even if he had a twelve gauge shotgun, which might very well be a result of the modern-age symbolism we mentioned in class, as Boon doesn't seem to be able to engage with nature in the same way that the others hunters (certainly not Sam and Ike) could, especially considering the unfortunate fate he inadvertently brought upon the "taintless" Sam Fathers (and possibly his own beloved Lion-- did we ever settle that question?) by trying to fit in with the hunting party and bring down Old Ben; now we find Boon sitting here, under a lone tree outside a rapidly diminishing forest, frustrated that he can't hunt and yet screaming at Ike that he alone can hunt "his" squirrels-- in like manner the lumber and railroad companies claim nature as their property and then do nothing natural with it, perhaps trying their best to "fit in" with nature as much as possible yet ruining it for hunters and Native Americans regardless; the frustration of "it's right here yet I can't do anything with it" must be intense

this is perhaps not the most apt of symbolism theories, yet little stuck out in this hard-to-follow reading aside from an excuse to use poor grammar while blogging and get away with it.

...I can get away with this, right?

P.S. I commented on Sophia and Zelda’s posts. And hey, I used proper English!

Comments

  1. Sophia ColbertJanuary 29, 2018 at 1:38 PM

    Very clever formatting! It took me a while to understand the imagery of the book, but after my amazing mother spent hours explaining the confusing style to me, I finally understood it. Maybe. I think. At the very basic level, it seems like a man vs nature story, but as my mother explained it to me, I realized it was more like man vs man vs God story. Read my blog if you want to learn more. ;)

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  2. Ethan LafontJanuary 29, 2018 at 6:48 PM

    When you mentioned the little thing about modern age symbolism, I was thinking about Boon being a symbol of an aversion to change and perhaps the overwhelming nature of the squirrels attacking him is a force of change that cannot be stopped. The War With Nature here has been fought and......... (well wether you think its won or lost is your opinion, I'm still deciding.....)

    It's like nature is saying it's time to move on and leave the woods (and the past) behind.

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  3. UnknownJanuary 29, 2018 at 10:33 PM

    I like the connections you have made with Boon to the nature of this story! Quite honestly, throughout the whole of reading "The Bear," I have disliked Boon's character and not cared to entertain the analogous of his role in this story. I did notice, however, there was a great chunk that he's not even mentioned in, yet he is brought back up in the end. Probably nothing in that point but I recognized his absence and wondered about it.

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