The Bear: Who is to Blame?

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   Chapter four was the hardest part of the book to follow because of the lack of any apparent organization. Luckily for me, my mother is a huge Faulkner fan, and graciously worked through it with me. What we found is that Ike is essentially putting God and man on trial for the injustice in the land, almost like Job. Ike decides that white man is to blame for oppressing the blacks, but at the same time, God is at fault for allowing it to happen. Ike sees white people as horrible human beings and exploiters, and God as either indifferent or cruel. It is no wonder that he does not want the farm. If McCaslin is right about the land being God's gift to Ike's grandfather, then that makes God unjust for using unjust means, or Ike's grandfather an awful person for abusing the gift he was given. Ike sees it as both. He does not want to be part of that legacy, which is why he will not take the farm despite his wife's threats and manipulations. In the end, the land becomes industrialized, the blacks are still exploited even though they are free, God is nowhere to be found, Ike will never have a happy marriage, and Boon gets mauled by squirrels. Makes total sense, just like the twentieth century.
   By the way, does anyone have any idea why it ended with Boon getting mauled by squirrels? Comment below.

P.S. I commented on Will, Ethan, Zelda, and Natalie's posts.

Comments

  1. Ethan LafontJanuary 29, 2018 at 6:43 PM

    Boon might have a scary past as a squirrel murderer. I'll write the origin story. Haha, all joking aside, I think I understand where Ike stood a bit more considering the fact that he looked at God almost as a part in the institution of slavery. He would not have wanted to use the land for good and for the Glory of God if to him, God was not worthy of being given glory.

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  2. Will BradyJanuary 29, 2018 at 9:08 PM

    Squirrels have always been nature’s dominant predator. They’ve spent most of history reserving their terrifying wrath, but during the Industrial Revolution they were riled up and unleashed their fury on rail workers. The government kept those incidents under wraps to prevent mass hysteria and/or attempted squirrel genocide…

    …Stop looking at me like that. I promise I’m sane.

    This reminds me of something we talked about in Mashburn’s Philosophy class last semester. Remember The Euthyphro coupled with Abraham trying to talk God out of judging Sodom? The question of how we know whether God is always just or can be unjust? Can Ike even judge God? Does he even believe in our God who made mankind if he just believes God doesn’t care about mankind? I’m thinking he has his mind hooked on some spinoff deity, like Islam’s Allah…

    ReplyDelete
  3. Natalie SchulerJanuary 29, 2018 at 9:11 PM

    The mauling by squirrels thing really confused me too. I guess I kind of dismissed it since Boon has been picking a fight with animals since the beginning.

    ReplyDelete

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