The Bear Essay, Research Paper

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.