Human Progress, Nature's Destruction

In The Bear by William Faulkner, there are two types of relationships a person can have with nature. A person is either a true hunter and in tune with the wilderness, or a product of societal values and not in tune with the wilderness. Ike McCaslin is the perfect example of a person in spiritual harmony with nature. Ike earned his identity from the wilderness as embodied in the bear, Old Ben, and entered his manhood with Sam Fathers as his guide. Ike assimilated the values of a true hunter, patience, endurance, skill, respect, and humility. On the other hand, men like Boon Hogganbeck and Cass McCaslin were completely devoid of the true hunter's qualities. Their values were aligned more closely with the baser side of society. Faulkner suggests men who assimilate the values of true hunters do so by obeying the ancient laws of the ritual hunt while men who lack the qualities of true hunters are responsible for the dooming of the wilderness.

Sam Fathers, a universal man, taught Ike the values of a true hunter through the ritual hunt for Old Ben which enabled Ike to become one with the wilderness. The ritual hunt was characterized by values which Ike learned including: equality between all animals, endurance, tradition, and oneness between the hunter and hunted. The hunt:

was of the men, not white nor black nor red but men, hunters, with the will and hardihood to endure and the humility and skill to survive, and the dogs and the bear and deer juxtaposed and reliefed against it, ordered and compelled by and within the wilderness in the ancient and unremitting contest according to the ancient and immitigable rules... (327)

Old Ben symbolized the wilderness because he was "a phantom, epitome, and apotheosis of the old wild life" (329). In hunting Old Ben, Ike was searching for the values comprising his own nature. "If Sam Fathers had been his mentor and the backyard rabbits and squirrels his kindergarten, then the wilderness the old bear ran was his college and the old male bear itself...was his alma mater" (343). At the age of ten during the first week of his lessons, Ike learned humility. "The humility was there; he had learned that" (331). In the second week, Ike learned patience. From his frequent walks through the woods, Ike learned the skills of a woodsman; eventually he could walk for miles without the use of a compass. After stripping himself of his instruments of society (his watch, gun, and compass), Ike "entered" the wilderness on a metaphysical level, and Old Ben revealed himself to Ike. Ike sought the ancient balance between hunter and hunted by leaving his ties to civilization. He allowed himself to be taken by fear as he "relinquished completely to it" (341). Ike became one with the wilderness because of his adherence to the ancient laws of the hunt. By learning the values of equality, endurance, tradition, oneness, humility, patience, and skill from the hunt and submitting himself to the wilderness, Ike became in tune with the wilderness and enjoyed the best of the basis of life, breathing, and a keen absorption of life through hearing. He could hear the voices in nature which carried great meaning and memory. Ike enjoyed "the best of all breathing and forever the best of all listening, the voices quiet and weighty and deliberate for retrospection and recollection and exactitude..." (327). By being closely tied to the wilderness, both Ike and Sam knew that Old Ben was doomed. Although he could not admit it, Sam alluded to the killing of Old Ben when he said, "'Somebody is going to, some day.'" (345). If Old Ben was doomed, the wilderness was certainly doomed. At a very young age, Ike divined "that doomed wilderness whose edges were being constantly and punily gnawed at by men with plows and axes who feared it because it was wilderness, men myriad and nameless even to one another..." (329). Ike's values as a true hunter contrasted the men lacking those values who "gnawed" at the wilderness like small animals.

Cass and Boon lacked the qualities of true hunters. Cass violated the concept of equality because he was a racist. When Ike told Cass that black men were more enduring and stronger than white men, Cass responded by saying blacks are characterized by "'Promiscuity. Violence. Instability and lack of control. Inability to distinguish between mine and thine'" (416). Ike argued that black people had virtues like endurance, pity, tolerance, forbearance, fidelity, and love of children. Cass adamantly rebutted by saying, "'So have mules.'" and "So have dogs.'" (417). Cass's comparison of black people to mules and dogs show his contempt for black people. Boon also lacked the qualities of a true hunter. A true hunter was skillful, and skillful Boon was not. Boon had terrible aim with a gun; "Boon had never been known to hit anything. He shot at the bear five times with his pump gun, touching nothing..." (356). Cass and Boon were governed by social values. Cass desired material wealth, a necessary social construct. General Compson told Cass:

"You've got one foot straddled into a farm and the other foot straddled into a bank; you aint even got a good hand-hold where this boy was already an old man long before you damned Sartorises and Edmondses invented farms and banks to keep yourselves from having to find out what this boy was born knowing and fearing too maybe but without being afraid, that could go ten miles on a compass because he wanted to look at a bear none of us had ever got near enough to put a bullet in..." (378).

Cass was concerned with making money on the farm and saving money in the bank. General Compson compared "this boy", Ike, to "us" referring to everyone that was not a true hunter and acknowledged Ike's adroit skill in the woods which none of them had. Boon was also motivated by social values. Alcohol corrupted Boon's mind and complemented his immature mentality. Furthermore, he adopted technology, a necessary aspect of civilization, as embodied in the dog, Lion. Boon took care of Lion who was "the color of a gun or pistol barrel". When Sam fist caught and confined Lion, the dog jumped fearlessly against his the door of the confinement causing a machine-like rhythmic "clattering each time, and still no sound from the beast itself-no snarl, no cry" (349). The descriptions of Lion imply that he is a symbol for technology. At the end of the book, Boon sat under a gum tree banging his dismembered gun pieces together screaming, "'Get out of here! Dont touch them! Dont touch a one of them! They're mine!'" (448). Boon's categorizing of objects as "mine" and "thine" was also evidence of his belief in society's values. His mad screaming stemmed from frustration because he was not in sync with the wilderness. On the other hand, Ike who was in tune with the wilderness was not concerned with material objects like Cass or Boon as seen in his repudiation of his family inheritance. The men who lacked the qualities of a true hunter were responsible for the dooming of the wilderness because of their connection to society and lack of harmony with nature.

Cass McCaslin was an extension of old L.Q.C. McCaslin who was the original proprietor of the family plantation. He bought the land from the Chickasaw chief, Ikkemotubbe who had poisoned the former chief's son. The poisoning scared the chief who abdicated his position as chief. Consequently, L.Q.C. McCaslin's acquired land through dishonest means. L.Q.C. McCaslin also committed incestuous crimes with his slaves. Ike relinquished his family inheritance because he did not believe the land could ever be owned and he would not accept the crimes of his forefather, L.Q.C. McCaslin. Ike could not take the land because the land

was never mine to repudiate. It was never Father's and Uncle Buddy's to bequeath to me to repudiate because it was never Grandfather's to bequeath to them to bequeath to me to repudiate because it was never old Ikkemotubbe's to sell to Grandfather for bequeathment and repudiation (384).

Ike said the land was given by God to man "to hold the earth mutual and intact in the communal anonymity of brotherhood" (384). Cass accepted the inheritance after Ike denied it. Faulkner suggested that when the wilderness was possessed by a man, like Cass, the possession of the wilderness could only lead to its destruction. Boon was also responsible for the destruction of the wilderness by adopting Lion and killing Old Ben in Lion's defense. When Boon and Lion first met, Boon was awed by Lion's magnificent strength. "Boon touched Lion's head and then knelt beside him, feeling the bones and muscles, the power" (353). Similarly, technology gave man strength and power. Boon adopted Lion by giving him preferential treatment. Ike "watched Boon take over Lion's feeding from Sam and Uncle Ash both." He also saw "Boon squatting in the cold rain beside the kitchen while Lion ate" (352). Boon even allowed Lion to sleep with him rather than in the kennel with other dogs. In the last hunt of Old Ben, Lion fearlessly clenched his jaws on Old Ben's throat. When Old Ben scratched open Lion's stomach with his raking paws, Boon ran into the fray, locked his legs around the bear's belly, and repeatedly stabbed Old Ben with his knife. Boon killed the embodiment of the wilderness in defense of Lion, the embodiment of technology. Cass and Boon are only two examples of the many men who destroy the wilderness because of society's influence on them.

Mankind's lack of understanding of the laws of the wilderness are dooming the wilderness. Primitive man originated in the wilderness. Unfortunately, primitive men discovered that civilization and technology were advantageous to survival. Consequently, man evolved, left the woods, and created high-rise apartments, factories, computers, and cities. By drifting away from nature through the development of technology man hurt his own roots. People that are not cognizant of their common heritage in the wilderness and their dependence on a benevolent wilderness are destined to destroy the wilderness. Some men, like Ike, don't drift from nature and learn their values from nature. These men are in spiritual harmony with the wilderness and do not threaten the wilderness. However, some men do not bother to learn from the wilderness, and the morals and qualities the wilderness has to teach never reach them. These men, like Cass and Boon, destroy the wilderness.