The Contrasting Themes and Structure of William Faulkner's The Bear
At first, William Faulkner's The Bear, seems to be a story about the decline of an old bear and the wilderness he represented. Oddly, it is possible to omit the fourth chapter of The Bear and still have a complete and less confusing story. Although sandwiched in between the third and fifth chapters, the fourth chapter is almost wholly independent. For the purpose of this analysis, I will refer to chapters one, two, three, and five as being one half of the story, while chapter four solely comprises the other half.
At first, it seems that these two sections have little in common, but that exactly is Faulkner's intention. He has deliberately pitted these two halves of the story against each other in order to compare and contrast wilderness to civilization. He does this by creating two separate and independent plots, containing each almost solely in the environment dictated by their theme, contrasting two martyr-like characters-each central to the plot, and giving the two sections different narrative styles and chronology. To complicate things, the fourth chapter is placed in the midst of the rest of the story.
Faulkner uses contrasting plots to separate the two sections of The Bear at the lowest possible level. The first half of the story (chapters 1,2,3, and 5) contains a fully contained plot about a bear hunt and the decline of the wilderness, while the other half (chapter 4) is also self sufficient in its plot, depending only on the other half for introducing the main characters. The first half of the story tells a bittersweet tale of a boy
who wished to learn humility and pride in order to become skillful and worthy in the woods but...
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...the wilderness, but abandoned it along with the wilderness. Faulkner illustrates these differences with representative parts in the story and communicates his feelings towards each in what he chooses to write and how he writes it. Yet by melding the two parts into one and tying them inseparably together, he effectively communicates the duality of grief felt by the boy, one of that last who understood humility and pride.
Works Cited
Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: Toward Yoknapatawpha and Beyond. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.
Evans, David H. "Taking the Place of Nature: 'The Bear' and the Incarnation of America." Faulkner and the Natural World: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1996. Ed. Donald M. Kartiganer and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999.
Faulkner, William. “The Bear.” Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner. Vintage: 1997.
The use of Intercalary chapters is a complex technique. Writers use this structure to break up the plot with separate excerpts inserted into the novel. Intercalary chapters help to give the reader background knowledge or important information. This can help further develop the novels impact on readers. John Steinbeck displayed this strategy throughout The Grapes of Wrath, interrupting the Joad family’s journey with chapters describing other aspects of the novel’s setting. These chapters help readers envision a time period that otherwise may seem alien to them. They can better connect to the people of that time period and their struggles.
Thinking back into history, many important events have occurred in history since the publication of 1984 by George Orwell in 1949. In no specific order there would be the Holocaust, The creation of the United Nations, NATO (North Atlantic treaty Organization), and even The Iron Curtain being established. After 1984 was published huge events also occurred in history. There was the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Korean war, the Vietnam War, the creation of the Berlin Wall, and the destruction of the Berlin wall, Joseph Stalin dies, and Khrushchev gains power....etc, etc. No matter when a book is published the events in history will always surround it, such as this book.
Cashin, Edward J., ed. A wilderness still the cradle of nature: frontier Georgia. Savannah: Beehive, 1994. Print.
His character traits are listed in three main accounts by authors A.J. Koutsoukis, Erik Hildinger, who are both current impartial historical non-fiction writers and, Plutarch. Plutarch was a Greek historian, biographer and essayist, who is most famous for his work Parallel Lives, where he focuses on all of the contributing rulers of the Roman Republic. Plutarch is very even handed and focuses on the influence of character and moral lessons that can be learned from these emperors, good or bad.
Propaganda also plays a central role within the Party's infrastructure and it is used to gain support for Big Brother, stir patriotism and induce hate towards the chosen "enemy" country. Workers in the Ministry of Truth work to change the past, making Big Brother seem to have always been right. Also, the Party seeks to stifle any individual or "potentially revolutionary" thought by introducing a new language, Newspeak, the eradication of English and the deployment of "Thought Police" who terrorize Party members by accusing them of "Thought Crime" (ie. to think a crime is to commit a crime). The introduction of this new language means that eventually, no-one is able to commit thought-crime due to the lack of words to express it.
Perkins, George B., and Barbara Perkins. "The Beast in the Jungle." The American Tradition in Literature (concise). 12th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 1148-1177. Print.
Porter, Carolyn. "William Faulkner: Innocence Historicized." Seeing and Being: The Plight of the Participant Observer in Emerson, James, Adams, and Faulkner. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1981. Cited as rpt. in Bloom.
George Orwell published 1984 in 1949, the same year that the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. The arms race that followed the Soviets' development of nuclear weaponry quickly escalated into the Cold War, which raged for the next four decades as the enormous ideological gulf separating capitalism and democracy from totalitarianism and Communism led to mutual hatred between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world's most powerful nations. During the long decades of the Cold War, perhaps no book better captured the moral objections against totalitarian Communism than 1984, written by Orwell originally to warn the world of the dangers of authoritarian regimes. Depicting a horrifying near-future of governmental oppression, slavery, and alienation, 1984 created a sensation upon its initial appearance, sounding the alarm that the atrocities committed under Communism upon human material security and freedom were possible not only in Russia and Eastern Europe, but in the West as well.
Probably the most important thing to remember while reading 1984 is that Orwell never intended the book to be a prediction of the future. It was more or less a satire of political fiction, however, I believe Orwell was on the right track concerning future possibilities of a New World Order, or total government control. An interesting quotation from the book is from the "thought police" when they say "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." I believe Orwell's hope in writing the book was to warn people of political warning signs he saw.
The government system of Oceania is a totalitarian state. It is controlled by a group known as “The Party.” The Party claims to be headed by an entity known as “Big Brother,” though no one has ever seen him aside from in propaganda. The ideological basis of The Party is referred to as INGSOC. The three tenants of INGSOC are “WAR IS PEACE [.] FREEDOM IS SLAVERY [.] IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell, 6). The Party is split into two components, the Inner Party, and the Outer Party. The Inner Party - comprised of less than 2% of the population – is the upper ruling class that controls everything. The Outer Party functions as the middle class and works as lower level employees at the four Ministries of The Party. The majority of the population, known as the Proles (short for “proletariats”), are the poor working class.
Since the beginning of time man has tried to build vast empires to control the globe. Manifest Destiny has been sown into our human nature creating in us the desire to conquer. In the United States, we are accustomed to a safe democratic government where everyone has a voice and freedoms, but what if it all changed? What would it even look like for America to be stripped of all our freedoms, rights, and liberties? We think this is crazy and could never happen, but George Orwell illustrates, throughout his novel 1984, the possible dangers of complete government control. Even though this exaggerated society seems farfetched, many of his fictional governmental qualities are starting to line up with our government today.
To accomplish this, Orwell utilizes the theme of individuality versus tyranny, foreshadowing, and irony, in order to fully extract all possible motives behind Winston’s actions.Many countries, such as the United States, are founded on principles of individuality reigning over tyranny, more specifically, the freedom of choice. However, in the futuristic Oceania, run by “Big Brother”, such freedom and individuality is, for the most part, completely suspended. To act impulsively, or choose to oppose Big Brother, is a “thoughtcrime” of dire consequence. This is the basis behind the Inner Party’s control of Oceania. Winston however, from the commencement of the novel, showed that he was not willing to conform to such a tyrannical society. From his writing “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” in his diary as the novel opened, to his relationship with Julia, which was considered sexcrime in Oceania, Winston proved his thoughts were antiparallel to those of the Inner Party.
...collective mind. Orwell uses this concept to relate to the oppression in society present during the time in which he wrote the novel. During the 1940’s, it was not only WWII, but also the time of the dictators Stalin and Hitler, who used brainwashing techniques to take advantage of their vulnerable societies.
In the Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters to provide background for the various themes of the novel, as well to set the tone of the novel".
Throughout the story, "Killing the Bear," the reader is given a number of side notes about bears and the woman's experience with them.