How Does Faulkner Present The Theme Of Man's Fear Of Death

William Faulkner shows in both his speech and his works that the universal fear of man is death. In “That Evening Sun” and “The Bear”, Faulkner conveys his theme of man’s fear of death through his characters in “The Bear” and “That Evening Sun”. The fear of death pervades “The Bear” in the form of a young child in the forest that feels as though he is being watched. The child’s fear is described as “…shadowy in the limbo from which time emerged, becoming time… He recognized fear. So I will have to see him, he thought, without dread or even hope” (Faulkner 3). First, the bear is a symbol of death because it is described as a “shaggy, huge, red-eyed” (Faulkner 1) bear and it is specifically stated that “men with axes and plows who feared it because

The first description depicts something scary and animalistic that could easily kill, while the second tells how afraid of this bear the townspeople were. Now, the passage of the child in the forest emanates this great fear of man because the child in the passage is in the middle of the forest with the bear, not knowing when the bear will kill him, if at all.

There is a pervading sense of fear of death in this passage, pointing back to the common theme in Faulkner’s works and speech. In another passage, the child is again in the forest alone. The senses of aloneness and even helplessness are amplified when

“he heard no dogs at all… He heard only the drumming of the woodpecker stop short off and knew the bear was looking at him” (Faulkner 2). He is further made alone and helpless by the absence of normal everyday sounds, juxtaposing this fear of death with this helplessness and hopelessness that only adds to the fear of death.

In “That Evening Sun”, mankind’s fear of death is again depicted by Nancy’s fear of her common law husband’s vengeful return. Nancy states “He out there. I can’t do nothing. Just put it off. And that don’t do no good. I reckon it belong to me. I reckon