The Bear (vol. II)

The wilderness has always been a region which has captivated the imagination. Personally, the “wilderness” is the places on the planet which are free from the taint of human society. Hence, one man alone in a forest is still the wilderness because he cannot have society with himself. Philosophers throughout the centuries have been fascinated with the wilderness, particularly post-Enlightenment thought. Thomas Hobbes believed man’s greatest achievement was leaving the wild, a place of endless fighting, to enter into society. Conversely, Jean Jacques Rousseau believed it was society which corrupted man and that the goodness of man was found in nature. As such, moderns have a love hate relationship with the wilderness. We seem drawn to it, as if the trees themselves have some secret about our humanity to tell to us while at the same time we are enslaved by a desire to dominate it. The Bear demonstrates the tension as Isaac is instilled with the virtues of the forest but at the same time part of a group hoping to conquer the wilderness. Though Old Ben is killed and although man continues to conquer the wilderness, the victory comes at a cost. For many members of the hunting group, they do not understand what has been lost but simply reflect in nostalgic sorrow. I think the cost of the destruction of the wilderness is that we lose the sacred group upon which humans from the dawn of the species have been instilled with that restless, nervous energy; that dominant force to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.