The Bear (vol. I)

American historian Frederick Jackson Turner in his work, The Frontier in American History, argues that the early frontier of the United States was shaped the very fabric of the American soul. Turner claimed that the frontier formed a character marked by, “that practical inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things... that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism.” In essence, Turner argued that the colonists had not mastered the wilderness, the wilderness first mastered the settlers. Similarly, William Faulkner’s The Bear explores the way in which the wilderness shapes the character of Isaac McCaslin. In many ways, Faulkner’s observations parallel Turner’s as displayed in McCaslin’s observation, “It was of the…hunters, with the will and hardiness to endure and the humility and skill to survive…within the wilderness in the ancient and unremitting contest” (186). The wilderness of The Bear is a sacred place in which men are instilled with the most important virtues of pride, humility, and courage. The theme is similar to other portrayals of nature seen in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Room With a View where nature is a place that draws out the raw essence of man. Faulkner’s wilderness acts in much the same way but goes a step further by molding the soul of man into one with a “restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism” which reflects the American spirit.