William Faulkner Essay, Research Paper
Tarleton 1
The Initiation into Manhood
The tales of boys’ initiations into manhood are evident in many of the most interesting adventure stories of all time. The transition is intriguing because so much importance is put on this part of a boy’s life or perhaps tales of coming of age are more entertaining. The author William Faulkner is well known for stories about the transition from boyhood to manhood. One particular story tells the tale of a boy’s quest to hunt a mystical bear named Old Ben. William Faulkner’s “The Bear” describes the initiation of Isaac (Ike) McCaslin from boyhood into manhood through his tools, experiences with the bear, and his hunts.
Ike’s coming of age is symbolized throughout the story by his guns. When he first goes on the hunt with his father and the other men, Ike uses a gun that is too big for him that belongs to someone else (Faulkner 375). At this point Ike is still considered a boy and not yet worthy of having his own weapon. The following year, however, he had his own gun, a Christmas present he received that year (377). Ike is shown as growing up and able to have a gun that belongs to him. As he gets older, he finds his own gun is no longer worthy, and wants a man’s gun, so he borrows the rifle of Walter Ewell, a well known and respected hunter among his father’s group (379). Ike’s real coming of age happens when he comes to the realization that it is not the rifle which makes him a man. “He had left the gun; of his own will and relinquishment…all the old rules and balances of the hunter and the hunted had been abrogated” (378). Ike’s steps through the realization of the symbol of the gun enable him to become a man.
The other tools Ike uses during his hunts also signify his induction into manhood. When Ike is young, he uses a compass and a watch to guide him through the wilderness. In his hunts using these tools Ike is unable to find and see the bear he seeks. The gun, compass, and watch represent “ways of rendering experience intelligible” (Guetti 47). Ike cannot find what he searches for because he is using the tools of man when dealing with nature. Not until Ike discards his watch, compass, and gun does he “receive nature’s stamp of manhood” (”Faulkner” 299). Ike first had to realize that he did not have to use the tools before he could become a man.
The experiences Ike encounters with Old Ben, the bear, are important steps in his initiation into manhood. Ike grows up hearing the stories and myths of Old Ben and is consumed by a boyhood longing to become a man by killing the beast. “To the boy, [the bear] was still no living creature, but the wilderness” (Faulkner 375) and “the very essence of nature” (Hoffman 277). Ike believes if he can kill the bear he will conquer the wilderness and become a man. In his youth he is mistaken by this assumption. Ike thinks that if “backyard rabbits and squirrels at home were his kindergarten, then the wilderness the old bear ran was his college, the old male bear itself was his alma mater” (Faulkner 379). With that in mind Ike set out to become a man through the slaying of Old Ben.
In his first experiences hunting the bear, he is unable to find or see it. He “knew that the bear was looking at him. He never saw it. He did not know whether it was in front of him or behind him. He did not move, holding the useless gun” (376). As he gets older he realizes there is something keeping him from his trophy of manhood. Ike must see and meet the bear, but first he had to “divest himself of manmade signs of fear and vanity” (Lyndenberg 87). The signs being the tools he is using. When Ike comes to the conclusion that the gun is keeping him from seeing the bear he sets off into the wilderness unarmed. But to his dismay he still cannot find Old Ben. Ike realizes it is not only his gun, but compass and watch also holding him back (88). Ike discards the watch and compass and finally becomes “pure” (88).
Then he saw the bear. It did not emerge, appear; it was just there, immobile, solid, fixed in the hot dappling of the green and windless noon, not as big as he had
dreamed it, but as big as he had expected. Then it was gone. It didn’t walk into the woods, the undergrowth. It faded, sank back into the wilderness as he had watched a huge old bass, sink and vanish into the dark depths of its pool without even any movement of its fins. (Faulkner 378)
Ike’s first experience with Old Ben puts him on the real path of becoming a man and teaches him “the difference between foolhardiness and courage, between savagery and appreciation of the sanctity of the wild” (”Bear” 676).
Ike’s next experience with the bear came two years later, when Ike was fourteen, and is his real step between boyhood and manhood. Ike sees the bear once again while on a hunt. He is set on killing Old Ben when he embarks, and this time, is armed. Ike corners the bear and “couldn’t have missed him” (Faulkner 380), but decides instead to risk his own life to save his hunting dog that has charged the bear. “He could have shot long before the little dog covered the twenty yards to where the bear waited” (382), but did not. His refusal is his own step between boyhood and manhood. It is the reality of “truth” (Guetti 48). When Ike returns back to his house his father explains, ” Truth doesn’t change. Truth is one thing. It covers all things which touch the heart- honor and pride and pity and justice and courage and love’” (Faulkner 381). Ike’s experience with Old Ben enables him to take the needed steps to become a man.
Another aspect of “The Bear” that symbolize Ike’s initiation into manhood is his hunts. They are both a “pursuit and a quest” (Hoffman 275). In his quest, Ike is the hero who seeks “to discover the ultimate truths in an unmediated relationship with [the bear], the spirit of the wilderness” (276), and become man. Ike’s quest consists of three stages that allow him to leave boyhood. The first stage occurs when Ike is twelve years old and shoots his first buck. His face is marked with the blood and thus he is first initiated and begins his journey into manhood (Powers 164). The second stage happens shortly after when Ike is pursuing the bear. He strips himself of “the aids of civilization” (164): Compass, watch, and gun, and faces the wilderness on his own. Ike realizes that only he has the power to decide when he will become a man. The third and final stage of Ike’s initiation takes place when he refuses to kill Old Ben (Hoffman 273). He has finally come to the realization of truth, and finds “losing the concept of manliness and accepting the responsibility and not glory of manhood is the trait which defines manhood” (Kestner 1). After he knows this fact, Ike is truly a man.
William Faulkner uses many different ways to show Ike’s initiation into manhood. His tools, experiences with Old Ben, and his hunts are among the ways. All Faulkner’s examples are an equally important part of this story, and he found a way to make all examples of initiation in “The Bear” intertwined. Without one example, another might have never existed. In this way, Faulkner creates one of the most genius tales of coming of age, and illustrates how one boy must go through many different experiences and realizations before he receives his “stamp of manhood” (”Faulkner” 299).
Works Cited
“The Bear.” Magill’s Survey of American Literature. Ed. Frank N. Magill. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1991.
Faulkner, William. “The Bear.” The United States in Literature. 7th ed. Ed. James E. Miller, Jr., et. al. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1985.
“Faulkner, William.” Encyclopedia of Southern Literature. Ed. Mary Ellen Snodgrass. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997.
Guetti, James. ” The Sound and the Fury’ and The Bear.’” Modern Critical Views: William Faulkner. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
Hoffman, Daniel, ed. Faulkner’s Country Matters. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.
Kestner, Wiley. “Responsibility not Glory: The Transition from Boyhood to Manhood is Steinbeck’s Flight’ and Faulkner’s The Bear.’”
Lyndengerg, John. ” The Bear’ as a Nature Myth.” Readings on William Faulkner. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.
Powers, Lyall H. “The Structure of Go Down, Moses.” Readings on William Faulkner. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.
Другие работы по теме:
A Character Analysis of William Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily"
In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose For Emily" he had described Emily using five adjectives. These five adjectives were identified in Part IV of his story. "Thus she passed from generation to generation - dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and
Faulkner And Mccarthy
– Styles Essay, Research Paper William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy are known for their unusual, yet honest, styles of writing. Using a variety of sentence structure, vocabulary, and syntax, the two authors allow readers to explore deeper into the true meanings behind the well-told story lines. In Faulkner s The Unvanquished and McCarthy s All the Pretty Horses, these techniques, which parallel and contrast each other, are very apparent and convey messages to the reader that help to express the passage of boyhood into manhood.
Things Are Not What They Seem Essay
, Research Paper Things Are Not Always What They Seem William Faulkner s short story A Rose for Emily centers around Miss Emily and what the townspeople think of Miss Emily. One of the themes for A Rose for Emily is appearance versus reality. This theme of appearance versus reality can be seen through what the townspeople think of Miss Emily and by the actions taken by Miss Emily.
Narrator Description Essay Research Paper What is
Narrator Description Essay, Research Paper What is narrator? Narrator is the voice the author creates to tell the story. The possible ways of telling a story are many, and more than one way can be
Narrator Essay Research Paper What is narrator
Narrator Essay, Research Paper What is narrator? Narrator is the voice the author creates to tell the story. The possible ways of telling a story are many, and more than one way can be worked into a single story. Conventionally, the various narrators that storytellers draw upon can be grouped into four broad groups: the third-person narrator, the first-person narrator, the omniscient narrator and the witness narrator.
Critique On A Rose For Emily Essay
, Research Paper “A Rose for Emily is a very popular short story because of its, style , climax, and plot. The author, William Faulkner, was a “Southern” writer from Oxford, Mississippi. FAulkner bases this story on the tale of Oxford’s aristrocratic ” Miss Mary ” Neilson. She married Captain jack Hume, the charming yankee foreman of a street-paving crew, over her family’s shocked protests.
Letting Go Essay Research Paper Letting GoMany
Letting Go Essay, Research Paper Letting Go Many people hate to let things go. People find security and comfort in their possessions and the company they keep. If all this is ripped away from a person, it can
William Faulkner Essay Research Paper In William
William Faulkner Essay, Research Paper In William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, he says, “He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion.” William Faulkner is referring to “He” as the typical writer today.
Barn Burning By Faulkner Essay Research Paper
In William Faulkner?s ?Barn Burning,? the main character is Colonel Sartoris Snopes, or ?Sarty? for short. This young boy is torn between loyalty to his father and morality, and this story deals with that struggle.
William James Essay Research Paper William James
William James Essay, Research Paper William James, in the first lecture of his work the varieties of religious experiences analyzes the origins of religious phenomena. The theory mostly debated among others is that of medical materialism.
The Styles And Themes Of Willi Essay
, Research Paper One of the greatest writers of the 20th century is William Faulkner. He was born and raised in the southern state of Mississippi which greatly influenced his style of writing. Faulkner liked to use a variety of styles and themes in his works. In one of his most famous books, As I Lay Dying, he uses streams of consciousness, while in, A Rose for Emily, his style and theme is very morbid and grotesque.
The Sound And The Fury By William
Faulkner 1929 Essay, Research Paper “They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along
William Faulkners
“As I Lay Dying” Essay, Research Paper The main purpose for most of William Faulkner?s novel, As I Lay Dying, is to bury their beloved mother and wife, Addie Bundren, in a town called Jefferson, which is a very long and strenuous trip for them to make. The statement death shapes life perfectly describes this chain of events.
Anse
’s Character – As I Lay Dying Essay, Research Paper William Faulkner explores the conflicting agendas within an abnormal and bizarre family in his novel As I Lay Dying. Told in stream-of-conscious fashion by fifteen different speakers, Faulkner depicts the Bundren family’s quest to Jefferson to bury their dead matriarch, Addie.
Romanticism And Naturalisticism Essay Research Paper Romanticism
Romanticism And Naturalisticism: Essay, Research Paper Romanticism and Naturalisticism: Reflections on Nature Essential to man?s survival, nature deserves respect. In fact, if nature is not respected or cared for, the future may be a place without a natural habitat. Growing with buildings and industrial parks, the world might be a place where one will not have a place to go to relax, to have fun, or to sit and collect thoughts.
The Barn Burning Blues Essay Research Paper
William Faulkner’s short story, “Barn Burning”, is about a family’s struggle created by their father. the main character and father, Abner Snopes, is a self-ritous “no-good” who
A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner
Essay, Research Paper The story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner in my opinion was a very interesting story. The story was about a old and troubled woman named Emily Grierson who because of her father?s death had become one of the towns obligation?s and also one of it?s problems. Emily a very stubborn old lady who refused to pay her taxes because of a little tale that Colonel Sartoris who was the mayor at the time had told her.
A Roses For Emily Essay Research Paper
william faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily’, and Charlotte Gilman’s “A Yellow Wall paper” are alike in many ways. The two women are in similar situations, both are violated by
William Faulkner Essay Research Paper Faulkner s
William Faulkner Essay, Research Paper Faulkner s Works A Breadth of Social Vision In Faulkner s works, his distinctive achievement was to combine a penetrating grasp of individual consciousness the story behind every brow with a remarkable breadth of social vision. His writings encompassed with many different types of people equal authority aristocrats and poor whites; black people and Indians; old maids and matriarchs; Christ-like scapegoats and pathological murderers; intellectuals and idiots (Standberg 1).
William Faulkner Essay Research Paper Faulkner William
William Faulkner Essay, Research Paper Faulkner, William (1897-1962), American novelist, known for his epic portrayal, in some 20 novels, of the tragic conflict between the old and the new South. Faulkner’s complex plots and narrative style alienated many readers of his early works, but he was recognized later as one of the greatest American writers.
WILLIAM FAULKNER Essay Research Paper American writer
WILLIAM FAULKNER Essay, Research Paper American writer, William Cuthbert Faulkner, poet, and novelist has a style all his own. Varying talent from poetry to novels, critics can tell his style is different from the average writer. William?s style is easily identified by his repetition of words to his run on sentences.
A Rose For Emily 4 Essay Research
Paper A Rose for Emily William Faulkner In the famous story by William Faulkner there is a lonely tale of a woman that is living out the better part of her life in a cage. The setting is in a southern town that may aid to the problems she faces. Her father is the type that did not approve of any contact from the men of the town so she was always being held back in the area of socialization.
A Rose For Emily Critical Analysis Essay
, Research Paper William Faulkner, a writer brought up in the South, displayed the upbringing and lifestyles of people in a certain town. The theme revolved around the life of a lady name Emily Grierson. She is a southern woman, whose failed attempt at life is kept secret from her town until her death. By explaining her upbringing by a stern father, her midlife climax and her slow journey through a secluded life to her death, Faulkner shows how clinging on to tradition by Emily’s father ruined her life.
Transendentalism Through Franklin Emerson And Thoreau Essay
, Research Paper With the amount of changes in the narrative, it is no surprise Faulkner is known as the most inventive experimenter in the American modernist prose, and that later American novelists look back fearfully at his shadow (Parker cover). Throughout each of these chapters Faulkner has presented the story in non-sequential bits and pieces, with many flashbacks into the past through the minds of several different people.
Darl Essay Research Paper DarlDarl the second
Darl Essay, Research Paper Darl Darl, the second child of Anse and Addie Bundren is the most prolific voice in the novel As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner. Darl Bundren, the next eldest of the Bundren children, delivers the largest number of interior monologues in the novel. An extremely sensitive and articulate young man, he is heartbroken by the death of his mother and the plight of his family’s burial journey.
Untitled Essay Research Paper As I Lay
Untitled Essay, Research Paper As I Lay Dying English 102, Section 10 Mr. David Todd 2 April 1996 William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is a novel about how the conflicting agendas within a family tear it apart. Every member of the family is to a degree responsible for what goes wrong, but none more than Anse. Anse’s laziness and selfishness are the underlying factors to every disaster in the book.
A Rose Essay Research Paper A Rose
A Rose Essay, Research Paper A Rose In the 1930’s people still thrive on gossip, particularly in a small town. People are overly curious and cruel at times, especially when it comes to Emily Grierson’s mental disorder. In “ A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner traces Miss Emily’s increasing dementia and foreshadows the surprise ending.
William Faulkner Essay Research Paper Biography on
William Faulkner Essay, Research Paper Biography on William Faulkner William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897 and then moved to Oxford, Mississippi with his family at the age of 5. Most of the novels written by William Faulkner take place in the area in which he himself was born and raised.
Rose For Emily Essay Research Paper Analysis
Rose For Emily Essay, Research Paper Analysis of ?A Rose for Emily? In William Faulkner?s short story, ?A Rose for Emily,? obsession plays a key role in the developing personality of the protagonist, Emily Grierson. Because Emily was
A Commentary On One Of Darl
’s Sections Of William Faulkners ‘ Essay, Research Paper Deborah Whelan English A1 HL 28/1/97 Commentary As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner -Darl’s Section (p.128)
William Faulkner 2 Essay Research Paper William
William Faulkner 2 Essay, Research Paper William Faulkner William Faulkner is one of America s most talked about writers and his work should be included in any literary canon for several reasons. After reading a few of his short stories, it becomes clear that Faulkner s works have uniqueness to them. One of the qualities that make William Faulkner s writings different is his close connection with the South.
Symbolism In A Rose For Emily Essay
, Research Paper William Faulkner?s ?A Rose for Emily? is a story that addresses the symbolic changes in the South after the civil war. Miss Emily’s house symbolizes neglect and poverty of the new times in the town of Jefferson. The rampant symbolism and Faulkner’s descriptions of the decaying house, coincide with Miss Emily’s physical and emotional decay, and also emphasize her mental degeneration, and further illustrate the outcome of Faulkner’s story.