Answer+to+Focus+Question

In the short story "The Bear", there were three symbols that really stood out. They were the bear, the gun, and the fyce.

In the story, the bear represents unattainable desire. In the beginning of the story, the boy tells about how the bear cannot be even killed by bullets and anything that man can throw at it. "-to big for the for the dogs which tried to bay it... for the men and bullets they fired into it"(646). Also the Bear represents age and the respect that typically follows goes along with it. "in the land were the old bear had earned a name, through which ran not even a mortal animal, but an anachronism, indomitable, and invicible, out of an old dead time"(646).

The gun can be said to represent protection and fear. " The gun, the boy thought. The gun. 'Be scared,' Sam said. 'You can't help that. But don't be afraid. Ain't nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells you are afraid'"(651). This quote explains that the gun is there as protection as long as you are not a coward and as long as you are not afraid.

Another major symbol is the fyce. Fyce comes to symbolize honor, pride, and courage. "They were so close that the bear turned without even running, as if in suprised amazement at the shrill and frantic uproar of the releasd fyce, turning at bay against the trunk of a tree, on its behind feet"(654). This quote is explaining a scene where the fyce, a small animal, stands up to this large bear, all for the fyces owner, the boy.

The allusion in "The Bear" is "She cannot fade, thou hast not thy bliss, forever wilt thou love, and she be fair." Faulkner uses this to show the bear's desire to remain free and away from the people that come and invade its home, the forest.