The Bear: Part III

Having come to an end in reading the story of The Bear the question asked at the end of every book is whether or not the story is representative of a Bilingsroman? Every story in order to fall into this category has to show that the character and their environment have affected them in such a way that it has changed them. At the same time this change has to happen throughout the course of time. In The Bear we do happen to find a particular character who goes through transition and growth in a peculiar way. At first we don't know much about the character but are in a way experiencing the woods with him. Instead of reading discriptions about what the woods were like for him I felt that i was walking through them at the same time he was. When he was going out without a compass or anything manmade it was an experience for me as well to imagine being in the middle of no where without anything to guide me but intuition. This boy, Isaac, learns about himself while experiencing nature. He chooses the path of going out there and discovering what there is to be discovered. He ventures into the unknown with fear, yet he does so because he feels that is his calling. These experiences marked him in such a way that made him the man he grew up to be. Being this man helped him understand the burden of recieving an inheritance which he felt did not deserve and thus did not accept. He showed us truth, understanding and humanity at its most natural level. We don't need philosophy books to explain to us what is right or wrong, moral or immoral, we need to connect with our true selves in a true setting such as nature to help us gather our thoughts and understanding of a real world. So, the Bear in this case has proven to a Bildingsroman as well because of what he teaches us about himself and also about ourseleves as a human society as a whole.