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   In November 1843, a huge bear rampages through the Worthens' family home, raids the kitchen and runs off with a kettle. Lyddie seeks shelter in the loft of the house. As she watched the bear from the loft she expresses her fear in these words: "don't break nothing." This terrifying incident prematurely brings about the break up of the Worthens family. Lyddie's mother is convinced that the bear is a sign of the devil and that Judgement Day is near, so she leaves the home with her two younger children, Rachel and Agnes. The father is in the West because of his debts. Lyddie and her brother Charles are soon  separated as they start working in different places to pay off their father's debts. The rest of the novel deals with how Lyddie struggles and fails to reunite her entire family.

   "The bear Incident" is significant because when analysing the plot structure of the novel, it would be the 'initial incident'  or the 'beginning' which both literally and symbolically  'causes' the breakup of the Worthens family and sets the plot of the novel in motion.

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   Posted by lit24 on Wednesday August 27, 2008 at 1:59 AM