The Bear William Faulkner | Melvin Backman (essay date 1961)
Melvin Backman (essay date 1961)
SOURCE: "The Wilderness and the Negro in Faulkner's 'The Bear'," in PMLA, Vol. LXXVI, No. 5, December, 1961, pp. 595-600.
[Below, Backman examines the themes and structure of "The Bear" with reference to the other related stories of Go Down, Moses, illuminating Faulkner's representation of African-American culture.]
The heart of Go Down, Moses (1942) is "The Bear." The most widely acclaimed story of the seven in the volume, "The Bear" has received a variety of interpretations. One critic has emphasized its New Testament spirit, others its romantic and transcendental character, and still others its primitivism and myth.1 The variety of critical response testifies to the story's density of meaning. It is a rich, original story treating of a universal issue; nevertheless, it is distinctly American. Lionel Trilling has placed it in the romantic, transcendental...
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