In "The Bear" Faulkner delineates the line that divides the antithetical
traits of bravery and cowardice. Bravery he associates with being scared
while cowardice he associates with being afraid. Faulkner acknowledges that a
person may not be able to avoid being scared, which he recognizes as an
emotion: "Be scared. You can't help that." He then admonishes against being
afraid, which, unlike being scared, is a psychological state: "But don't be
afraid...."
Psychological states are a combination of cognition, memory, motive, and
emotion. In psychological states, emotions are connected to recollections, to
rationalizing processes, to real motives and suggested motives, and to
cognitive processes, creating states of mind that have the power to enhance or
cripple action and perception.
Faulkner further suggests that cowardice is something to be feared in its own right, not as a power but as a danger. Faulkner writes that even animals have to...
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fear a coward and therefore will attack humans whom it senses are cowards. More importantly, Faulkner says that a brave person must fear a coward in the same way as an animal does. The line that is delineated between the brave person and the coward is therefore the psychological state of being afraid.
In "The Bear," how does Faulkner distinguish between foolhardiness and bravery?
In "The Bear," Faulkner makes a distinction between foolhardiness and bravery that relates to comprehension, reasonableness and wisdom. In Part II, the narrator is talking about the protagonist's "mongrel" "fyce" dog, saying that its hunting had long since ceased to be acts of bravery and had become acts of foolhardiness.
The distinction inferred is that it is reasonableness; comprehension of danger and reward; and wisdom in cautiousness that separates bravery from foolhardiness, which is the reckless plunging headlong into danger for the emotional thrill of it.
In another section, Faulkner suggests that the distinction between cowardice and bravery is the presence of the psychological state of fear in the former and the presence of the emotion of being scared in the latter. Here, foolhardiness seems to be distinguished from bravery by reckless, abandoned emotion as opposed to contained emotion.