Sunday, January 29, 2012
The Best Blog Post This Side of the Mississippi
Something that really caught my eye in the most recent chapter of "The Bear" were the metaphors/analogies made between animals and men. There were a couple blunt references, like when General Compson speaks at Lion's funeral "as he would have spoken over a man" (236), or when Old Ben "took two or three steps toward the woods on its hind feet as a man would have" (228). That got me thinking, why would Faulkner compare these two ferocious animals, Lion and Old Ben, to men? It's obvious to me that Faulkner did this on purpose, so why? Well, I found my answer earlier on in the chapter when Lion is staring at Issac and Issac "knew it was not looking at him and never had been" (225). Who else is described to be looking toward Isaac but not AT Isaac? Why, that's Sam Fathers on page 174. I had seen parallels between Lion, Old Ben, and Sam Fathers before this chapter, but I think this ties it all together (with a nice little bow). The fact that they all die at the same time is just icing on the cake for me. In your response, you can do one of two things: you can either disagree with me, and prove why there is no substantial link between Old Ben, Sam, and Lion, or you can ponder WHY Faulkner has decided to include such a link. I think since Sam doesn't really have much of a family, Faulkner is giving him a connection to the natural world to show that humans aren't the only important things in a person's lineage. We have seen that Sam is sort of "one" with nature, so could this be a way of linking Sam to the theme of ancestry and bloodlines? Does it tie into any other of the themes or motifs we have seen so far? Let me know what you think.
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I completely agree with Peter. We perceive Sam Fathers to be a lonely man because he has no known blood relatives. In the "Old People", Sam is introduced from McCaslin's point of view: "Like an old lion or a bear in a cage, he was born in the cage and had been in it all his life; he knows nothing else... His cage aint McCaslins, he was a wild man" (159). The bear is then introduced: "The old bear, solitary, indomitable, and alone; widowered childless and absolved of mortality" (183), which is nearly the same description we had read about Sam Fathers himself. Faulker not only draws parallels between Old Ben and Sam, but he intertwines their personas through dehumanizing Sam and personifying Old Ben. By doing this, he shows that one of them can't live without the other. This is blatantly shown when they both die. On his deathbed, Sam is described: "He lay there - the copper-brown, almost hairless body, the old man's body, the old man, the wild man not even one generation from the woods, childless, kinless, peopleless-motionless" (233). Not only can Sam and Old Ben live without each other, but man cannot live without wilderness and vice versa. Faulkner uses the connection between Old Ben and Sam to portray the connection men had to the land, natural world and agrarian life-style in the south.
ReplyDeleteJust because you labeled your post "the best" (when Catherine already has the gold standard) in a supreme show of arrogance, I'm going to try and disagree with you. Both in class and in your post, you state that Old Ben, Sam, and Lion equal each other. This, I believe, violates the core of the story. While there are similarities between them, I think that it is more important to consider the differences, as the differences illuminate the story in a way that the similarities do not. In Isaac's speech to Cass, he says "He saw the land already accursed even as Ikkemotubbe and Ikkemotubbe's father old Issetibbeha and old Issetibbeha's fathers too held it, already tainted even before any white man owned it"(245). Isaac is Faulkner's tool to reveal the essential truths of the book, as in Isaac is represented the purity and repect for nature and disgrace with 'industrialization' as Nellie would say, which is one of the core themes in "Go Down, Moses". It is important to remember that while Sam Fathers is labeled as Chipawa because of the inherent racism of the white characters labeling him, he is also only partially Chipawa. And present with his ancestors' on both sides (although less in him than others in the story) is the "tainted" quality which repels Isaac and thus Faulkner. Additionally Faulkner writes, "of white man fatuous enough to believe he had bought any fragment of it [the earth], of Indian ruthless enough to pretend that any fragment of it had been his to convey"(181). Old Ben and Lion, however, spring not out of Man, indian, white, or black, but out of the wilderness itself. While "Sam Fathers' voice [may be] the mouthpiece of the host"(163), he is in fact Man created only to "be His overseer on the earth and to hold suzerainty over the earth and the animals on it in His name, not to hold for himself"(243) and should, in accordance to Faulkner's intent, not be linked wholly with the pure spirits of the Bear and Lion, and if then only in the role of the 'mouthpiece' and not as an equal.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to immediately ignore the fact that you spelled "respect" wrong and referred to Sam Fathers as Chipawa when he is actually Chickasaw. I would also like to commend your use of "suzerainty." However, Madeline, I don't really understand your point. You say that Sam is "tainted," and that Isaac is "repelled" from him, but you didn't substantiate that point. I'm not saying it isn't right, but where do you see Isaac being repelled from the fact that Sam is Chickasaw?
DeleteAs we have discussed, Old Ben greatly represents nature; its power and its immortality. We have also discussed the theme of agricultural vs. industrial, but I think the argument is more 'nature vs. man's desire to control nature'. The hunters in 'The Bear' represent this desire. As it is explained in 'I'll Take My Stand', "We receive the illusion of having power over nature, and lost the sense of nature as something mysterious and contingent" (4). However, even as a hunter, Sam Fathers understands nature, and understands that he does not, and cannot have control over it. He respects Old Ben and the ideas Old Ben represents, they are equal. Therefore, when the die, they fall together.
ReplyDeleteI was also kind of curious about why Faulkner chose to make this connection between Old Ben, Sam, and Lion. Like I said yesterday, I think they are all considered mysterious beings who are always sort of their own one man wolf pack. None of them seem to rely on anyone else - they do everything for themselves and are brave and determined. None of them let anything phase them - Old Ben would see Isaac but would just stay calm and not do anything, and it always seemed like he stayed almost level-headed when he was being hunted. No bullet could kill him and he could only be killed through actual physical contact with a human. Sam is also even-headed - he is wise and a teacher to Isaac and is very solitary especially when he moves out to the camp by himself. Lion can not be tamed for a long time until he is forced to obey rather than starve to death. He is also brave and temperate, and he only relies on himself. I also think that the fact that Sam, Lion, and Old Ben all have a connection to nature is another thing that creates a connection between them.
ReplyDeleteMaddy ^ ^ ^ trolololololololol
ReplyDeleteI saw the connection and similar characteristics between Sam Fathers and Old Ben for sure but did not see where Lion fit in as much. There are obvious similarities between all three but more so between Sam and Old Ben. Sam and Old Ben have a mutual respect for each other. The hunt between the two of them seems to be more of a game than anything. Old Ben is "the bear that they did not even intend to kill" (184). For this reason it is not surprising that both of them die together. Sam is a leader amongst the hunters. He seems to be the ideal hunter and teaches the others. In the same way that Old Ben returns each year "to run the other little bears away" (187). Each of these characters are leaders amongst their peers and thrives off the existence of the other.
ReplyDeleteCatherine--I'd say along those same lines Lion is also the ideal hunter, better than all the other dogs. He is apart from the crowd just as Ben and Sam are. He and Sam are definitely linked by their 'unseeing' eyes. We don't know that Lion or Ben respect man (in the form of Sam at least), but I think they each and all together work to represent the untamed wilderness.
DeletePeter brings up an important point about the connections between Old Ben, Sam Fathers and Lion and their ties to the wilderness and immortality of the 'old' world of the Indians and nature. This further shows the importance of Sam's link to the past through his ancestors, bloodlines, language and relationships for instance with Jobaker and his mentees Cass and Isaac. The final death of the three of these characters is essential in solidifying them as eternal representations of the wilderness. On page 232, the unmistakable connections are most evident when "Old Ben's scent drifted forward again along the streaming blackness of air, but Sam's eyes were probably open again on that profound look which saw further than them or the hut, further than the death of a bear and the dying of a dog". Sam's ability to "see" past these deaths and accept his own passing shows the immortality of all three of them. Although the wilderness is tainted and Old Ben is dead, their legacy lives on in Isaac and in the wilderness. The parallels between Lion, Old Ben and Sam are startlingly apparent when Sam admits "I don't want to tame him" (205). Sam is wise enough to know not to try and tame or control the wilderness, which the Bear and Lion represent. Additionally, Sam is untamed as the wild Chickasaw descendent who speaks the old language of the past and natural world.
ReplyDelete