The Bear

Sam Fathers is an elderly woodsman who lives as a hermit near Major de Spain’s camp. His father, Chief Ikkemotubbe of the Chickasaw Nation, sold Sam and his mother to Isaac’s grandfather, Carothers McCaslin, as slaves, along with the land that Isaac stands to inherit. Sam thus predates the purchase of the land by white settlers, but he represents a dying breed: “the old man, the wild man not even one generation from the woods, childless, kinless, peopleless” (233). Though Sam has no children of his own, he does, as his surname suggests, serve as a mentor and a father figure to Isaac, who considers Sam to be his “spirit’s father” (310). Physically, Isaac perceives in Sam’s countenance “a quality darkly and fiercely lambent, passionate and proud” (188). Sam’s dignity and expertise command respect even from those prone to look down on Black and Indigenous people, such as Civil War veterans Major de Spain and General Compson.

Sam’s contradictory relationships with Lion and Old Ben reveal him to be a round, complex character. Like Isaac, Sam refrains from shooting Old Ben when he has the chance to do so. However, Sam also plays a key role in capturing and training Lion to capture the bear. Though Faulkner never provides direct access to Sam’s thoughts, Isaac imagines that Sam will be “glad” to see the bear defeated after so many years. In fact, Old Ben and Sam’s fates seem to be linked: Sam collapses in the very moment that he realizes Old Ben will be defeated, and the doctor describes his ailment thus: “He just quit” (234). The strongly implied possibility that Sam subsequently commits suicide with Boon’s assistance suggests a truth Isaac later discovers for himself: The future will only bring sorrow to those who love and immerse themselves in nature as Sam did.

Boon Hogganbeck is a member of Major de Spain’s hunting party. Though Boon’s role within the party is not specified, his frequent assignments to menial tasks suggest that he falls on the lower end of the social scale. Boon’s impulsive, childlike character emerges primarily through his actions and speech, as when he pretends to have a cough in the hope that Isaac will give him money to buy a drink while the two are in Memphis. Physically, Boon has a coarse appearance with “the ugliest face” Isaac has ever seen (215). Boon has one Native American grandparent, a fact that he tends to downplay or emphasize depending on his mood.

Described as having “the mind of a child” (215), Boon’s greatest virtue—or vice—is his loyalty, not just to McCaslin and Major de Spain, but to Lion. A notoriously bad shot, Boon is, ironically, the one to kill Old Ben, using a knife rather than a gun. Boon thus represents the destructive thoughtlessness of those who assault nature with no consideration of the consequences. This symbolism is reinforced in Boon’s declaration, which closes the story, that the squirrels are his. Boon’s childlike ignorance contrasts with the willful foolishness of those who engage in similarly destructive practices despite knowing better.