The Bear Dies

In a novel that was so centered around the bear, I was surprised to find out that it died fairly early on in the story. I figured that it would follow the route of the old man and the sea, and remain until close to the end of the book and even then still remain a major part of it. With the death of the bear came the death of Sam and Lion which I saw both somewhat fitting. For Sam this was because he was an older man whose life seemed to be centered around the connection with the bear. His deep love for the forest also symbolized his love for the powerfully old and wise bear, and when the bear was killed so was Sam's drive to carry on. With Lion, his whole purpose was to fight the bear. He was the one dog and final element that the hunters had been waiting on for so long that could possibly contend with the bear. They left him simi-untrained just for that reason, so he could be just as wild as the bear but yet still be civil to most humans. After he did the job of cornering the bear and holding him in place there was really nothing left for lion, at least as far as this stories message was concerned and therefore he kind of had to die. I also found it interesting that it was Boon with a knife that killed the bear. This brought my thoughts back to the idea that the bear was above some of the sophisticated weapons and needed to be treated like an equal. So it took a man to see it as a threat, like Boon did with the fact that it was killing his dog, and then fight it head to head without extra help. Boon dug deep within himself and developed a connection with Lion that was being destroyed by the bear, so naturally Boon had to destroy the bear to even the score.