The bear grows

Throughout the story of the bear, it is clear in the beginning that it is a coming of age story. The development Ike makes through the process of becoming a hunter, an outdoorsman, and even an equal, is the exact development needed in a coming of age tale. However, there is even more than that in this book. This book also goes into the deeper growth that a man must do when confronting his families past. Faulkner devotes an entirely controversial chapter in this book in which Ike learns about his past and is forced to deal with it. Ike learns that his families fortune is tainted with slave blood and other disturbing events, and as a result in order to clear his grandfathers name as well as allow him to live comfortably with himself as a person, he denounces his inheritance. He takes only the small amount that he needs to survive but ultimately rejects it, saying that he would rather make his own way. A way that was free from tainted past and one that was entirely his. This way proved that his development was complete and that he was genuinely a good man. And I believe that the forest and his relationship with the bear helped him become this man. The bear taught him to overcome his fears as well as his past, and to respect nature and the natural balance of things. This natural balance is what made him ultimately opposed to slavery and anything gained by slavery. Former slaves and other black people already influenced his life in a positive way so it was completely foreseeable that Ike would take that lesson to heart most above the others.