From Boy to Man in Flight, by John Steinbeck and The Bear by William Faulkner :: Faulkner Bear Essays

From Boy to Man in Flight, by outhouse Steinbeck and The Bear by William Faulkner Flight, by John Steinbeck and The Bear by William Faulkner were twain stories that dealt with the travel from boyhood to spellhood. They were alike in many ways, a particularly provoke way was that in both stories, the go to becoming a man was assisted by others, but ultimately it fell on the solitary boy becoming a man on his own. The two boys in the story became men, but in two very different ways. In Flight Pepe is forced to make the transition to humanity as a result of his killing a man. He has to face up to the consequences of his actions, and he becomes a man by facing up to his actions. In The Bear, Faulkner portrays the journey to manhood as a less traumatic experience. The boy in the story hears about the legend of the great Bear, and is consumed by a boyhood appetite to become a man by killing the Bear. His journies through the woodwind and his proficiency as a woodsmen are metaphors Faulkner presents as an allegorical histrionics of a persons journey through life, experiencing and mastering the different skills within the journey. When the boy has finally become wise enough to confront the Bear, he realizes that what the Bear stands for is far more important than his killing of the Bear ever could be. He realizes that anyone could attack the Bear and kill it, but in the barrier of the boyhood urge for glory and respect he finds that he has preserved these virtues in himself and the Bear as well. Steinbeck and Faulkner both portray the defining point of manhood as the point at which a boy must shape between restraining the urge to grasp the respect associated with manhood or seizing for that respect at any cost. Pepe clutchbed for the respect when his manhood was challenged, he killed a man, and had to admit he was wrong before he could become a man. The boy from The Bear on the other hand chose not to grab for the respect and glory of manhood when he d ecided not to go against the bear, and became a man as a result of that decision.