12. Analysis

The bear story deals with the author's love towards animals and his opinions on animal cruelty. Rather than voicing out his opinion directly, he crafts a story through which he talks about how animals influence the lives of human beings and vice versa. The bear is an animal that is not made for human living conditions. But the bear in the story gets adapted to it, coming away from his roots in the wild. The story also shows that the exposure given at a young age influences an animal or a human to a great extent. The bear agrees to get chained and controlled by the humans and is also friendly with other animals whereas a bear which had grown in the forest would not have allowed it. This vast difference in attitude is due to conditioning.

 

The story also deals with how humans react to certain situations in life based on their self-confidence. The lady bravely fights off the bear in the forest, only because she thinks it is her pet bear. She would have been terrified and allowed herself to be attacked by the bear, if she had known the truth, showing that fear is a made up idea and is therefore an unnecessary obstacle. Fear is a state of mind, and if one detaches from it, all things will be possible.