The Bear Many people have certain skills that they master, some perfect athletics; some perfect the talent of music. In the poem "The Bear" by Galway Kinnell, the character perfects the act of hunting and survival. He uses many techniques to survive, most of the poem revolves around the hunt of the bear and the use he attains from the success. However every skill that somebody has may not be for the better. It was obvious in the poem that he was a master of hunting, he has done this many times. "In late winter I sometimes glimpse bits of steam coming up from some fault in the old snow" It proves that the seasons change and he is always ready for the change and ...view middle of the document...
..tear him down his whole length...and climb in and close him up after me, against the wind, and sleep" The bear has to be a safe and warm spot for him to get into if he is able to fall asleep without thinking what could be lurking in the areas near him. The whole story of this poem changes as he falls asleep. He dreams of the reversal of positions between himself and the bear, he is no longer the hunter but the hunted. He, as the bear mistakenly eats the trap to kill him. "stabbed twice from within." He is now experiencing the pain that he has already sent the bear he is in through. It shows the long death that he goes through, it lasts for days; the excruciating pain that it puts on him. "Until one day I totter and fall." The bear tries to digest nothing but blood and bone. "digest the blood as it leaked in...and digest the bone itself." It shows how painful this death is to put onto another life form. This dream that he has had proved a main point and a lesson to be learned. It shows that he shouldn't be doing this, even...
