An Ethical Interpretation Of Bear Images In Five American And Canadian Stories

As one of animal images which appear frequently in western literary works,bear images are more often than not endowed with rich cultural connotations.However,few scholars have ever chosen bear images in multiple texts of English literature as research objects to make systematic studies.This thesis focuses on bear images in five American and Canadian stories: Ernest Seton?s The Biography of a Grizzly(1899),William Faulkner?s “The Bear”(1942),Norman Mailer?s Why Are We In Vietnam?(1967),Marian Engel?s Bear(1976)and Douglas Glover?s Elle(2003),intending to explore the cultural representations,functions and ethical implications of bear images in western literature more systematically.The thesis explores the ethical implication between bears and humans by means of bear images.Firstly,the thesis discusses the relationship between humans and bears,and its ethical implications in The Biography of a Grizzly and Why Are We In Vietnam?.It is argued that Seton and Mailer criticize humans? violence and savageness by the description of bears,reconfigure humans? anthropocentric convention,and above all appeal humans to care and respect animals.Then it focuses on woman-bear relationship under the context of patriarchal culture and its ethical connotations in Engel?s Bear and Glover?s Elle.It is debated that women and bears share with the similar fate in patriarchal system,and by the creation of bear images,Engel and Glover expose women?s suffering in patriarchal system,and express their criticism of patriarchal culture and their concern for women.Finally,the thesis analyzes the relationship between black people and bears under racial prejudice and its ethical implications in Faulkner?s “The Bear”.In Faulkner?s description,black people and bears are all disadvantaged,and this kind of connection makes them generate a mystical union emotionally and mentally as well.Faulkner criticizes the decayed racial system in the American south through the disclosure of the whites? oppression on the blacks;by the ingenious characterization of Old Ben,he also expresses his concern for the blacks and his expectation for the harmony between the blacks and the whites.In a word,in the American and Canadian literature,bears in the context of modern industrial civilization are often vulnerable,and meanwhile bears form a common destiny with other disadvantaged groups.In these selected texts,the true reappearance and artistic imagination of bear images and human-bear relationships both convey the authors? care for the disadvantaged groups and their attention to animals.