The Bear: WILDERNESS

The wilderness is a social constructed term that human being establishes to differentiate between civil society and the untamed nature. The people and animals in The Bear other than Sam Fathers, Boon, Lion, and Isaac view nature as the wilderness because they observe nature through the eyes of the established society. Nevertheless, when a person, such as Isaac, learns to appreciate the wilderness for its beauty and mystery, he does not view nature as the wilderness but a primitive state of all living things. Thus, it allows him to let go of his compass, watch, and stick because he knows in this primitive state, men are capable of living without worldly possessions.

The Bear

In order to demonstrate humanity's great desire to tame nature, Faulkner describes how the group of hunters along with Isaac chases after Old Ben, the legendary bear, and attempts to kill him year after year. Their continuous attempts illustrates how passionate men are to control their natural surrounding, and they will not stop until accomplishing it despite disastrous consequences. These hunters finally accomplish their goal and triumph over nature when Boon kills Old Ben. However, during the process, they lost many dogs including Boon’s favorite hound, Lion, and Sam Fathers. A greater consequence presents itself at the end when Boon shoots Isaac in an attempt to protect his possessions, the squirrels. This tragic ending emphasizes that humanity’s desire to control and possess everything in life will lead humans to turn against one another as commonly seen in the history of wars and slavery.

Many scholars have considered Their Eyes Were Watching God as bildungsroman novel because it describes a black woman, Janie, finding her voice as she searched for love in a society where women and black people were oppressed. Janie has three husbands that help her understand herself and love. With her first husband, Logan, she realizes she needs someone to regard her more than a source of production, mule; therefore, she runs away and marries Jody, thinking it is love. However, Jody disappoints her because he belittles her intelligence and disregards her as a human being when he puts her on a display case. From Jody, Janie acknowledges that love is not physical abuse; therefore, she stops caring about Jody and locks her intimate feelings up after he slaps her due to an unsatisfied dinner. When love looks like a lost case, Tea Cake appears and marries her. Her third marriage teaches her about understanding and forgiveness in marriages and love. Furthermore, their relationship has freed her from societal constraints as she does not care to wear mourning clothes, as she remains silent at the trial, and as she silently returns to town. She matures into a woman who does not need society to define her anymore, thus, her power is her silence.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston uses the phrase, “their eyes were watching God,” as the title of her book; nevertheless, this phrase appears only once, when it describes the people waiting for the hurricane with uncertainty of what might come. This uncertainty also describes the feelings of African American living in the Harlem Renaissance. Like the storm, this event is unpredictable. Nevertheless, it allows the African American race to embrace their cultural identity through art, literature, music, and philosophy. However, what lies ahead after this storm is uncertain; therefore, they must watch the work of nature, God. Since nature is blind and cannot see race, gender, or economic status, it affects everyone both white and black, men and women, and rich and poor as seen in the storm. Even though one might has lost everything due to the storm as Janie has, the acknowledgement of self will live on as it did for Janie. Thus, like the storm, the Harlem Renaissance will affects everyone, and once it passed, the acknowledgement of the self will live on when we read its literature, listen to its music, and look at its art.

Their Eyes Were Watching God- equality

Both Their Eyes Were Watching God and A Room with a View describe how their female protagonists, Janie and Lucy respectively, search for a relationship, which the female sex is equal to the male sex. Each has to encounter men who are passionless and treat them only as possessions. For Lucy, this man is her fiancé, Cecil, who treats her as a beautiful painting he owes; therefore, he wants to manipulate and mold her into a more valuable piece of art. Logan and Jody are the Cecil for Janie. These two men disregard Janie’s feelings and desires because they views women’s feelings to be nonsense. Despite of these two men, Janie finds a relationship in which her partner, Tea Cake, shows her that she is more than just another beautiful object to admire but not to love. He also respects her as an equal being as George is toward Lucy. These two female characters have to surpass conventional thoughts of what a woman ought to be and ought not to be before they are content with and true to themselves. This change has led them to a relationship, which the male and female are complements to one another.

A Room with a View-Bildungsroman???

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster is an example of a bildungsroman because the novel revolves around the growth of the protagonist, Lucy. She changes from being timid to being bold about her passion. Since the English society deems the display of passion as an unacceptable behavior, during Lucy’s first trip to Florence, she shows her timidity. First, she apologizes for playing the piano because her music displays great passion. Second, she flees to Rome as soon as passion touches her lips when George kisses her. Both times, Lucy fears her unconventional behaviors will stun the English society. However, when Lucy reencounters passion in Surrey, where she lives, she faces her passion and embraces it as soon as she breaks off her engagement with Cecil, her upper-class fiancé, and marries George, her unrestrained lover. She is able to face criticism from society and Mrs. Honeychurch, her mom, when she professes her love to George publicly. When she denies society, she allows herself to love fully instead of having to deny her secretive love all through the novel.

A Room with a View: Lucy's marriage

At the end of the novel, Lucy decides to break off her engagement with Cecil. Nevertheless, it takes her quite some time before she admits to herself that she is in love with George Emerson, thus leads them eloping. If I am Lucy, I do not think I have the courage to leave my family and marry someone like George because I need my parents and sisters’ approval before getting married. It is already hard enough to date someone my parents disapprove; therefore, marriage is out of the question. I pity Lucy because when passion burns out and problems start to arise between George and her, she has no one to lean on or console her. In situations like this where passion controls the characters’ lives, it makes me recall the tragic death of Romeo and Juliet, where passionate love does not lead to a happy ever after life.

A Room with a View: Charlotte Barlett

Charlotte Barlett is Lucy Honeychurch’s cousin and chaperone during her trip to Florence. Even though, Charlotte always tells Lucy she cannot take anything good since it is improper, her tone shows her resentment toward Lucy and her selfishness. She resents the fact that she needs to chaperone Lucy because she needs to show how grateful she is toward Mrs. Honeychurch, who pays for part of Charlotte’s trip to Florence. Furthermore, the various conversations between Lucy and Charlotte indicate her selfishness. Charlotte’s selfless talks show Lucy that she is grateful and thinks about Lucy’s well-being before hers. However, Charlotte’s behaviors indicate she is only protecting her reputation as a good and dutiful woman. For instance, she asks Lucy not to reveal to Mrs. Honeychurch about George’s improper behaviors because she does not want Mrs. Honeychurch to view her as ungrateful and undutiful for not protecting Lucy like a proper chaperone. Later on when she knows Lucy’s secret will be revealed by Miss Lavish, she warns Lucy about the consequences for not telling Mrs. Honeychurch and her finance about George’s behaviors in order to protect herself once again. She is selfish character who constantly watching out for her interest while appearing proper.

Huckleberry Finn- Huck's changes

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains the characteristic of a bildungsroman, but Huck’s changes are more subtle than Harry’s are. Nevertheless, the change in Huck is visible when Huck realizes how cruel humans could be toward one another as the people humiliate and torture the king and duke. This incident shows a change in Huck’s attitude toward reality when he recognizes the cruelty of conventional traditions. Still a boy, Huck deems himself to hell as he has decides to save Jim because society has taught him that stealing runaway slaves is a sin. He makes his own decision despite society’s teaching. Toward the end of the novel, the changes in Huck are more visible when his character once again associates with Tom Sawyer. At the beginning, Huck admires Tom’s style, however, when he encounters Tom again, his tone changes. He recognizes Tom’s plan to be more costly while it reaches the same goal as his. He compromises with Tom during the planning, nevertheless, at that critical moment, Huck ignores Tom’s plan and fetches a doctor to save Tom’s life. In addition, he acknowledges the human inside Jim even though he is black. These events show Huck has developed critical thinking skills and not just accept convention.