Greg Barnhisel is an educator and Assistant Director of the Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Austin, Texas. In the following essay, Barnhisel discusses the themes, narrative structure, and character development in Faulkner's story "TheBear."

William Faulkner is generally regarded as the most important writer to be produced by the American South. A native of Mississippi, Faulkner wrote about the land where he lived for most of his life. The great majority of Faulkner's work is set in the fictional Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha (which, in turn, is based on the actual Lafayette County, home to the city of Oxford and the University of Mississippi). The influence of the past, the relationships between men, and the difficulties brought about by change are all recurrent themes in Faulkner's novels and stories. "The Bear" is a good example of a story that embodies all of these themes.

"The...