The Bear And The Two Travelers Analysis

While walking together, two men encounter a bear. One man hides in a tree, leaving the other to fend for himself. The abandoned man believes that playing dead is the best approach and allows the bear to come close. After the bear leaves, the he informs his companion that the bear had warned him not to keep friends who desert one in his time of need. The story of “The Bear and the Two Travelers” may seem a bit extreme as one man simply leaves his friend to possibly die, but the fable does have a valid moral: “Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.” The fable fails to mention the necessity of these challenges, though. A more appropriate moral would be that troubling times can either verify or dissolve friendships but such challenges are needed to prove the strength of such relationships and to justify the trust one has for the other. The more complex of the two morals may be more easily derived from a different example. A man and a woman are strolling down the sidewalk when the …show more content…
For example, if the man in “The Bear and the Two Travelers” knew that they could not both outrun the bear and decided he, being the fastest, had an obligation to seek help for his slower friend, he would not have proven to be a poor companion. Similarly, the criminal in the other example could have decided it was better for her friend to get caught than for her to since she was the one with the warrant. Her companion could have been charged for evading the police, but it may have been a lesser charge than the other. And while these are fair claims, they do not excuse cowardness. The man in the first example did not do anything when the bear approached the other, and the woman knew the man had no charges. As other fables point out, a true friend would never leave the other, even when it could, to some, be excusable, because real friends are always there for the other no matter what