The female protagonist in Judith Minty’s short story “Killing the Bear” has settled into a seemingly comfortable way of life. What keeps disrupting her, however, is the constant presence of a bear. At first glance, the story is merely about a woman’s various encounters with bears and her eventual need to kill a particularly persistent one out of protection. When looked at closer, the reader can see the bear is more than just a bear. “Killing the Bear” is a metaphorical story about a woman’s struggle with discovering and confronting the wild nature of her inner self.
While most of Minty’s story takes place in the present tense, there are several flashbacks to the earlier experiences the main character had with bears. The first flashback tells …show more content…
One day this routine is interrupted by the bear’s “low guttural.” The bear stands a safe distance away from her, and deciding not to pursue her, he retreats back into the forest. Her response to this encounter is to “cover her breasts” with her hands. This indicates to the reader that she is physically an adult, but she is still lacking self-discovery. Following the description of her first interaction with the bear is a second flashback, which is a story about her favorite stuffed animal. This furthers the connection between her bear and her childhood. To stop her from sucking her thumb, her mother takes away her stuffed bear. After three months of trying to rid herself of this childish habit, she asks for her bear back, but her mother tacks on another month. Later she realizes that the bear was gone; her mother had burned it in the incinerator. A few years before the present day, in broken English, her mother had apologized for “burning the animal inside [her]” (94). The burning of the stuffed bear indicates that the mother had forced her daughter to grow up too quickly. She was not allowed the amount of time she needed for
While most of Minty’s story takes place in the present tense, there are several flashbacks to the earlier experiences the main character had with bears. The first flashback tells …show more content…
One day this routine is interrupted by the bear’s “low guttural.” The bear stands a safe distance away from her, and deciding not to pursue her, he retreats back into the forest. Her response to this encounter is to “cover her breasts” with her hands. This indicates to the reader that she is physically an adult, but she is still lacking self-discovery. Following the description of her first interaction with the bear is a second flashback, which is a story about her favorite stuffed animal. This furthers the connection between her bear and her childhood. To stop her from sucking her thumb, her mother takes away her stuffed bear. After three months of trying to rid herself of this childish habit, she asks for her bear back, but her mother tacks on another month. Later she realizes that the bear was gone; her mother had burned it in the incinerator. A few years before the present day, in broken English, her mother had apologized for “burning the animal inside [her]” (94). The burning of the stuffed bear indicates that the mother had forced her daughter to grow up too quickly. She was not allowed the amount of time she needed for