 
|
|||
| |||
In the Bear's House by N. Scott Momaday. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. N. Scott Momaday's In the Bear's House is a poetic reflection on the spirit of the bear, which in Momaday's imagination captures the essence of the wilderness. The first section, "The Bear-God Dialogues," is entertaining and relaxing; bear shares his vision of things with God, both of whom have human characteristics. Bear learns to tell a story, and God describes dreams, vision, and time. The second section, "Poems," illustrates the different pictures Momaday has painted of bear throughout time. Lastly, in the final section, "Passages," Momaday describes a bear hunt in vivid terms as a ritual of manhood. In the final story, Momaday recalls the story of a Kiowa boy turned into a bear and chased his sisters, who were borne into the sky and became the stars of the Big Dipper. Momaday sees himself as a reincarnation of this boy and understands bear to be a totem representing the spirit of the wilderness. For Momaday, the ancient ritual of hunting was a sacred act, not an act of the hunter exerting its might over the hunted. Momaday imagines the bear as a kindred spirit, in touch with the spirit of the wilderness that humankind is now losing touch with as our technologically-driven world progresses. Momaday writes: "Something in me hungers for wild mountains and rivers and plains. I love to be on Bear's ground" (11). | |||
