The Bear

In the long section of the text devoted primarily to Isaac and McCaslin’s discussion of Isaac’s reasons for refusing his inheritance, Faulkner varies his use of capitalization and punctuation. Specifically, the first words in paragraphs of narration (not speech) are not capitalized, and the last words of these same paragraphs lack terminal punctuation. Many gaps from the ending of one such paragraph to the opening of the next make for jarring transitions, as when one paragraph ends “not even a bloody civil war would have set them completely free” and the next begins, “himself and his cousin amid the old smells of cheese and salt meat” (242). Additionally, the narrative frequently veers off into tangents, including memories, which are not always relayed in chronological order. The effect of these choices is disorienting and risks robbing the material of cohesiveness.

As a deliberate and experimental choice by Faulkner, however, this style affords readers the unique sense that they are following Isaac’s thoughts and whims in real time, adding a sense of urgency and involvement in the passages where Isaac makes disturbing discoveries while investigating his family ledgers. Faulkner’s fluid

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