How Gift Giving Illuminates Connection With the Natural World-An Analysis of The Bear by Andrew Krivak

By: Meg Xu

The Bear by Andrew Krivak explores gift giving through telling a tale of the last two people alive in an Edenic Future, who have learned through experience to survive on their own in the natural world. The girl and her father reside in a small house atop the mountain which stands alone, foraging and hunting for sustenance. Gift giving plays an important role throughout the girl's life, reflecting her own evolving relationship with the natural world. Gifts throughout The Bear illuminate past tensions between people and their surroundings, expose the dependence of humanity on the environment, and explore the eventual symbiosis between man and Mother nature reached throughout the book.  In essence, the depiction of gift giving explores the antipathetic but reliant nature of the relationships between humankind and the natural world. 

The giving of gifts between father and daughter illustrates past tensions between humans and nature.  Sitting by a “small window in front of the house”, the girl watches “eagles catching fish in the shallows of an island” through the glass- a gift “the woman’s parents had given to her after having received it themselves from the generation before.” (Krivak, 13).  This particular gift of glass– a remnant of the past– invokes an arbitrary divide between the worlds of man and nature, embodied by the wall of glass separating the two. Being transparent by definition, glass allows for both man and nature to see beyond the divide, yet nevertheless holds the two firmly apart. Krivak furthers this sentiment through creating contrast between the above description of eagles catching their meal and the girl’s breakfast, which “cooked over a hearth fire” on the other side of the glass pane (Krivak,13).  Despite both descriptions focusing on sustenance, the introduction of fire into the girl’s meal, coupled with the sole reliance of the eagle on its own skills as a hunter,  furthers the divide between the two.  The separation represented by the glass, juxtaposes the girl's later animalistic consumption of the hare,  “twisting the animal to wring it of life” and drinking “of that life until it was gone.” (Krivak, 176) Neglecting to use fire or any other preparatory tools in her consumption of the hare, the girl bridges the chasm represented by the glass through her primitive method of consumption. Krivak writes that the skill for making glass was “lost and forgotten”, thus characterizing the glass as an artifact reminiscent of past human society, which utilized its skills in crafting to create seperation (Krivak, 13).  Similarly,on her fifth birthday the man gifts the girl an heirloom of the past in the form of a silver comb. The silver comb, a former possession of the girl’s mother, is “polished brightly and looking like nothing” the girl “had ever seen before” (Krivak, 16). Despite the radiance and intricate design of the comb, the comb is described as a foreign object; out of place in the girl's life. While admiring her gift, the girl holds the comb “as she would a thing delicate and to be revered”(Krivak, 16). Krivak’s choice of the words “delicate” and “revered” emphasize the ethereal nature of the comb, setting the object apart in a different realm from which the girl is accustomed to. The comb being materialistic in nature and lacking a purpose essential to survival,  symbolizes the divide between humans and the laws of the natural world as a result of former human dominion. Such an item is depicted as out of place in the lives of the man and the girl, representing their evolving relationship with nature which now alienates former artifacts. Thus the gift-giving of past relics is utilized as a vessel to demonstrate the strained relationship between past pursuits for human dominion and the natural world. 

Upon the death of her father, the girl struggles to adapt and ultimately relies on gifts from various animals to survive, demonstrating human reliance on the will of nature. Waking up thirsty, hungry, and cold from a grief-fueled hibernation, she relies on a gift of “brush and limbs” from the bear to raise fire (Krivak, 105). The bear gifts her not only fire but hope through the branches he provides, allowing her to rekindle a fire where “no embers smoldered” and “no heat remained”(Krivak, 105). Later, she relies on a trout gifted to her by the bear to assuage her hunger, eating until the trout is“no more than a skeleton with its eyes sucked out”(Krivak, 105). Her animalistic and desperate devouring of the trout demonstrates the extent of her hunger and, thus, the essential nature of the bear's gift to the girl's survival. She is entirely dependent on the benevolence of the natural world in this scene, serving as a reminder of the fragility and reliant character of human survival in the hands of the natural world. The girl’s survival is once again thrown into jeopardy as she falls through the surface of a frozen river, icy waters seeping into her “like a hammer blow” and causing her to think “so this is death” before being rescued by a puma (Krivak, 149). Krivak’s description of a rapid, dark, and cold river in juxtaposition with the girl's desperate efforts to battle difficult conditions, contrasts the vicious power of natural phenomena with the vulnerability of human struggles and the fragility of the human body. Meanwhile, the Puma–which takes the role of the girl's savior– demonstrates the girl's reliance on the gifts of nature to stay alive. The puma also gifts the girl a deer, serving as a source of food and providing “a hide”,  “sinew for a bowstring and thread”,   “bones for sewing needles, arrowheads and a smaller fish hook if she could carve it” (Krivak, 154). The puma not only saves the girl from death, but also provides her with the materials necessary to survive through the winter. In the absence of such gifts, the girl would be left without a method for hunting and obtaining food, thus greatly diminishing her chances of survival. Gifts from both the bear and the puma make the difference between death and survival, conveying the complete reliance humans have on the natural world. 

A state of mutual gift-giving, established between the girl and nature during later parts of The Bear, symbolizes a state of harmony achieved between the two. Requiring feathers to complete the construction of her arrows, an eagle “dropped a goose it held in its talons onto the snow” in front of the girl (Krivak, 184). In response, the girl “picked the largest of the trout she had caught and threw it as high above her as she could” (Krivak, 184).  Such mutual gift-giving allows for both the eagle and the girl to fulfill their needs for survival without further struggle. Through choosing the largest of her trout, despite her close acquaintance with hunger throughout the winter, the girl demonstrates the depth of her respect for nature. Similarly, a shift in her hunting mindset, choosing to rely on gifts from the forest instead of fighting for prey, demonstrates her shifting relationship with nature: “there she sat and listened to the forest , then waited and watched to see which animal gave itself.” (Krivak, 191) Krivak depicts the forest as gifting the girl with the prey needed for her to sustain herself in addition to illustrating a sense of peace between the girl and the natural world through her calm composure and willingness to listen. In return for the food she is given, “she left behind tender branches, piles of moss, and wintergreen berries”  or “a fair portion of meat” for other carnivores (Krivak, 192). By gifting the forest back and demonstrating her gratitude, the girl strikes an equilibrium with the natural world, establishing a relationship of symbiosis. This balance, demonstrated by reciprocal gift-giving, reflects the full relinquishment of humans' pursuit of dominion, thus allowing for the girl to take her place as a harmonious part of nature. During her final years, the girl is able to speak “to all of the living things of the earth” as they come to her “without fear of dominion.”(Krivak, 217) A mutual respect, embodied through gifts between the girl and the natural world, fully frees the girl from past shackles of human strife with nature. 

Krivak’s The Bear explores the complexities of the girl's relationship with nature through rich symbolism intertwined with the theme of gift giving. Gifts of various nature embody the complexities of the way humans and the natural world interact, invoking the question of whether the two can maintain a harmonious balance. The mutual gift giving we witness as the girl is integrated fully into the natural world exemplifies a state necessary to the long term coexistence of mankind and nature. Through attempts to separate men from the forces of nature, past generations have strived to remove themselves from the circle of life; taking from nature with no return. Thus, gift giving re-establishes humanity as a part of the natural world, allowing for men to give back to nature in turn for the benefits they receive, and to thus reintegrate themselves back into the natural order of the world. I have come to see the act of gift giving as an essential link to bridge the chasm we have caused between ourselves and nature. Without a willingness to give back to the natural world, which sustains our very existence, humanity's destructive tendencies will inevitably lead towards a future of nothing but forgotten stories about dominion, buried in the rubble of the past.