‘Bear’ Offers Lesson in Self-Understanding

This semester at Roger Williams University I asked my freshmen  interdisciplinary students to reflect upon three important questions: Who am I? What can I know? What should I do? 

Of course, these questions are ones elementary school children ought to think about as well. Regardless of their age, young people need to contemplate who they are and what they can accomplish. It will guide students toward self-understanding.

To get at that lesson, I use Frank Tashlin’s The Bear That Wasn’t. Whether students are 8 or 18, this illustrated fable provides enduring insights about identity and human relationships.

The Bear That Wasn’t centers around an unsuspecting bear that awakens from hibernation to discover a factory has been built over his cave. The workers there insist he is not a bear but a silly man with a furry coat in need of a shave.

The bear has a major fight on his hands asserting his identity.  Tashlin shows how people with various levels of authority in the factory reject his claim that he is a bear. Even the bears in the zoo and circus insist he is not a bear; otherwise he would be more like them.

Through this tale, students consider a profound question: Is each one of us who we think we are or are we defined by what other people say about us? What does it mean to have a sense of self? 

After a discussion about unique qualities, I ask each student to draw an identity chart [2]. From the center of a small square, each person sketches a line outward that describes who he or she is. The lines might include words such as daughter or son, athlete or artist, girl or boy, African-American or white, Jewish or Catholic, Protestant or Muslim, shy or outgoing, and Italian or Irish-American.

Each chart delineates the experiences that make up the individuality of each person in the class. Students begin to see that in addition to sharing much in common, their specific identities expose their differences as well. Although we are alike in many ways, our life experiences and heritage reveal our individuality, too.

Next, Tashlin’s book inspires students to realize that fighting for what one believes in demands steadfastness and determination. The bear does not surrender his sense of self even when others pressure him to think or act like them. At the close of the story, he returns to his cave to hibernate where he belongs. Each student must cherish his origins and nurture his own growth rather than submit to the expectations of others.

In the end, what truly matters is that like the bear, each one of us determines our own destiny, appreciating who we are, what we know and what we are capable of doing.

Franks is a professor in Rhode Island.