Foil

Character Role Analysis

McCaslin Edmonds and Isaac McCaslin

Isaac's older second cousin McCaslin hunts and camps every November. He seems to know a lot about how the world works. At the end of the story, it turns out that Sam also taught him, same as Isaac, how to hunt and how to respect his elders and the wilderness. The extended dialogue between McCaslin and Isaac in "The Bear" illustrates their differences, one man idealistic and mystical, the other pragmatic, realizing that no one man can change the world. McCaslin has no problem accepting the plantation that Isaac relinquishes.

Isaac McCaslin and Lucas Beauchamp

Isaac, at twenty-one, relinquishes his inheritance. Lucas, on the very day he turns twenty-one, demands his. Isaac also repudiates the family patriarch, Carothers, because of his incestuous relationship with his slave daughter. Because of this, he rejects his patrimony. Lucas, however, embraces it—his direct descent from old Carothers gives him a sense of pride and entitlement, even though he's treated as a lesser man than the white descendants. As a white man, Isaac can perhaps afford to repudiate his inheritance, since society will still consider him worthy of respect if he lives a decent life. But Lucas knows the practical value to him of the money, as a hedge against the kind of things that can happen to a half-black man in the South. He doesn't have the luxury of repudiating. Lucas's constant drive to accumulate wealth contrasts sharply with Isaac's ascetic ways.