If you happen to think indiscriminate progress is a good thing or that taming the wilderness makes a man a real man (and yes, we mean men—Faulkner's women don't get out much), then this book will make you think again. Its depiction of the shrinking woods, disappearing wildlife, and the smokestacks rising on the horizon isn't pretty. Faulkner once told a group of colleagues that it's not that progress and technology are bad; it's when people become slaves to machines, rather than the machines being slaves to people, that there's a serious problem. Excuse me…excuse me…can you try to go two minutes without texting, please?
The theme of man's place in the natural world is examined mostly through the character of Isaac McCaslin, who loves the wilderness from his youth and sees it gradually destroyed throughout his lifetime. Most of "The Bear" is devoted to this theme, as Isaac tries to work out his reasons for relinquishing his claim to his father's plantation. Isaac has some pretty mystical ideas about the oneness of nature and humanity.
Questions About Man and the Natural World
- In Go Down, Moses, Isaac's encounters with nature are described as his real education. Does this give him an advantage over more conventionally educated characters in this book?
- Which characters in the book are portrayed as not respecting the natural world?
- What are the values Isaac learns in his encounters with nature?
- How does Sam Fathers influence Isaac's ideas about the wilderness and his place in it?
Chew on This
The stories in Go Down, Moses are all centered on the idea that the evils of slavery are directly related to the taming of the wilderness and its transformation into settled land.
In Go Down, Moses, respect for nature is treated as a legacy that needs to be passed on from one generation to the next.