The Biggest Bear

Infobox Book
name = The Biggest Bear


image_caption =
author = Lynd Ward
illustrator = Lynd Ward
cover_artist =
country = United States
genre = Children's picture book
publisher = Houghton
release_date = 1952
media_type =
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-395-14806-5

"The Biggest Bear" is a children's picture book by Lynd Ward, first published in 1952. It was illustrated using wood engravings, and won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1953.American Library Association: [http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/caldecottmedal/caldecottwinners/caldecottmedal.htm Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present] . URL accessed 22 March 2007.]

Johnny Orchard is jealous because his neighbors have bear pelts hanging on their barns, so he takes a firearm and goes hunting to find a bear to trap and kill. However, he finds a small bear cub who he deems unfit to kill so he brings the bear home as a pet. As it grows, it becomes a nuisance to the neighbors, so after the neighbors complain Johnny tries three times to return the bear to the woods. Each time the bear follows Johnny back home. One day Johnny's father tells Johnny the only way to resolve the problem with the problem bear is to kill it. He goes far into the woods, and is filling up his musket when the bear runs off and into a trap that has honey in it. Soon the people from the zoo who set the live trap come, and they decide to put the bear in the zoo where Johnny can visit him anytime.

Freudian analysis of this book

In the Pulitzer Prize winning The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker cited The Biggest Bear as an example of how the innate human fear of sexual violence can become manifested in literature. [Ernest Becker: The Denial of Death, 1973]

References