(Be)Wilderness

What wilderness is in The Bear, and its relationship to nature, is integral to the storyline. Wilderness is definitely tied to Old Ben; for example, once the hunters kill Old Ben, it seems to open up the future of the death of wilderness through progress' confining and cutting off areas of landscape by means of locomotives, train tracks and loggers. Essentially, in the same way that the hunting men have sought identity and validity through their capture and besting/taming Old Ben by means of killing him, mankind in general continually seeks gain and validity through 1)going back to the land from whence he came or reminiscing about it 2)selling and passing down land which really is not his to own or sell, and 3)traversing the land and taking from it for material benefit, regardless of consequences. Nature is more of the peaceful and beautiful side of the non-manmade world, while wilderness is more of the rugged and indominable side of the non-manmade world.