Self-Portrait as a Bear by Donald Hall - Book Report/Review Example

The animal might have been beaten by its owner and has escaped from him. He might have been wandering through the days and nights, in the brickyards and the gutters, without eating anything that could fill him up as much as these flowers did. The bear feels that the flowers that he has eaten up have turned into beautiful fields and meadows of mustard and poppy. He feels that his stomach is filled with sunshine and rain that will convert the withered flowers back into lush and fresh flowers. The bear might have found his way to the forest after wandering through the brickyards and the parking lots and might have joined his counterpart to whom he would have told his story of suffering, hunger, misery, and imaginative happiness.

In this section, I expand and unpack the meanings in the poem. Once, there was a bear that was too fat for himself to carry around easily. He had funny wings that hung down his shoulders. He was smiling but seemed very sad. He was wandering through the brickyards and gutters, in the month of October when autumn was in. He was feeding himself on flowers. He loved those flowers and believed that the flowers also loved him. He thought that the flowers had been waiting there for him, lying on the gutters.

For him, the flowers were very beautiful- so beautiful that it was unfair that he should have left them on the gutters and the bad brickyards and the parking lots. He wanted to pick them up and place them in a better place so that their beauty might not get damaged. So, he kept on eating them, believing that inside his stomach there were all the necessary elements of life, which included the sun, wind, and the showers. There were winds and birds. There were rains that occurred every night, and the sun rose in his stomach, giving the flowers all the necessary features of life.

The bear was in love with flowers and wanted to give life to them instead of watching them die in the autumn. The message in the poem intersects with my personal nature of love and care. I cannot see anyone in misery. I am fond of love, beauty, and happiness. I want to give life to every dying thing, so that beauty becomes eternal. Just like the bear that could not see the flowers dying, I cannot see people suffering from misery and disease. That is why I, once, joined community service regarding serving the old citizens of the city.

I would visit nearly every house in my neighborhood and would meet the elderly people. I would ask them about their problems and would try to rectify them using my personal resources. Just like the bear who believed that he was giving life to the flowers inside his stomach, I felt that I was giving the elderly people some moments full of life and happiness.