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The black bear that Lyddie and her family encounter in the opening pages of the narrative symbolizes the terrifying hardship in store for Lyddie—and the fortitude she possesses in facing it. When the bear crashes into Lyddie’s Vermont cabin, Lyddie is able to intimidate the bear with prolonged eye contact, getting Mama and her younger siblings to safety. And though the bear frightens Mama, who sees it as a sign that the end of the world is near, Lyddie finds comfort in remembering her ability to triumph over the animal. As Lyddie faces other challenges—from the exhausting tasks of indentured servitude to the predatory advances of her factory boss Mr. Marsden—she reminds herself that she “stared down the bear.”
Eventually, however, Lyddie realizes that not every challenge in her life can be handled this way. When Lyddie becomes solely responsible for her younger sister Rachel, she dreams about the bear, but this time, he becomes a harmless deer—and Lyddie “could not stare him down.” Similarly, when Lyddie finds herself developing romantic feelings for her kindly neighbor Luke Stevens, she realizes that there is a bear in her “own narrow spirit,” too. In other words, though Lyddie’s bravery can help her survive cruel figures and harsh circumstances, she will need other skills when it comes time to extend care or kindness to the people she cares about most. Ultimately, then, Lyddie realizes that there are different kinds of metaphorical bears—and that in forging intimate relationships, it can be important to run towards fear instead of away from it, to “throw open the cabin door wide and invite that black bear right onto the hearth.”
The Bear Quotes in Lyddie
The Lyddie quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Bear. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 10 Quotes
I stared down a black bear, Lyddie reminded herself. She took a deep breath, fished out the broken ends, and began to tie the weavers knot the Diana had shown her over and over again the afternoon before. Finally, Lyddie managed to make a clumsy knot, and Diana pulled the lever, and the loom shuddered to life once more.
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The child was in some kind of poor house, it seemed, and he was hungry. Lyddie knew about hungry children. Rachel, Agnes, Charlie—they had all been hungry that winter of the bear. The hungry little boy in the story had held up his bowl to the poor house overseer and said:
“Please sir, I want some more.”
[…] She fought sleep, ravenous for every word. She had not had any appetite for the bountiful meal downstairs, but now she was feeling a hunger she knew nothing about. She had to know what would happen to little Oliver. Would he indeed be hanged just because he wanted more gruel?
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Chapter 15 Quotes
In her uneasy sleep [Lyddie] saw the bear again, but, suddenly, in the midst of his clumsy thrashing about, he threw off the pot and was transformed, leaping like a spring buck up into the loft where they were huddled. And she could not stare him down.
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Chapter 20 Quotes
She let go of the bucket and grabbed Brigid’s hand. They began to run, Lyddie dragging Brigid across the floor. Behind in the darkness, she thought she heard the noise of an angry bear crashing an oatmeal pot against the furniture.
She started to laugh. By the time they were at the bottom of the stairs she was weak with laughter and her side ached, but she kept running, through the empty yard, past the startled gatekeeper, across the bridge, and down the row of wide-eyed boardinghouses, dragging a bewildered Brigid behind her.
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Chapter 22 Quotes
The bear had won. It had stolen her home, her family, her work, her good name. She had thought she was so strong, so tough, and she had just stood there like a day-old lamb and let it gobble her down. She looked around the crowded room that had been her home—the two double beds squeezed in with less than a foot between them for passage. She thought of Betsy sitting cross-legged on the one, bent slightly toward the candle, reading aloud while she, Lyddie, lay motionless, lost in Oliver’s world.
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Chapter 23 Quotes
“I’m off…” [Lyddie] said, and knew as she spoke at what she was off to. To stare down the bear! The bear that she had thought all these years was outside herself, but now, truly, knew was in her own spirit. She would stare down all the bears.
[…] Tarnation, Lyddie Worthen! Ain’t you learned nothing? Don’t you know better than to tie yourself to some other living soul? You'd only be asking for trouble and grief. Might as well just throw open the cabin door full wide and invite that black bear right onto the hearth.
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The Bear Symbol Timeline in Lyddie
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Bear appears in Lyddie. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
“ The bear had been their undoing,” Lyddie Worthen reflects, “though at the time they had all laughed.”...
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...everyone else is safe, Lyddie climbs backwards to the loft, never taking her eyes off the bear . Only when she’s up does Lyddie break eye contact, which sends the bear into...
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Finally, having exhausted himself, the bear crashes out of the house, tearing the door off its hinges. Once the family hears...
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Chapter 8
Lyddie wakes to a clanging, and at first she thinks it is the bear again, crashing around with the oatmeal pot. But soon, she realizes it is the sounds...
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Chapter 10
...As she tries to tie the difficult knots, Lyddie reminds herself that she “stared down a black bear .”
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Chapter 13
...the protestors. Lyddie, embarrassed, recalls all she has been through: the poor-farm and Agnes and the bear .
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Chapter 15
...a novel will calm Rachel as it once calmed Lyddie. That night, Lyddie dreams of the bear —but this time, he transforms into a young deer, and Lyddie finds “she could not...
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Chapter 21
...laughing. Lyddie is proud that she protected Brigid (“better to feed Rachel and Agnes to the bear ” than let Mr. Marsden attack her), but she is also terrified of what will...
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Chapter 22
“ The bear had won,” thinks Lyddie, as she returns to her room at Number Five; she tries...
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Chapter 23
...where Lyddie plans to go. Instinctively, Lyddie realizes that she is off “to stare down the bear !” But now, staring down the bear means heading to Ohio, where Lyddie hopes to...
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...to another’s (“might as well just throw open the cabin door full wide and invite that black bear right onto the hearth”). Seeing Lyddie’s face, Luke wonders if he frightens her, which makes...
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