The Old People
The story is all about, Isaac McCaslin, who got initiated into manhood and hunting through a ritual of killing a buck on his own. Isaac is taught how to hunt by a Chickasaw chief’s son, Sam Fathers. Upon hitting eleven years of age, Isaac is allowed to join Sam and other elders during their annual hunting ordeal. It is during this trip that Isaac chases and kills a buck on his own for the first time. With the buck’s blood, Sam Fathers anoints Isaac, an indication of initiation into hunting and manhood as per the tradition set by their ancestors. To conclude the hunting trip, Sam Fathers introduced Isaac to a very large, noble buck, whom he saluted solemnly and called “Grandfather” and “Chief.” As Isaac came to learn later, this is something that Fathers always did after initiating a young hunter into adulthood.
The Bear
However, this is a continuation of ‘The Old People,' where Isaac has grown to be a renowned woodsman. The community was being haunted by a big bear, Old Ben, who attacked their animals and survived for long without being killed. The men came together and tamed a huge, savage and dog, Lion, which they used to track down and kill Old Ben. A few days after the murder of the Bear, Lion and Sam Fathers die. Boon, who buried both the dog and Sam, loses his mind.
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As such, this leaves Isaac as the oldest male in the family thus the one eligible to inherit the McCaslin plantation. However, after all, the issues that had followed the acquisition of the land, use of slave wives for sex, incest, and other immoral activities, Isaac renounces his inheritance, leaving it for his cousin, McCaslin. Later, Isaac decides to go back to what had remained of the hunting camp, where he is lucky to meet a snake, which he addresses the same way that Sam had addressed the old buck.
