Bear

The economic disadvantages that Sam and Elena face fuel much of the tension throughout the novel. The reasons for their situation are multifold: The island where they reside is small, thus limiting the number of available jobs; travel between the islands is possible only by ferry, and daily travel to another island or to the mainland for employment isn’t reasonable. Neither Sam nor Elena has advanced education, further limiting the kinds of jobs open to them. Similarly, they weren’t born into a family of privilege: Neither their mother nor their grandmother had extra money, so the sisters must (like the women before them in the family) make their own way in the world. The global COVID-19 pandemic further limits employment opportunities: Sam’s employer—the local ferry system—temporarily shuts down. These factors, combined with their mother’s illness, drain the sisters’ meager savings and daily earnings.

This economic hardship not only forces the women to live cautiously and frugally but also introduces mental and emotional stress that weighs both of them down. Life becomes a series of mundane tasks. For Sam, work isn’t enjoyable but something she endures. Missing a day of work isn’t an option due to the sisters’ extreme need for money. Sam takes extra shifts and works overtime whenever possible. This only causes her to grow physically depleted, and enduring the same mundane routine over and over again wears on her psyche. It’s not merely that her job is dull but that its demands, which provide little reward in exchange, contribute to her daily stress. Though Sam works hard, she receives little pay (and their debt merely piles up, setting her further and further behind in her goal of leaving the island for a better life). This lack of progress takes a toll mentally and exacerbates the other emotional difficulties—such as their mother’s impending death—that Sam and Elena experience.

Poverty and need are two common traits among fairy-tale protagonists—in “Snow White and Rose Red,” the inspiration for Bear, the two sisters and their mother are poor, and the bear provides a magical solution to their desperate situation. With this, the sisters’ economic circumstances offer a possible explanation for Elena feeding the bear—she is looking for the possibility of magic in their stressful, non-magical world. Sam engages in lower-risk magical thinking, believing that she and Elena can make it work on San Juan Island despite their increasingly dire economic situation. Bear ultimately critiques the idea that there is a magical solution to the structural issue of poverty when the bear and Elena both die, leaving Sam to confront reality alone. At the end of the novel, Sam takes the risk of finally leaving the island. Though she doesn’t have funds from the sale of the house, as she counted on, and though she has lost her sister in addition to their mother, she retains the hope for a less stressful future.