Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death. 

Birdie is the protagonist and one of the three narrative points of view through which the story is told. As a young single mother, Birdie struggles to balance her love for her daughter, Emaleen, with her desire to live a life of her own. When she meets Arthur, she sees an opportunity to fulfill her longing to be free and provide a better life for Emaleen. Living with Arthur offers her a Human Connection With Nature, free from the judgmental eyes of society. She tells him, “I’m like that all the time, just craving and craving. And I sit here looking across the river and I think that’s it. That’s what I’m craving” (38). As a bear who lives among humans, Arthur is caught between two worlds, like Birdie feels within her own identity. His presence forces her to confront the tension between her civilization and wildness. Just as Arthur cannot fully be one thing, neither entirely bear nor entirely human, Birdie struggles with her sense of belonging as a mother and a woman.

On the mountain, Birdie experiences wildness and her unresolved desire to be free from society’s constraints.