I figure Aaron is Bear. If previous albums are any indication, he is not afraid to discuss personal issues in his songs, notably, depression, suicide, sexual purity, and frustration. In this song and "Fox's Dream...", Bear seems to be struggling with all of these, that makes me think the Bear is supposed to be Aaron. The other possibility is that he is unconsciously manifesting his emotions through the character of Bear (although I suspect Aaron is much too self-aware to do that by accident).
I figure Aaron is Bear. If previous albums are any indication, he is not afraid to discuss personal issues in his songs, notably, depression, suicide, sexual purity, and frustration. In this song and "Fox's Dream...", Bear seems to be struggling with all of these, that makes me think the Bear is supposed to be Aaron. The other possibility is that he is unconsciously manifesting his emotions through the character of Bear (although I suspect Aaron is much too self-aware to do that by accident).
@dralex I think we're supposed to extrapolate from Fox's dream as to what happened to her. It seems like she ate him, realized what he had done afterwards, and then became more wolf-like ("they gathered like wolves on the boardwalk below"); she did after all eat her friend. She howls for answers, and then she lets her fox side come out more, but still hiding it from her wolf side, and looks to religion ("no wolf can know I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand") for answers, but doesn't find what she was looking for, and...
@dralex I think we're supposed to extrapolate from Fox's dream as to what happened to her. It seems like she ate him, realized what he had done afterwards, and then became more wolf-like ("they gathered like wolves on the boardwalk below"); she did after all eat her friend. She howls for answers, and then she lets her fox side come out more, but still hiding it from her wolf side, and looks to religion ("no wolf can know I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand") for answers, but doesn't find what she was looking for, and looks back towards Bear for answers.
Bear's suicide makes her colder ("your cold fingers wrapped around my ankle bone"), and acts as a sort of ball and chain to Fox, perhaps like a fiberglass ghost in the attic of her inconveniently selective memory. Then this star, representing God, majestic and powerful, explodes as if it were just a water balloon. This symbolizes the death of Fox's faith, having become very fragile throughout her journey. And since she was only ten feet away, I think we're supposed to infer that she died when this star blew up, perhaps killing herself like Bear, or dying from starvation. This reminds of the end of Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, where Brown learns (or at least dreams) that his Puritan community is wicked as can be, including his aptly-named wife Faith. Brown is never the same afterwards, and dies ("his dying hour was gloom"), and then his wife, Faith, dies shortly afterwards. In the story we don't know if Faith died because Brown died, or if they died independently of each other, but here the order of death is inverted, and Aaron seems to be proposing a causal relationship, implying that Fox's faith was the last thing keeping her alive.
But that's just a theory. A SONG theory, thanks for reading.
This song is so sad and beautiful. I wonder what happens to Fox? She apparently the only Circus animal still who we dont really know what happens to.
I think Fox is supposed to be Aaron himself? Or is that Bear?
I figure Aaron is Bear. If previous albums are any indication, he is not afraid to discuss personal issues in his songs, notably, depression, suicide, sexual purity, and frustration. In this song and "Fox's Dream...", Bear seems to be struggling with all of these, that makes me think the Bear is supposed to be Aaron. The other possibility is that he is unconsciously manifesting his emotions through the character of Bear (although I suspect Aaron is much too self-aware to do that by accident).
I figure Aaron is Bear. If previous albums are any indication, he is not afraid to discuss personal issues in his songs, notably, depression, suicide, sexual purity, and frustration. In this song and "Fox's Dream...", Bear seems to be struggling with all of these, that makes me think the Bear is supposed to be Aaron. The other possibility is that he is unconsciously manifesting his emotions through the character of Bear (although I suspect Aaron is much too self-aware to do that by accident).
@dralex I think we're supposed to extrapolate from Fox's dream as to what happened to her. It seems like she ate him, realized what he had done afterwards, and then became more wolf-like ("they gathered like wolves on the boardwalk below"); she did after all eat her friend. She howls for answers, and then she lets her fox side come out more, but still hiding it from her wolf side, and looks to religion ("no wolf can know I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand") for answers, but doesn't find what she was looking for, and...
@dralex I think we're supposed to extrapolate from Fox's dream as to what happened to her. It seems like she ate him, realized what he had done afterwards, and then became more wolf-like ("they gathered like wolves on the boardwalk below"); she did after all eat her friend. She howls for answers, and then she lets her fox side come out more, but still hiding it from her wolf side, and looks to religion ("no wolf can know I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand") for answers, but doesn't find what she was looking for, and looks back towards Bear for answers.
Bear's suicide makes her colder ("your cold fingers wrapped around my ankle bone"), and acts as a sort of ball and chain to Fox, perhaps like a fiberglass ghost in the attic of her inconveniently selective memory. Then this star, representing God, majestic and powerful, explodes as if it were just a water balloon. This symbolizes the death of Fox's faith, having become very fragile throughout her journey. And since she was only ten feet away, I think we're supposed to infer that she died when this star blew up, perhaps killing herself like Bear, or dying from starvation. This reminds of the end of Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, where Brown learns (or at least dreams) that his Puritan community is wicked as can be, including his aptly-named wife Faith. Brown is never the same afterwards, and dies ("his dying hour was gloom"), and then his wife, Faith, dies shortly afterwards. In the story we don't know if Faith died because Brown died, or if they died independently of each other, but here the order of death is inverted, and Aaron seems to be proposing a causal relationship, implying that Fox's faith was the last thing keeping her alive.
But that's just a theory. A SONG theory, thanks for reading.