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Nixaly Mendez

Professor VanDyke

ENC 1102- 74264

February 28th, 2023

The Altercations of Turning Into a New Man

In Elizabeth Chandler’s “Blue Bear”, the protagonist of the story, Mark, is caring for his

ill daughter Cynthia. From a young age, Cynthia is diagnosed with seizures; causing her to live a

restricted lifestyle. Although Mark is the only parent in Cynthia’s life, he constantly asks his

sister, Francine, to come over and help interact with Cynthia. The narrator effectively

demonstrates conflicts between different family members to expose Mark’s emotions and display

how he faces— and occasionally overcomes— his situations.

As Chandler introduces the characters, the narrator informs the readers that Cynthia is

diagnosed with seizures. As the story progresses, the audience later discovers the conflict

between Mark and Cynthia, and how he caused Cynthia to have seizures. The author explains

“That was how he dropped Cynthia because his arms moved out from under the baby that rested

against his chest and into the moving gray pattern that spread over his eyes” (Chandler 56).

Being the person who carries the weight of knowing that they are the reason their daughter will

never be the same, would hurt anyone’s self-esteem. This happens to be the same way Mark feels

when he constantly remembers that he is the reason for his daughter’s suffering. Marks’

emotions towards himself, after the situation, are that he “[I]s deadened with self-hate, for

himself and the irrevocable ways he’s harmed his daughter” (Chandler 2). As Mark continues to

raise his daughter, just the simple site of her reminds him of his irreplaceable damages. And this
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changes Mark into becoming a stronger person, not only to keep himself sane, but also to show

his daughter strength and perseverance.

After learning how Cynthia acquires her seizures, the narrator informs the readers that

another conflict is happening between Mark and his ex wife, Sandra. The readers previous

knowledge of Cynthia and Mark’s lifestyle, causes the audience to question what is the

relationship between Mark and his ex-wife. The narrator mentions, “Mark’s ex insisted that he

was responsible for the accident. Sandra argues that he should have known, how in time of high

anxiety, he wasn’t dependable” (Chandler 54). Although Mark knows that it is his fault for

dropping his daughter, his ex newly wedded wife is feeling like Mark can not step up to be the

man she needs him to be. Now, one might let this divorce overtake them and make them feel

responsible for everything; but Mark instead decides to make the best out of it. Overcoming this

difficult situation, he decides to occupy himself, “Mark built the cottage the same year his wife

left” ( Chandler 83). Mark uses this opportunity of his wife leaving to build the cottage, which

helps him not only build a safe place for him and his daughter, but also to help him take his mind

off of his wife leaving him. As Mark continues to fight for his happiness and comfort, he pushes

himself to do better and be better for his daughter.

As the story progresses, Mark comes across another difficult challenge, with his sister

Francine. Since Francine is constantly taking care of Cynthia; she realizes that Cynthia is living

under a tightly restricted life style. Mark, being a strong independent father, feels like he is doing

everything in his power to protect her from having seizures. Until Francine says, “‘I was thinking

about quality of life because what I’m trying to say is there are some things that you control in

Cynthia’s routine that I just don’t think need controlling’” (Chandler 39). Mark believes that the

color blue is the only color that is capable of helping Cynthia have less seizures. This leads him
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to painting her room blue, only allowing her to have blue toys, and building the cottage on the

blue lake. Mark protects Cynthia by only allowing the color blue, Francine believes Mark should

expose her to different colors.

Although Mark ignores Francines suggestions of allowing Cynthia to choose the colors

that she want, Francine arrives outside of the cottage with different color teddy bears creating a

large conflict between her and Mark. Mark wasn’t on board since the beginning, considering that

he already did the color trials, but Francine persuades him by saying “‘Everything’s a risk’”

(Chandler 146). After trying the colors, the outcomes of trying are so detrimental to Cynthia as

well as Mark. Francine notices that Cynthia is drooling a lot and decides to wait it out, her and

Mark come to realize that she’s drooling for longer than 5 minutes. This causes Francine to panic

and apologize multiple times to Mark, but he already knew this was not going to be a good test

trial. The narrator says, “He knows that it’s time to call 911, but because in many ways a few

seconds means nothing, he says to himself, his daughter, and his sister, ‘I forgive us’” (Chandler

185). As this was one of the scariest moments in his life, Mark comes to a realization. He not

only forgives what Francine does to Cynthia, but also how he effects his own daughter. In this

moment Marks reflection hits him, and he forgives everything that happens allowing him to

continue living a happier life with his family.

The man that Mark becomes would be a totally different person if he had not gone

through all the challenges. While going through conflicts and reminiscing over them, Mark

learns to grow and overcome his problems. All of the conflicts between himself, Francine, his ex

wife, and Cynthia allows him to understand himself as well as becoming the better version of

himself for his family.

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Work Cited

Chandler, Elizabeth (American writer). "Blue Bear." The Kenyon Review, vol. 33, no. 1,

winter 2011, pp. 35+. Gale Literature Resource Center,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A245545178/GLS?u=lincclin_hcc&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=abbda214.

Accessed 12 Mar. 2023.