The Bear That Wasn't

A bear settles down for his hibernation, and while he sleeps the progress of man continues. He wakes up to find himself in the middle of an industrial complex. He then gets mistaken by the foreman for a worker and is told to get to work. To this he responds, "But I'm not a man, I'm a bear". He is then taken to each of his successive bosses (general manager and a trio of vice-presidents), all of whom tell him their own version of him being a "silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat",[3] reaching all the way up to an elderly president (who in the animated version is depicted as a dwarf whose face is never seen) of the factory who concludes he cannot be a bear because "bears are only in a zoo or a circus; they're never inside a factory".

"You are not a bear; you are a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat."

The bear is, by the president and his employees, taken to the zoo and hopes to gain support from his own species, but even the zoo bears claim that he is not a bear, because if he were "he would be inside the cage here with us" (in the animated version, a bear cub also repeats exactly the same claim of the bear being a "silly man"). Eventually he concludes that he must indeed be a "silly man", and buckles down to work hard at the factory - much to the satisfaction of the foreman and the other bosses, all of whom shake hands as the bear works. Months later, the factory closes for the winter and the bear finds himself turned out of doors in the cold snow, wishing that he were a bear. Finally he realises that he is indeed a bear and, discarding the trappings of his human existence seeks out a cave in which to hibernate, which he enters, feeling comfortable and bear-like once more. As the bear is sleeping, the narrator reflects on the events of the year and concludes that even though neither the human bosses nor the zoo bears would believe that he was a bear, "that didn't make it so; no indeed, he wasn't a silly man...and he wasn't a silly bear, either".

Though appearing as a children's book, this story takes a critical and satirical look at aspects of society.[4] It revolves around the concept of people believing a repeated idea even though it may not be true. People have a tendency to shift their views if a concept is hammered into them over and over again, like the bear being told he is a "silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat". The bear eventually succumbs to this mistaken assumption, believing he is a man even though he had previously known otherwise, just as humans shift their views on a topic because of repetitive information, or because "they all say it is true, therefore it must be". Yet, in the end, the bear, who is cold in winter, reverts to what he really is – a bear – and finds shelter in a cave. This idea covers the concept of people never changing due to outside influence. Though a person may change for someone else, when placed in a difficult position, they revert to old habits – just like the bear hibernating. Whether something is fact or fiction, it is what it is and does not change – no matter how many people believe otherwise.

The book also presents a visual satire of corporate culture. Each time the bear appears before a higher-ranking man in the corporation, the offices get progressively more elaborate (for example, progressively more phones, more waste-baskets, more secretaries, all according to rank). There are also progressively more chins and less hair on each higher-ranking person as the bear ascends all the way to the president's office.[5]

Tashlin's book inspired Swiss writer Jörg Steiner to create his children's book Der Bär, der ein Bär bleiben wollte (1976; German: "The Bear Who Wanted to Stay a Bear"), which was translated into English and published by Atheneum Books the next year as The Bear Who Wanted to Be a Bear, whose cover states "From an idea by Frank Tashlin".

A Belgian singer has also adopted the moniker "The Bear That Wasn't" for recording and released an album entitled And So It Is Morning Dew in 2010. The German book Der Bär, der ein Bär bleiben wollte on the other hand inspired German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey to write a song of that name, appearing on his 1978 album Unterwegs.

• New York, E.P. Dutton & co., inc., 1946 (1st edition), LCCN 46001683
• New York, Dover Publications [1962,c1946], LCCN 62004936
• New York : Dover Publications, 1995, ISBN 0-486-28787-4
• New York : The New York Review Children's Collection, 2010, ISBN 978-1-59017-344-2

The Bear That Wasn't is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc 3 on the "From the Vaults" section and on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 Blu-ray box-set on Disc 3 as a bonus feature. It is also available on the Boomerang subscription streaming service under Volume 6 of MGM Cartoons titled Bear That Wasn't.

• The Bear That Wasn't on IMDb
• The Bear That Wasn't at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Bear that Wasn't catalog page at The New York Review Children's Collection site