Setting Free the Bears: Analysis of Major Characters
"Setting Free the Bears" explores a range of complex characters navigating personal struggles against a backdrop of historical turmoil. The narrative is primarily driven by Hannes Graff, a naïve and aimless university student who, through his friendship with the adventurous Siegfried "Siggy" Javotnik, embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Siggy, characterized by his carefree spirit and family history marked by wartime evasion, draws Hannes into a reckless plan to liberate zoo animals, reflecting their desire for freedom amidst constraints.
Other significant characters include Gallen von St. Leonhard, a country girl who becomes romantically involved with Hannes but grapples with the aftermath of their actions; Vratno Javotnik, Siggy's father, whose wartime experiences add depth to the family legacy; and Ernst Watzek-Trummer, Siggy’s guardian, who embodies the struggles of identity and remembrance. The novel intertwines themes of loss, guilt, and the quest for autonomy, all while highlighting the historical context that shapes the characters' lives. As the story unfolds, tragic events, including Siggy's untimely death, force the characters to confront the consequences of their choices, ultimately leading to profound transformations. This rich character tapestry invites readers to reflect on the interplay between personal agency and historical circumstances.
Setting Free the Bears: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: John Irving
First published: 1969
Genre: Novel
Locale: Primarily Austria and Yugoslavia
Plot: Comic realism
Time: Spring and summer of 1967, with flashbacks to the years 1938–1955
Hannes Graff (HAHN-nehs grahf), a failed university student who narrates the first (“Siggy”) and third (“Setting Them Free”) sections of the novel. A naïve, easygoing young man, Hannes first encounters Siggy Javotnik eating salted radishes on a bench in Rathaus Park, then later sees him in Herr Faber's motorcycle shop. Hannes initially is a follower, a student in search of order; his experience with Siggy forces him to act according to his own conscience, though his actions cause harm, suffering, and loss.
Siegfried (Siggy) Javotnik (ZEEG-freed yah-VOT-nihk), a university dropout and motorcycle salesman named for his father's alias, Siegfried Schmidt, under which his father successfully eluded Yugoslav partisans and German soldiers to return to free Vienna in the last days of the Third Reich. Siggy always wears a corduroy duck hunter's jacket and affects a pipe. A carefree and footloose adventurer who entices Hannes into a cross-country tour of Austria on a Royal Enfield motorcycle, Siggy narrates the second section, “The Notebook,” divided between his “Pre-History” and twenty-two “Zoo Watches.” the “Pre-History” chronicles his mother's family's flight from Vienna ahead of the Nazis and their subsequent misfortunes and his father's adventures hiding out from the war in Yugoslavia. The “Zoo Watches,” logged during a night of clandestine after-hours reconnoitering, form the core of a plan to liberate all the animals from the Heitzinger Zoo. On his way back to rejoin Hannes, Siggy crashes his motorcycle into a trailer of beehives and is stung to death on the road.
Gallen von St. Leonhard (GAH-lehn fon zahnt LAYohn-hahrt), a pretty country girl whom Hannes and Siggy meet on the road. After Siggy's death, she and Hannes become lovers, and she assists him in setting free the zoo animals, with calamitous results. Guilty and upset, she leaves Hannes and returns to Vienna alone.
Vratno Javotnik (VRAT-noh), Siggy's father, an apolitical linguist who runs afoul of the terrorist Slivnika family during the war and heads into the mountains on a motorcycle, accompanied by Gottlub Wut, a German soldier. Vratno later is killed by Todor Slivnika in Vienna.
Hilke Marter (HIHL-keh MAHR-tehr), Siggy's mother, who abandons him in Kaprun when he is ten years old.
Gottlub Wut (GOHT-lewp vewt), the leader of Motorcycle Unit Balkan 4 during the German occupation of Yugoslavia. A scarred and practical former champion racing mechanic, he teaches Vratno how to ride his 1939 Grand Prix racer, and the two hide out together in the mountains of Yugoslavia until Gottlub is killed by his old Balkan 4 comrades, stuffed headfirst down the toilet in a men's room in Maribor.
Ernst Watzek-Trummer (VAHT-zehk TREWM-mehr), a chicken farmer who, as a patriotic gesture, goes to Vienna on the eve of the Nazi invasion wearing an eagle suit fashioned from chicken feathers, lard, and pieplates. After Hilke's abandonment and Grandfather Marter's death, he becomes guardian to the young Siggy. An autodidact, he records everything, becoming a kind of self-appointed family historian.
Grandfather Marter, Hilke's proper father, who organizes the family's flight, in Zahn Glanz's stolen taxi, from Vienna to Kaprun to escape the Nazis. In 1956, after Hilke disappears in search of long-lost Zahn Glanz, he dies suicidally, sledding down the Catapult trail wearing the shopworn and heavily symbolic eagle suit.
Grandmother Marter, Hilke's mother. She is machine-gunned to death while standing in the kitchen window of her Vienna home, boldly announcing to the neighborhood the birth of her grandson, Siggy.
Zahn Glanz (tsahn glahnts), a spirited student of politics and journalism and Hilke's boyfriend before the war. On the day of the Austrian plebiscite against German annexation, he wears Watzek-Trummer's eagle suit and in a series of reckless mishaps becomes a fugitive from the police. When Hilke's family flees Vienna, he stays behind to arrange for bank drafts to be sent to Kaprun, then disappears.
Keff, the driver of the tractor and trailer loaded with beehives with which Siggy fatally collides. Though once in love with Gallen, he now engineers her escape with Hannes.
O. Schrutt (shrewt), the second watchman at the Heitzinger Zoo. He wears jackboots, carries a truncheon, and routinely tortures the small mammals at night. Apparently a former concentration camp guard, he is left trussed up in a cage when Hannes and Gallen free the animals.