Significance of the ‘Bear-and Squirrel’ Game in Look Back in Anger

The ‘bear-and-squirrel’ game in Look Back in Anger signifies the conjugal relationship of Jimmy Porter and Alison. The ‘bear’ and the ‘squirrel’ represent Jimmy and Alison respectively. They are the stuffed toys that Alison and Jimmy keep on their dressing table or in the chest of drawers. The bear is described as a large, tattered toy teddy bear and the squirrel is soft and woolly.

But the bear-and-squirrel game is a kind of escape for Alison and Jimmy from the harsh realities of life and their failure to adjust themselves to each other in their marital life. In Act I when Cliff goes out, Jimmy and Alison begin to play this game. Jimmy affectionately calls Alison a ‘beautiful, grey-eyed squirrel’, a ‘hoarding nut-munching squirrel’, etc. and this affectionate description pleased Alison so much that she produces the sound of a squirrel and calls Jimmy a ‘jolly super bear’, ‘a really marvelous bear’. But this happiness, the dreamy world of the pair is soon shattered, when being fed up with Jimmy’s rudeness; Alison leaves him for her parents’ home. However, at the end of the drama they are united again. Now in a chastened and tender mood, Jimmy affectionately tells her as animals they will sing song about themselves. Thus the bear-and-squirrel game is very significant in developing the action of the drama.