[1][2] The novel follows the adventures of Proude Cedarfair as he leads a group of mixedbloods on a pilgrimage across a post-apocalyptic and post-industrial United States that has run out of gasoline.

[1][3] The novel demonstrates several of Vizenor's key concepts: his use of trickster figures; his use of mixedblood (or "crossblood") Native characters in a non-tragic way;[3] his version of magical realism—what he calls "mythic verism";[1] his conception of "postindian" identity;[3] and his use of parody, as in the way the novel parodies both Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis".

[7] According to Jill Doerfler, the quest, pilgrimage, or road narrative genre of Bearheart is meant to aid the reader in understanding the repeated use of satire, as a means to critique rapid industrialization, particularly in American society and culture.

[5] The original setting the novel takes place in is that of the land of the sacred cedar trees, which Proude and Rosina Cedarfair are later forced to abandon due to orders from the government.

[5] The major themes of Gerald Vizenor's Bearheart are meant to introduce the audience to an array of Native concepts, while simultaneously alienating the constructed view of Indigenous stereotypes.

In an interview with Neal Bowers, Gerald Vizenor talks about his personal experiences with tribal culture and thinks of it as a balance, rather than a terminal creed.

[4] Bernadette Rigel-Cellard describes Bella-Donna's fate as a consequence of her failing to understand what it actually means to be Native American and instead subscribing to the idea of the "invented Indian," a terminal creed.

[11] The “society” that Bearheart puts the reader in is one of humans committing acts of violence towards each other, where Indigenous reservations become places of solace and shelter from the post-apocalyptic world waiting for them outside.

[13] Lee Rozelle states how this concept of a dystopia brought on by environmental factors, particularly in industrialized and consumer-focused societies, can be referred to as “post-ecocidal decentralization.”[11] The usage of a trickster is also an important thematic tool that is prevalent in Bearheart, according to Mohsen Hanif and Sheiki Zahra[9] Several members of the group fit within the trickster archetype, including the protagonist Proude Cedarfair.

[8] Bearheart, despite the controversy surrounding the text, is given much praise by literature scholars, like Helmbrecht Breinig, who acknowledge the complexity of themes and use of literary devices, such as satire.

Terry Cochran, a senior editor at the University of Minnesota Press, relayed to Vizenor that the contract printer refused to continue production of the new edition of Bearheart.

[4] Elaine Kim, former chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, pushed for a display case containing Kimberly Blaeser's Shadow Distance: A Gerald Vizenor Reader to be removed due to an androgynous nude trickster being on the cover of the book, a reference to Bearheart.

[4] Blaeser also speaks on how the typesetters for the original manuscript Darkness in Saint Louis Bearheart were uncooperative about working on this novel, due to the violence and vulgarity within the text.