Hatchet Essay

Gary Paulsen’s novel is a story of a battle between a boy and the nature that’s against him. When Brian first arrives in the woods after the plane crash, the setbacks he experiences frustration in his journey of survival. He cries and despairs, and he gives in to self-pity and hopelessness. However, he soon learns what he considers the most important rule of survival. That is self-pity, rather than accomplishing anything only wastes time and energy that could be spent working and getting something done in the time you were thinking about the situation. A new attitude “new Brian”, combined with improved powers of observation, patience and a degree of luck, enable Brian to survive his time in the wilderness.

Brain learned from the environment in his time, after the plane crashed. Brian had very little to eat, so he scavenged around the wilderness and found gut berries, which he shared with a bear, collected turtle eggs to eat and caught fish with his homemade spear. Brian learned to get food for himself to survive. Brian had to make fire for warmth and cooking. He didn’t know how to start the fire, until threw his hatchet at a porcupine and it missed, hitting a rock, with sparks flying out. Brian then tried using his hatchet against rocks to start the fire successfully. He encounters a pack of wolves and they stare right into his eyes, then walk away. He also encounters a big brown bear and stands very still. If he didn’t he would have gotten killed. Brian goes on to recognise the dangers of nature and learns how to live with the animals and plants so he doesn’t die.

Brian in his survival, ignored and pushed out of his mind the bad things that were happening at home with his parents and the “secret”. Brian kept on pushing through the pain and he stopped thinking as much as before about his parents and the really bad situation he was in. Determination was one of the crucial parts needed for survival. Not having determination would have threatened his survival,