In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen he discuses the idea of morals. As the reader reads the novel it is filled with many important lessons from many perspectives. Understanding that all these lessons made Cole a better person. The most important lessons learnt from the book are life is what you make it, forgiveness, and that people can change. The lesson “life is what you make it” was a big part of the novel. But also this lesson was reflective. When Edwin asked Cole to go to the freezing pond, he gave him a stick and says that the right end of the stick represented happiness while the left end represented anger. Cole broke the anger side of the stick, until he recognized that everytime he broke …show more content…
He was even known and portrayed as a very angry person. As Cole gets to understand the idea of forgiveness and the beauty of life he changed to become a better and a peaceful person. There are no bad people in the world just people who make bad choices. Cole made several mistakes in his life but has learnt from them and is going through taking dips in the freezing pond, rolling the ancestor rock to get rid of his anger so he would not make the mistakes of anger taking over him again. The Cole first sent to the island was feeling consumed by anger, bitterness, and the feeling to unwillingness to change. While the Cole at the end on the novel is a normal boy that is trying control his anger problems and trying to earn forgiveness from others. After Cole had changed he seemed to think that the island could change anyone. Cole thinks to himself that he has really changed. “He felt like a new and a different person.” (Pg.198) That’s why he wanted to bring Peter, the boy who had tried to commit suicide twice after Cole had beaten him up to the island to see if he can change on the island and have another chance at life, like Cole had received. At the end, both Peter and Cole changed spiritually and mentally. The lesson “People can change” is an important lesson from the book because even Cole the juvenile delinquent had changed into a normal teenage boy controlling his