Uncle Todd Sparknotes

The jungle of Papua New Guinea, or PNG, is so dense it would take a healthy man with a machete a week to travel three miles. It took Dylan Barstow’s grandfather two weeks to be found by villagers after an airplane crash by the Sepik River, on the north side of PNG. His grandfather, in Jungle of Bones by Ben Mikaelsen, was flying an aerial missions in WWII when he and the crew of the bomber Second Ace crashed. Dylan and his Uncle, Todd, have set off on an expedition to find the wreckage of the plane, but Uncle Todd is also tasked with teaching Dylan a lesson about respect and behavior. His mother sent him to live with his ex-military uncle as punishment for having stolen a car and destroyed a field. Soon after staying in Uncle Todd’s condo
At this point, Dylan is a troubled and angry young man who has broken the law many times and also skipped school regularly. “If she wanted a screw-up, he would really give her one” (Mikaelsen 7). Dylan felt mother did not trust him not to sneak out, and this enraged Dylan so much, that he snuck out and stole an automobile. However, if there had not been a junkyard in the vicinity of Dylan’s house, he would not have committed grand theft auto. “he squeezed under a wood-slatted fence that guarded the front of the local junkyard” (7). In this junkyard a mere seven blocks away from his house, several cars were parked with the keys in their ignitions ready to be driven. So Dylan drove one car straight through the fence in a nearby plotted field, and drove for five minutes before the police showed up. He was then sent to the local detention center, and after a few hours, was shipped off to Oregon for the summer. Thus, Dylan living in Wisconsin greatly affects his growth as a
Every morning, they would run five miles to train for the expedition. “... every morning they ran, even in the rain” (41). In Portland, it rains a lot and Dylan did not like running in the rain. He and Uncle Todd had an agreement that if he did not beat Uncle Todd, Uncle Todd would make breakfast. Through this meal, his uncle taught him a lesson about respect and made Dylan a slightly better person. However, Dylan still wanted to run away, and actually tried to. When Dylan tried to run away, “he would have to sneak right past Uncle Todd’s bedroom” (66), because there was no porch roof to escape onto in the condo; unlike at his house. That was part of the reason Uncle Todd caught him. Being caught was a great lesson for Dylan and caused him to think twice about his actions. After a few weeks in Portland, learning a few lessons and developing as a character, Dylan and his uncle headed off on their expedition in PNG. Thus, Dylan staying in Portland, Oregon exceedingly affects his character advancement in Jungle of