Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear

Touching Spirit Bear is a great book that touches points with survival, self realisation, and the change a person can go through. Some main points of that will be covered are the author, a few of the main influential characters, and theme. includes what the author has done in is his life to get where he is today. The protagonist of the story and the antagonist. Lastly the origin of what the book is about and how the book climaxed and flowed.

The author of this great novel is Ben Mikaelsen. He has a very good rags to riches story on his life. He was born in 1952 in La Paz, Bolivia. He was never very well educated but always loved going on crazy adventures through writing. He saw it as a way to escape from reality and just be in a world of wonder and fiction. His parents

were missionaries and were very religious. Ben did not get sent to school until he was about 9 in the fourth grade. He had a hard time keeping up with the other kids learning and always had a hard time making friends. To say the least he was not a social person in his early years. then in the seventh grade him and his family moved to the U.S. where Ben was further bullied for his race. He struggled through high school and went on to go to some of the best known colleges across the country. Ben wrote multiple other books such as Jungle of Bones, and The Ghost of Spirit Bear. Also just a fun cool fact, Ben did end up owning a bear that just recently died. He saw this bear as just important as anyone else in the world, because he loved animals more than people most of the time.
All stories need a protagonist and antagonist if not more than one. Cole is the protagonist of this story for multiple reasons. He started out in the beginning as a challenged kid who was a juvenile delinquent. He made a very broad list of bad decisions including slamming a kids face into the concrete and causing permanent brain damage. He hated his parents for multiple reasons that he saw as “justified”. He has a deep burning hate for the world always thinking the world owes him something and should be more fair to him. He also has no remorse for any of the actions that he ever made, including almost killing a kid. Lastly he was always very mean and some would say uncharitable. His dad is the definite antagonist of the novel. Mr. Mathews was an alcoholic who was abusive half the time and passed out the rest. He would wake up with no remorse of what had happened the previous night. Whether it be beating cole or beating Cole’s mom. Eventually in the story while Cole is gone his mom files for divorce. In the book it doesn’t say how abusive and psychotic Mr. Mathews is. The novel was misleading in the way of portraying Mr. Mathews to be generous and kind. Also in the end of the book Cole mentions that all of his rage is fueled by his dad’s intoxicated actions and choices.
A book is truly nothing without the theme that drives it.

One of the themes that a reader would find interesting is the power of nature. Cole tries to kill a kid in this novel so he gets banished to an island to survive for a extended amount of time. While he is on the island he encounters a ghostly white bear and it attacks him and easily overpowers him. He gets mauled within an inch of his life and lays there for days and thinks about everything he has done. He realizes how helpless he felt being overpowered by the bear. He thought about how the kid he almost killed felt being punched within an inch of his life. he finally got rescued and recovered fully. The influence that nature had in the book is amazing and cool. Another theme is anger and revenge. The ending of the book cole returned to the island but what was different is the kid he almost killed came along with him to survive together. In the short period of time he was there the kid beat up Cole and Cole accepted it. but this was the pure hate that this kid had for Cole is uncanny. Also the kid destroyed the totem pole Cole made while he was there after the bear attack. This kid had pure hatred for cole and was out for blood and

revenge.
This book is a very good book and it will touch and inspire and kid to do good and teach them great life lessons. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers and adventures survival books.