My favorite part of the story, “Touching Spirit Bear,” is Cole’s transformation. I enjoyed watching him go from a teenage delinquent, to someone who wants to save Peter’s life after destroying it. With the help of Edwin and Garvey, Cole has learned many lessons and strategies to control his anger, he learned to soak in the pond, carry the ancestry rock, do dances, have feasts, and most importantly forgive. At the beginning of the story, Cole was a teenage delinquent who did not care about anything. He was beaten by his father all the time, and his mother just drank to make it go away. Cole robbed a hardware store and completely trashed it. He later bragged about it at school and was ratted on, after Cole found out who did it, he cornered him in the parking lot and smashed his face …show more content…
Garvey wanted to send him to an Alaskan island for a year, which was a punishment that Circle Justice did. Cole acted sorry just to get out of jail, and it worked. Garvey and Edwin, a Tlingit elder, took Cole to the island. When they got there, Edwin already had a shelter with supplies ready for Cole. After they left, Cole was there all by himself, and he didn’t plan on staying. Cole burned the shelter and decided to swim to another island, then to the next one, and the next one, until he reached Alaska or someone picked him up. What Cole did not account for was the tide, which swept him back to shore and left him very tired. Cole decided to wait a couple more days before trying again, and this time, he would do it when the tide was going out. Over the next couple of days, Cole tried to stay warm and keep eating. While Cole was sitting by the fire, he saw a spirit bear, it was a completely white bear that Edwin had told him about. The bear had more honor than the most honorable man, and Cole hated it. He hated it because it defied Cole, it wasn’t afraid of
... Peter and Cole then had to try to heal himself by learning how to forgive, get over his anger ,and learn to have a clean mind. Over the course of the book he learned to forgive and went from having a chip on his shoulder and blaming everyone to learning to forgive by clearing his mind and forgiving himself during a dance. By the end of the book he learned how to get over his anger from beating up Peter to dancing the anger dance. He also by the end of the book he had a clear mind, In the beginning he did not have a very clear mind and let anger cloud his judgement. When Cole was on the island for the second time he learned how to have a clear mind by dancing, Soaking, and rolling the ancestor rock. Over the entire book you can see Cole changing making him to be a dynamic character which makes this book very interesting. Clean (past mining), No real meltdowns ever.
In the opening chapters, the story hadn’t picked up growth as much as I hoped. The main characters lived in a refugee camp and had considerably harsh living conditions. In my viewpoint, much of the beginning consisted of descriptions of the scenes and dialogue which were mostly irrelevant to the storyline, except for their origin story and the death of their mother. Though, when the journey from the camp to Kikima began, the story’s development accelerated, making me more engrossed in the book. Beyond that, I think Eric Walters did an excellent job not being repetitive with the description of the continual scene of the settings, the laborious walking and its toll on the two, since that would’ve driven my interest away.
One notable difference in the story is when Steve constantly took up for Bobo even though they barely knew each other and since Steve could have been the one having to face the charges of killing the cashier even though he didn’t do it. The one thing I would change in the storyline is how the judge barely tried to find out who really was the cause of the robbery and how it could have been prevented. My favorite quote from the book is: “We lie to ourselves here. Maybe we are here because we lie to ourselves”. Steve said this in the book once he started too crazy and started to question if he was the one that killed the cashier. I would rate this book a 5/5 stars. This book teaches teenagers and young adults the consequences of peer pressure and how it can affect you for
“Another source of greatness is difficulty. When any work seems to have required immense force and labour to effect it, the idea is grand” (Edmund Burke).We may not enjoy tremendous obstacles while we’re experiencing them, but when they’re over, we can definitely see the benefits. In Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, the protagonist, Cole, has had to face many obstacles in his life, such as his abusive father, his neglectful mother and his anger. Many people can relate to Cole because they, too, have had many obstacles in their life. Overcoming obstacles makes Cole more empathetic and emotionally stable. Empathy is important because it is what allows humans to be human. Being mentally
Although it may be true that Chris McCandles was stubborn, people should consider that he had family problems, he loved nature and he also had an adventurous spirit. I believe that the motives that led him to the wild were family problems and emotional damage as well as his love of nature and his adventurous spirit. In Chris’s journal it seemed like he had lived for 113 days in that “magic bus” but in his last days he had written that “death looms” and that he was “too weak to walk out”. There are many evidence that connect with family problems as well as his adventurous spirit. As I go on with this essay I will state my theory on why Chris was led into the wild as well as evidence that support my claim.
Clearly you saw the reason for Cole’s actions, being beat by his father and being ignored by both his parents. I still think Cole is responsible for his own actions because he could chose to be good and get attention, but he chose bad to get attention. But his parents definitely had at least a small part in the way Cole acts now, if they were more loving to him and actually knew how to discipline him the right way, like you're grounded for three weeks with no television or something instead of being him, maybe that would teach him a lesson. I mean I get that people are busy and they have work and everything, but you should always make time for your kids and your family. “‘Yes, Mr. Matthews, this is about responsibility. By the way, when is your son’s birthday?’ Cole’s father gulped a quick breath, and his face grew flushed. ‘Uh, well… birthdays have never been a very big thing around our house,’ he stammered. “I think it’s the beginning of July sometime.’” (pg. 52, Touching Spirit Bear) This just proves how badly Cole is treated at home. Obviously his dad drinks so much that he can’t remember the small, but important things. I’m pretty sure that every parent should at least know their kids birthday, even if they don’t love them 100%, which I find absolutely heart shattering. I also feel like destiny or fate had
One may assume that Cholly’s abandonment was a result of poverty brought about by a racist society. African American’s means of obtaining money to raise a child were much narrower than that of anyone in a white community. The absence of Cholly’s father also meant the absence of a role model. He had nobody to shown him how to be a good husband and father. Furthermore, the humiliation brought about by the white hunters took a toll on Cholly mentally.
Help and devotion are shown in many different varieties throughout communities. These good acts are documented often in literature. Such is the topic in Ben Mikaelsen’s novel Touching Spirit Bear. People step out of their lives to help others become a better individual. Edwin and Garvey take on the challenge of making Cole Mathews a better person. In Ben Mikaelsen’s Touching Spirit Bear, the help of others enables an individual to transform as illustrated through characterization, epiphanies, and symbols, which shows others that even at peoples worst times, help is all they need.
Touching Spirit Bear (Continued) Finally it was time to go home. Cole had dreamed of this day many times, that dreadful day that he would have to fit back in to the world. “I can’t wait till I get to see mom again” Cole said “But I am not looking forward to try to fit back in”
I am reading Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen. I have enjoyed reading the book so far. The book is about a boy named Cole whose parents have not treated him very well, so he makes poor decisions. One of the decisions he made was beating up a boy at school to the point where he was bleeding and helpless. This decision that he made caused him to either be tried as an adult at court, or to be part of the circle of justice program, which would require him to be by himslef on an island and he would have to fend for himself and this would hopefully get him to be in touch with his inner peace. When cole got to the island he was not positive about it at all. It stated “Cole felt his anger
Christopher McCandless was a hurt soul indeed. He used his knowledge of freedom and spirituality that he saw in author’s writings to take it out of context and explore the wilderness on his own. Seeking a way out of his unfortunate hardship in a dysfunctional family he set out to achieve living on his own within his own thoughts in the Alaskan wilderness. I believe that Chris McCandless was crazy, and he was somewhat unaware in the reality of his decisions. Chris was bright yet made bad decisions, he could make friends easily, but left impressions on them, and he didn’t know enough about living in the wild which would ultimately cause his death.
Mean Spirit Our story takes place in an oil-rich Native American town, called Watona, on a reservation in Oklahoma. The course of the story extends from 1918 to the mid-twenties. There are a multitude of characters that accompany this story. One of the most important characters is Nola Blanket, a young teenager who is a full-blooded Osage Indian. She is a very delicate girl, but still very strong.
In Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild, he documents the events that led up to the death of Chris McCandless. McCandless was a teenage boy who dealt with tremendous amounts of pressure from his parents to do well in school and keep family secrets — they apologized for it through buying him things that they thought he needed. However, Chris hated this and just wanted peace, and honesty at home. There was one place in which Chris could get this, and it is in nature — there was no chaos or dishonesty amongst his family. Before he would go to college, he would drive to unknown places on his own — cherishing the peace that he gets. And when he decides to go to Alaska, his journey leads him to
As the boys killed Simon, they had let out their savage urges and acted in a cannibalistic manner. Even after the death of Simon Jack and his tribe did not feel any penitence to what they had done, killing them had become second nature. The circle became a horseshoe. A thing crawling out of the forest. It came darkly, uncertainly.
Life is filled with lessons, and often times there are little reminders to keep those lessons in our minds for later use. Sometimes lessons learned in life are learned the hard way, like in Cole’s instance. One of the lessons Cole learned is in order to heal he must first right his wrongs; stop blaming those around him for his problems, and to forgive. To Cole, these were just cliché sayings repeated on and on by others around him who didn’t trust. He always brushed these words aside thinking he could do everything on his own and life only revolved around him. After being mauled by the Spirit Bear and having to survive on his own, he began to open his eyes for the first time. He began to grasp it was not anyone’s fault but his own he was stuck in his position. Cole finally started to recognize if he held on to his grudge against his father he would never be able to let go of his horrible past and start living again. Most importantly, Cole learned he could never live with himself if he did not help Peter Driscal. I think this life lesson Cole learned will forever be symbolized by the Spirit Bear. Without the bear, Cole would have never learned integrity and being trusted is real power, not the fake power of freighting people into doing what he says.