Essay On Hatchet By Gary Paulsen

The book I chose for my book review was Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. The genre of this book is Realistic Fiction and is 195 pages. In Hatchet, Brian is on a bush plane visiting his father in Canada. The pilot suddenly had a severe heart attack, and unexpectedly died. Brian lands the plane in the deserted northern woods of Canada and has to learn how to survive in the wilderness. This book review includes my opinion and the summary about Hatchet.

First, Hatchet takes place in the vast Canadian wilderness and is told in third person, because the narrator talks about what Brian is thinking and saying. The protagonist is Brian, since he is the only main character in the book and the event that pushes the story forward is the divorce of Brian’s parents.

His mother brings him to a special airport, where he would depart from and arrive in the Canadian oil fields, where his father lived and worked. Before his departure, Brian received a hatchet from his mother as a gift and she told him to put it on his belt. During the flight, the pilot shows Brian how to control the plane, and the pilot suddenly encountered a massive heart attack and died. Brian used the information the pilot taught him to control and land the plane. He landed the plane in the wilderness and used his hatchet and other natural resources around him to live. After all, Hatchet included numerous cliffhangers and resulted in an unanticipated ending.

Second, I enjoyed Hatchet because there was a lot of detail provided, and was written in a very realistic way.

One sentence that includes plenty of information is about Brian trying to create a fire with rocks and other items around him. “Then back to work, the sun on his back, until at last he had a ball of fluff as big as a grapefruit-dry birchbark fluff.” I can visualize how this birchbark fluff looked like and the pain he went through to retrieve it. Another example of a sentence with a sufficient amount of detail is about a bear Brian saw when he was picking some berries to eat. “Shining black and silky the bear stood on its hind legs, half up, and studied Brian, just studied him, then lowered itself and moved slowly to the left, eating berries as it rolled along, wuffling and delicately using its mouth to lift each berry from the stem, and in seconds, it was gone.” By this sentence’s description, I can visualize how this bear looked like and the way it was eating the juicy berry from the bush. Thus, Hatchet provides a large amount of detail and intrigued

me.

Next, the main character, Brian Robeson, is a thirteen-year-old boy from New York City and is an only child.

He had to adapt from a normal teenager to a boy living in a Canadian wilderness. I am around the same age as Brian, but our lives are completely different. We are both very persistent in all the things we do. Brian is an important character in Hatchet because when he arrived in the forest, he used the hatchet his mother gave him and other resources around him to survive in a new environment. “I might be hit but I'm not done. I still have the hatchet and that's all I had in the first place." This quote shows Brian’s perseverance to survive. Lastly, Brian is a courageous boy who always strives to do his

best,

In conclusion, I loved Hatchet. Brian, the main character, lands in a vast Canadian wilderness. He uses the hatchet, a gift from his mother and resources in the forest to live. He went through many ups and downs, but never gave up. I think this book is perfect for all ages especially eleven and up because there are some difficult vocabulary words. Hatchet is great for a reader who enjoys adventure and survival books. All in all, this was an incredible book, engaged me, and encouraged me to never give up, even in difficult circumstances.