Irony In Hatchet

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Hatchet by Gary Paulson is a fiction novel about a thirteen-year-old boy named Brian that survives a plane crash after the pilot dies of a heart attack and Brian is forced to land the plane himself, and in doing so, lands in a lake around the setting of a Canadian forest. Throughout the duration of the novel, Brian is to survive this dangerous situation with nothing except for a literal hatchet that was gifted to him by his mother prior to getting on the plane to go visit his father in the Canadian North Woods as his parents are newly separated after a recent divorce. Gary Paulsen was inspired to write Hatchet from his own life and personal experiences as both of his parents gave him a hard time growing up through their rocky marriage and unstable parenting as well as the fact that he grew up in the country and had to provide for himself. Hatchet also received a 1988 Newbery Honor award for its excellency. The fiction book is a piece of his life and it’s struggles as he wrote it to convey the following opinions: positivity can get you far no matter what the situation at hand may be, man can …show more content…

Paulsen’s use of foreshadowing presents itself early in the novel as, moments before Brian’s plane crash, his captain teaches him how to control the plane, giving us the hint that Brian may possibly land it himself. The captain experiencing shoulder pain moments before having a heart attack and dying is also another form of foreshadowing used by Paulsen to show that something bad was about to take place. Irony is also used in the story as it is ironic that Brian receives a hatchet from his mom and then gets stranded in a Canadian forest with that specific hatchet as his only tool. There is also a part of the story where Brian comes across a survival kit much after the time where he may have needed it because he already figured out how to survive without a survival kit already.

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