Jungle Of Bones Analysis

Imagine a teenage boy who is isolated on a faraway island, without food or water. The hot and sticky weather is intolerable, but the rampaging storms are worse. He quickly develops malaria and diarrhea, and on top of that, blood-sucking insects and menacing reptiles lurch beneath his feet. He has no idea what is coming, but he needs to survive. This is the story of a young boy who has to travel to the other side of the world to realize that everything can’t go his way.
“Jungle of Bones”, written by Ben Mikaelson, is about the journey of an 8th grader, Dylan Barstow. Dylan is an agitated and distraught child, for the death of his father, a war correspondent in Sudan, disturbed him deeply. He developed hatred for the world and everything in it. Dylan releases his anger in a variety of ways, from stealing candy bars to going on joyrides; in addition, he is cruel to his mother and lives a lonesome life. Instead of sending the teenager to juvenile detention, Dylan’s mother decides to ship him off to his Uncle Todd, an ex-Marine, for the summer. Living with an old man who talks and acts like he is still in the military didn’t seem difficult for Dylan. But he soon realized that Uncle Todd plans an expedition to Papa New Guinea in search of the B-17 bomber that Dylan’s grandfather crashed

in a jungle during World War II, and he decides to take Dylan with him. As expected, Dylan doesn’t take the trip seriously: he refuses to take his malaria pills, he doesn’t pack properly, and he doesn’t listen to any of the advice that his uncle gives him. Consequently, disaster hits when Dylan lands in Papa New Guinea.
Dylan experiences a series of unfortunate events. During a terrible storm, he gets separated from his team. As Dylan comes across swamps, snakes, crocodiles, malaria, diarrhea, dehydration, starvation, and loneliness, he realizes that if he’s to survive, he needs to let go of his anger. Like Gary Paulsen, Ben Mikaelson has a talent for composing descriptive, detailed, and vivid stories, making the book seem realistic.
The descriptions that Ben Mikaelson provides makes the reader become enveloped in the book.

His impeccable details about the jungle vividly portray the setting, as shown in the following quote: “Dylan slogged through the swamp towards the trees… and then deliberately headed for a root-tangled path entering the jungle. Soon, the thick, matted screen of overhead vines and leaves muted any fading light that made it through the clouds.” (Page #1) With a single sentence, an entire environment is introduced to the reader. The reader can easily visualize the mangled roots of a narrow pathway and the murkiness of the jungle. Mikaelson did an astounding job in depicting the

wilderness.