Research Paper On Hatchet

Hatchet Essay

Hatchet, the enthralling novel by Garry Paulsen is a realistic and gripping tale of survival. Brian Robeson, 13 years old boards an ill-fated Cessna 406 bush plane. Brian is headed from his mother’s town of Hampton New York, to the Canadian oil fields where his father lives. Mid-flight, disaster strikes, the pilot suffering a substantial heart attack, leaving Brian alone, and stranded thousands of feet above the ground. Brian attempts to land the plane, and crashes it into a lake. Stranded in the wilderness with nothing more than a hatchet, he learns how to survive the hard way. Whilst in the wilderness Brian gains many skills, such as fire making and foraging. Brian learns common sense, and a respect for the items he has, because in the wilderness, there are no second chances. The hatchet becomes his closet companion, his sole friend, who never leaves his side. The hatchet is all he has to complete day to day tasks, such as cooking food. During this time,

It wasn't just that it was wrong to do or that it was considered incorrect. It was more than that - it didn't work." (Page 64) I believe that without Brian learning this skill, he would have died. It wouldn’t have been instantaneous, but Brian would have dug himself a metaphorical hole, and wouldn’t have been able to climb out of it. If he moped around, miserable about his situation, he wouldn’t have been able to expand his thinking and survive. He wouldn’t have remembered that water refracts, but he would have sulked that he couldn’t catch anything. With-out self-pity, Brian was able to clear the fog in his mind, and see what he was missing. It was the same with the fool-birds, the raft, the moose, and the tornado. If Brian had kept on with his self-pity attitude, he would have died, by lack of food, lack of fun, (Depression) and being so caught up in his self-pity party, that he would have missed the