The Hatchet Essay

The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a fictional survival story that shows how a vast amount of positivity and a drive to live can help someone make it out alive. This is a story of a young teenage boy who is on his way to visit his father when unexpectedly the plane’s engine fails and the pilot has a heart attack while in mid -flight. Brian Robeson must fight his way through the pain and stress the Canadian wilderness brings to him. While using his knowledge of the woods and animals, as well as, his determination and most importantly his will to live, he finds strength in his hatchet because, it gives motivation and inspiration.
Brian finds himself in the Canadian wilderness during the late 1900’s. Brian is a young high school kid with a great

understanding about the world around him, but like everyone else he can make some mistakes too. He is a well-round character because he is frustrated, hungry, useful, hardworking person because he wants to survive and be back with his family and live the rest of his life. Brian experiences many changes throughout the book, one being that he went from being weak and easy to beat to strong and determined, therefore he is a dynamic character. He will learn that there will always be a solution to the problem at hand. For instance, he will come across many mosquitoes and he will discover that smoke from the fire will cause them to disappear. To summarize, Brian will face many threats and obstacles, such as the weather, climate, bugs, animals, and a massive amount of pain caused by theses dangers.

Brian is on his way to meet his father in upstate New York, when the pilot has a sudden heart attack.

He knows he must land the plane, so he decides that he will let the plane run out of fuel and hope he makes it to the destination. The thing Brain didn’t know was what direction the pilot was traveling. Eventually the plane crashed and just as he had planned, he aimed and landed in the lake. Brian was in so much pain from injuries sustained during the crash that he couldn’t even move. Finally, when he had the strength to walk and the motivation from his English teacher, Perpich, to explore he knew he had to find food and get some sort of shelter for the night. First he assembled his gear, mostly clothes, and a hatchet his mother gave him. Next he looks around for some kind of natural structure he can use for housing, he finds a rock ledge just off the beach so he can stay with a water source. Finally he searches for food, he walks down the shore line and gathers some berries in deep brush, then makes it home just before night fall. The next morning he went to get more berries when he encounters a huge black bear. The bear acts as if Brian wasn’t even there, and surprisingly walks away. As if a bear meeting isn’t enough, he meets a porcupine that night and he is struck in the leg. He now notices that he needs a fire to keep away unwanted guests, as well as a source of heat and a way to cook meat, so that night he successfully creates a fire. One night a tornado comes

through and destroys everything Brian has created to survive. He must overcome both his internal and external conflicts by keeping a positive attitude and staying focused on his goal of survival. When it seems as if nothing could get worse the tornado that he thought caused him harm, proved to be helpful as well. The storm lowered the water pressure in the lake, which allowed Brian to return to the plane to retrieve the transmitter. Now he will be able to signal for help and make it out alive.
The theme of Hatchet was to never give up and realize that tomorrow is a new day. I know this was the theme because Brian, even in hard times and bad days, was able to push through any obstacle the wilderness threw at him. Brian made mistakes at first but learned from them and achieved his mission, for example he took many tries to conquer his goal of making a fire. ‘’Then he tried a combination of the two, grass and twigs.’’ Brian realized he needed some short of fuel which was oxygen. ‘’He made the nest ready again, held the hatchet backward, tensed, and struck four quick blows.’’ He created sparks and then....’’Fire!” One of the main symbols from the story was the hatchet. It provided him with fire, tools, wood, and most importantly inspiration.
I liked the book Hatchet because I enjoyed the adventurous character Brian who played the main role as a young teenage boy with great determination and hardworking abilities.

Absolutely, I would recommend this book to anyone with a taste for a heartwarming story, because it showed great value for life and motivation for the reader. My favorite part of the book was when Brian made a fish trap to store and gather fish but also keep them alive, I liked this part because it was very creative and a smart way to get food. My least favorite part about the book was when Brian went out and swam down into the plane to recover the survival pack, I didn’t like this part because, I personally wouldn’t go down that deep into the lake and knowing that there was a dead pilot in the cockpit. Overall, Hatchet was an exciting book about a boy with unbelievable talent and working capabilities, who showed how to survive the wilderness and outweigh the problems the woods gave

him.