Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis

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The main character in the book Touching Spirit Bear, written by Ben Mikaelsen, is a kid named Cole Matthews that is in a lot of trouble. He had committed a lot of crimes, but when he violently attacks a kid who told on him for a crime, Peter Driscal, that draws the line. He’s only fifteen, but was going to adult court until he heard about circle justice. He is sentenced to an island in solitary and plans on escaping. He ends up not escaping but gets attacked by a Spirit Bear which will change him forever. The setting at the school shows Cole’s madness, his first time to the island and the detention center shows anger, and his second time to the island shows his change. Cole’s actions at the school show’s Cole’s madness. For example, “He laughed …show more content…

One example is,”He tipped over his metal-framed bed and started hitting the wall harder and harder. Soon blood from his scraped knuckles smeared the concrete” (22). Cole is getting so angry now, just because he got his TV taken away, he just goes off on a temper tantrum and starts to harm himself. This shows how angry he really is because just the little things make him mad and making him do things that he doesn’t think before doing. Another example is, “Rage controlled his tight grip on the match...Rage controlled Cole’s hand as he drew back, paused for a split second, and then flipped the lighted match inside the shelter” (24-25). Cole has now lite the shelter on fire which is going to cause problems later on because he has no protection from anything and np supplies. This quotes shows how angry he is him just thinking about bad memories ignites all these bad feelings inside of him which gets in so mad. The last example is,”A lifetime of hurt, a lifetime of proving himself, a lifetime of anger controlled his muscles now. Again he inched forward” (64). Cole isn’t really thinking right now, he’s just acting upon his anger. He is just thinking about how the bear is afraid of him and no one had ever been afraid of him so it makes him angry that they're not. The Spirit Bear does end up attacking Cole and leaves him mentally and physically damaged. This may seem like there is no hope for Cole but everything is about to

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