Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis

411 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on indigenous culture

Poisonous flowers
Devils club are everywhere
Small spikes infects hands
All along the island there are poisonous plants called Devil’s Club plants. Edwin tells Cole this when first arrive to the island. “’Don’t grab it or hundreds of tiny thistles will infect your hands and make them swell up like sausages’” (Mikaelsen 17). This plant is located in the northeastern part of North America. Cole hated nature in the beginning of the novel. He thought only about everything negative about the wilderness. Devil’s club are all over the wilderness in Alaska. The Tlingit Indian tribe (Garvey and Edwin’s tribe) have been looking for ways to kill the plant and make it vanish for good. In the beginning of the book, Cole is an extremely angry character that blames the world for his ideal own actions.
Nature is pleasant
Beautiful grasses and trees
Every place is nice
Cole has changed surprisingly in Touching Spirit Bear from the beginning to the end. Cole has healed from being picked on at school, getting beaten by his dad, and by getting mauled by the Spirit Bear. Cole has also forgave Peter for ratting on him, his dad for beating him, the Spirit Bear for mauling him, and his parents for not bailing him out of the …show more content…

He used to think that everything in life sucked and that none of it was his fault. He never took the blame for anything, which made him an irresponsible human being. Cole was going to go to jail, but his parole officer, Garvey, thought that the Native American circle justice would be more affective. Instead of being punished in bars, Cole was banished to an Alaskan island for a whole entire year by himself. Garvey thought Cole shall be healed and not penalized. Cole got mauled by a Spirit Bear because Cole was going to attack it. Cole saw the bear again and touched the animal, and felt trust. No one had ever trusted Cole before, so this was the first time. From then on, Cole looked at the world

Show More
Related

  • Touching Spirit Bear Final Paper

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before Cole went to the island he had lots of anger. He went to 12 detention centers and he hated everyone. He denied having anger issues and beat up Peter and blamed others. He then went into circle justice just to avoid jail. He didn't want to heal at first and change his ways. When he was at the island he tried to escape by swimming away. He failed at swimming away and stayed on ...

    Read More

  • Dylan Barstow

    358 Words  | 1 Pages

    Dylan has not been the same ever since . With all Dylan has been through, he takes his anger out in different ways like stealing and being di srespectful to his mom . He’s seen as a loner in school and keeps to himself.

    Read More

  • Overcoming Obstacles In Touching Spirit Bear

    354 Words  | 1 Pages

    “Another source of greatness is difficulty. When any work seems to have required immense force and labour to effect it, the idea is grand” (Edmund Burke).We may not enjoy tremendous obstacles while we’re experiencing them, but when they’re over, we can definitely see the benefits. In Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, the protagonist, Cole, has had to face many obstacles in his life, such as his abusive father, his neglectful mother and his anger. Many people can relate to Cole because they, too, have had many obstacles in their life. Overcoming obstacles makes Cole more empathetic and emotionally stable. Empathy is important because it is what allows humans to be human. Being mentally

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Touching Spirit Bear

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Yes, he is responsible for his actions. Everyone has a conscience that acts as a so called ‘voice’ that leads them to do right things or wrong things, but in my opinion, your conscience is just you deciding whether or not to do something on your own. Cole didn’t have to steal from stores, and he didn’t have to beat Peter up. He didn’t have to do any of it and now his actions are his responsibility. “The kid, Peter Driscal, was a ninth grader Cole had picked on many times before just for the fun of it. Still, no one ratted on Cole Matthews without paying the price. That day, he caught up to Peter in the hallway at school. ‘You’re a dead man,’ he warned the skinny red-haired boy, giving him a hard shove. He laughed when he saw the fear in Peter’s eyes.” (pg. 7, Touching Spirit Bear) Cole didn’t have to do that, but he did anyway. If Cole only knew how to take responsibility for his actions or not even do them at all, life would be great for the characters in the story. But, if you were wondering, obviously if someone like Cole beat other kids up, their had to be someone or something making him behave like this. Like maybe someone was picking on him? Clearly we know it is not someone at his school, “He hated being called Champ. And he hated being touched. Nobody ever touched him except to hit him.

    Read More

  • Book Report On The Other Wes Moore

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    The path of Wes, the felon, was a life filled with drugs, anger, and reckless choices. His mother and brother were the major influences in his life. During his youth he watched his brother, Tony, deal drugs, get shot and control a section of the neighborhood. His brother being the major male influence in his life, Wes idolized him. Meanwhile Wes was struggling with school, and in an attempt to give him a better chance his mother moved them to a different neighborhood.

    Read More

  • Chris Mccandless And The Journey Of Chris Mccandless

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    A young man, in his twenties, sets off into the wild completely disregarding his family and his past life and takes on a whole new personality. This perfectly explains Chris McCandless and the journey that he initially set out on. He was a young man seeking self-acceptance and peace, and he looked for it in all of the different places that he visited. Visiting these places made Chis more and more hungry for a challenge. He planned on leaving the comfort of a home and setting out into the Alaskan wilderness, where he would eventually die. Many wonder what lead McCandless to his death and there are many different theories. Chris McCandless was motivated by guilt to go to Alaska, and although he died of starvation, his father’s abusive nature

    Read More

  • The Social and Historical Context of Judith Guest‘s Ordinary People

    1744 Words  | 4 Pages

    Calvin and his son have two sons their oldest Buck is extremely popular at school and their youngest Conrad who looks upon his brother. The family seems financially privileged but becomes dysfunctional when buck dies in a boating accident. Buck and Conrad were boating when Buck died and Conrad cannot stop blaming himself. He is so emotionally distraught that he attempts to kill himself. After being in the hospital for a month he is physically cured but he is still emotionally distraught and cannot stop blaming himself.

    Read More

  • John Grady Cole: A Cowboy's Struggle for Survival

    1507 Words  | 4 Pages

    Through this romantic lifestyle, Cole will face many infractions that he will have to face that are relatable to Greek tragedies. According to Rees from English Literature notes and guides Greek tragedies are usually known for men’s small insignificance in the face of a strong power that controls and mostly destroys the human life. For Cole, the divine power he faces is nothing more than the power the corrupt law in a foreign country he knows hardly anything about and what comes with the foreign society.John discovers that preconceived notions about men and human society are false, and he finds that they do not live the in a romantic world as he does and as he supposed they did. Until John finally realized that he was susceptible to getting hurt because he was not yet ready for the real world, but only ready for the one he had a preconceived thought

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jon Krakauer's Book 'Into The Wild'

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    All he knew was that he wanted to escape society and discover the life extended from it. Along the way, he discovered what he was truly seeking when he made his decision to leave everything behind and enter the wild. “McCandless was thrilled to be on his way north, and he was relieved as well---relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it. He had fled the claustrophobic confines of his family. He’d successfully kept Jan Burres and Wayne Westerberg at arm’s length, flitting out of their lives before anything was expected of him. And now he’d slipped painlessly out of Ron Franz’s life as well.” - Into the Wild, 142-143 (Jon Krakauer, 1996). McCandless found people he never thought he find along his journey. He escaped his life because of all the suffocation he knew his parents would soon put him through after his graduation from college, but he then realized along his journey the appreciation he had for a loving family that cared about him. Everything that he was trying to escape from by leaving, came into view that they were the things he was searching for from the

    Read More

  • Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear

    340 Words  | 1 Pages

    I read the book Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen. It is about a teenager who’s name is Cole. He has been sent to drug counseling and anger therapy multiple occasions. He got in trouble so many times by his Parole Officer. “Dont screw up. This is your last chance” (Ben, 6) But Cole new that if he had one last chance he can always get another. But not this time, at school, he beat up a kid named Peter Driscal. His Parole Officer was part of the Circle Justice, which is a native American group of justice. He saw was Cole had done and told him he would give him a good deal. That deal was that he would send him to a remote island in Alaska for a year.

    Read More

  • In The Woods Character Analysis Essay

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Irish detective novel In the Woods by Tana French, we confront the dilemma of discerning the good from the bad almost immediately after cracking open the covers—the narrator and main character, Robert Ryan, openly admits that he “…crave[s] truth. And [he] lie[s].” (French 4) But there is more to this discernment than the mere acceptance that our narrator embellishes the occasional truth; we must be ever vigilant for clues that hint at the verisimilitude of what the narrator is saying, and we must also consider its relation to Robert’s difference from the anticlimactic (essentially, falsehood) and the irrevocable (that which is unshakeable truth). That is, the fact that in distinguishing the good from the bad, we are forced to mentally

    Read More

  • Turning Point For Lord Of The Flies Essay

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    The death of Simon lead to many unfortunate events for Ralph, Piggy’s death, being smoked out of the jungle and losing all faith in himself and nearly giving himself up allowing Jack and his group to tear and rip him apart. His death turned the novel around as savagery had claimed its first victim which empowered Jack and his tribe it made them hungry for more blood. However the naval officer showed up and saved the fundamentally good guy Ralph.

    Read More

  • The Character of Simon in William Golding's Lord of the Flies

    425 Words  | 1 Pages

    Towards the middle of Simon's stay on the island, he started to realize that he truly was different from the others. Every time he tried to talk to the other children, his 'effort fell about him in ruins; the laughter beat him cruelly and he shrank away defenseless to his seat.';(89) Just when he thought he had been accepted he embarrassed himself again, 'When he bashed into a tree Ralph looked sideways impatiently and Robert sniggered.';(104) They were getting restless with his behavior.

    Read More

  • Essay On Winnie The Pooh

    524 Words  | 2 Pages

    When you think of the woods and forest what do you think of? Mostly bears and other scary creatures roaming around, looking for something to feed on. That’s not how things are in the 100 acre woods. Yes, there is a bear but he is a friendly bear. His name is Winnie the Pooh and his best friend is a young boy named Christopher Robin. Pooh and Christopher have other friends in these woods that are all friendly as well, such as: Piglet, Rabbit, Eyeor, Owl, Kanga, and Roo. Automatically we portray the woods as a scary place but in Winnie the Pooh the 100 acre woods are a friendly and sweet place to live. Christopher has become friends with everyone in the 100 acre woods and can be free to express him self. He has had many adventures with everyone

    Read More

  • Bear Grylls Characteristics

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bear Grylls can be considered as a hero due to the heroic properties that he shows throughout his life and in the media. Bear Grylls explores the world and shows his heroic inspirational traits. He is a very inspiration person that encourages people of the world to stand up and don’t give up without a fight. Bear Grylls has perseverance like no other being. Bear Grylls must have perseverance, or he will not be able to achieve what it is that he wants in the end that he truly wished to complete. Bear also needs self-control as a characteristic because in order for him to achieve something he must control himself and do things at his own pace or it could be dangerous for Bear. Commitment is also a very important trait for Bear because if he did not commit to anything that he wanted to do, like climbing the Everest, or joining the 21 SAS Squad, he would not have been able to join without any commitment. Because of these three reasons, Bear Grylls can be qualified or considered as a hero to others because he has the three traits that a hero requires. Perseverance, self-control and commitment.

    Read More

More about Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis

Open Document