Analysis of Hatchet Novel: Story About 13 Years Old Boy Who Survived Plane Crash And Spend 52 Days In The Wilderness

The book Hatchet, is about a typical 13 year old boy, whose parents are divorced. He tries to cope with his parents divorce but it is hard for him. He is not happy about his mother's new boyfriend either. Brian is very excited to go and visit his father in the Canadian wilderness. But the only problem is, he has to fly there. He is scared of flying, but he goes anyway.

Brian's mother drove him to the airport. In the car, she gave him a hatchet and told him to put it in his belt buckle.

While on the plane, Brian is scared at first but then realizes flying is really not all that bad. As Brian is watching out the windows, the pilot asks him if he wants to steer the plane. Brian says yes and finds out it is easy. Before Brian knew it, his pilot was having a heart attack. He steered the plane so that it wouldn't wreck.

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But then he noticed that the plane was low on fuel. Every ten minutes, he tried to get ahold of somebody on the radio. But he didn't get an answer. After 17 tries, the fuel was gone. The plane started going down. Luckily there was a lake. close by. The plane crashed into the lake and Brian hit his head off of the inside of the plane. He somehow managed to escape from the plane.

He trudged out of the water and threw himself on the bank. Brian fell asleep for a couple of hours.

He woke up to mosquitos all around him. Brian thought to himself that he must find food and shelter in order to survive. He was very careful not to get lost or go too far from the lake where his water was. He found a cherry bush and because he was hungry, he ate his fill. He filled his windbreaker with cherries to eat later and then managed to find a cave for shelter. He slept very well, but in the morning when he awoke, there was a bear about 20 feet away from the cave, eating the cherries out of his windbreaker. The bear only looked at Brian then left.

The discovery of how to make a fire was very important to Brian's survival. He needed to have one at the mouth of the cave to protect him from the wild animals, and to signal for help. He discovered how to make a fire by mistake. That night, a porcupine wandered into his cave. He heard something but he did not know what it was, due to the darkness. He kicked it and as soon as he did that, there was a shrp pain sent through his foot. At that point, he knew it was a porcupine. He threw his hatchet, and when it hit the rock of the cave instead of the porcupine, it made a spark. Now, he knew how to make the spark. All he needed was to find the fuel. Brian gathered a bunch of wood. After many tries, he started a fire.

That next day, Brian knew he needed to find meat in order to survive. So Brian decided to catch a fish. First, he tried to catch them with his hands, but soon he knew he needed a better plan. He made a bow and arrow. He succeeded in catching fish and shooting birds. He scoured them and cooked them over the fire. This is what he ate everyday, for many days. He was becoming better all the time at survival.

One day, a tornado went through the area. The tornado turned out to be a revelation. It moved the plane so that the tail was now sticking out of the water. It aws then Brian remembered that the plane contained a survival pack. So he made a raft to get to the plane. The survival pack was very difficult to get to, and it took a long time. He almost lost his hatchet while trying to cut a hole in the plane, but was able to retrieve it. When he finally got back on dry land, he found that the pack contained food, a knife, a rifle, and a C.B. radio. He tried to use the radio, but he did not think it was wrking. He found out that he was wrong when the rescue plane showed up.

Brian was so happy to see the rescue plane. He returned back to his mom's house. Brian was informed that he was in the wilderness for 52 days. He did not know how he did it. He did know that he matured very much so in those 52 days and he was very proud of himself.

Works cited

1. Paulsen, G. (1987). Hatchet. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
2. Eby, L. T. (2010). Hatchet: A unit plan. Teacher's Pet Publications.
3. Anderson, M. K. (1992). Literature circles: Hatchet. Walch Publishing.
4. Hoffer, T. R. (1991). "You're the pilot": Hatchet and the reading/writing connection. English Journal, 80(6), 82-87.
5. Paulsen, G. (1999). Brian's winter. Random House Children's Books.
6. Paulsen, G. (2003). The river. Random House Children's Books.
7. Yelland, N. (2004). Imagining ourselves: Young women's resistance to Hatchet. Gender and Education, 16(2), 201-214.
8. DeLisle, J. R., & Michaelson, C. A. (2007). Survival in the wild: Teaching Hatchet. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(6), 486-495.
9. Paulsen, G. (2007). Brian's hunt. Random House Children's Books.
10. Jekyll, R. A. (2008). Booktalking authentic literature: A planning guide. ABC-CLIO.