Hatchet Essay, Research Paper

Book Report

The book I am reading is called Hatchet. It is about Brian Robeson, whose parents are divorced. It starts off that he is flying to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness. His parents are divorced because his mom is seeing another man, and Brian?s father doesn?t know. He refers to this as the secret. This flight to see his father in the Canadian wilderness is Brian’s first time in an airplane. He explains this to the pilot and tells him that he is scared. The pilot feels sorry for Brian and decides to show him that flying is not very difficult. He lets Brian take the steering control and direct the line of flight for awhile. Just when Brian thinks that everything is going well, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian knows he must land the plane himself or die. He tries to use the radio, but it does not work. He knows that if he hits the trees, he will die, so he decides to land in the water of a lake. When the plane hits the water, he flys out through a window. He swims to the bank of the lake for awhile to rest. Brian knows he needs food and shelter to survive so he sets out to find both. He was very careful not to get lost or go too far from the lake where he crashed. He found a cherry tree and because he was very 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, he saw a bear in the cave. He was terrified, because the bear was only about 20 feet away eating his cherries out of his windbreaker. The bear only looked at Brian and then left. The cherries must have been enough to curb his appetite! 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 wild animals, and to signal for help. He discovered it by mistake when a porcupine wandered into his cave. It was dark in the cave and he heard something moving. He knew it was alive, but not what it was. He kicked it. It was then, when the quills shot into his foot that he knew it was a porcupine. He was in pain, and knew he could not touch it. He threw his hatchet, and when it hit the rock of the cave instead of the porcupine, it made a spark. He knew how to make the spark, now all he had to do was find what to light on fire. But first he knew he needed some type of food other those cherries to survive, so he decided to catch fish. First he tried to catch them with his hands, but he soon knew he needed a better plan. He made a primitive bow and arrow. He was very proud of himself when he was able to use it to catch fish, or shoot a bird. He then went back to building the fire. He gathered some birch bark, and tore up a 20-dollar bill he had and shot the sparks at the pile of paper, and it ignited. He would cook his fish over his fire until they crackled. He was becoming better all the time at survival. Then there was one very bad day. He was down in the lake catching fish when a moose hit him. It pushed him into the mud on the bottom of the lake and it also bruised his ribs. Also that night a tornado went through the area. It threw all of his stuff all over his camp and it hurt his ribs some more. But the tornado turned out to be a revelation. He would rebuild his camp and go back to normal, so the tornado damage was taken care of. But it did move the plane so that the tail was now sticking out of the water. It was then that Brian remembered that the plane contained a survival pack. He decided to try to get it. It 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 he was able to retrieve it. He then swam in through the hole and pulled the pack out. When he finally got back on dry land, he found that the pack contained food, a knife, a rifle, and some sort of radio. He tried to use the radio, but he did not think it was working. He found out that he was wrong when a rescue plane showed up. It turns out it was an emergency transmitter! He goes back to living his normal life, but he did lose 16% of his body weight. He never does tell his dad about the secret, but he comes close to.

Terms

1. This book is written in third person central.

2. I think what the author is trying to get across to the reader is a very important point. It is that if you remain focused and calm, you can accomplish just about anything. If Brian would of been reckless and rushed things, he probably wouldn?t of survived.

3. The conflict of this story is person vs. nature. It is this because Brian is struggling to survive in the wilderness, by himself. He battles weather, and animals.

4. The setting is in the Canadian wilderness. The time is the present.

5. The peak of excitement is when Brian opens the survival kit, and turns on the emergency transmitter. Within minutes a plane picks up his signal and rescues him.

6. I can?t relate to this story by surviving alone outside, but I can relate to it by the way he was calm and wasn?t reckless. I once had a paper due and I couldn?t get the paper to print. Instead of physically trying to pull it out of the printer, I thought it through and asked my brother who know more about our printer than I do. He fixed it for me. Instead of Brian getting mad and throwing stuff away, he saved everything and remained calm.