Hatchet: A wooded Journey

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Recommended: Descriptive story about the woods

Hardships, Triumphs, and Failures in Paulsen’s Hatchet
Brian’s Adventure in the woods was full of many triumphs as well as failures. Though any triumph in the woods is a great one, many of Brains success’s meant life or death to him.
As soon as Brian crawls out of the water, one triumph is evident. He has survived the plane crash. He survived flying through the thousands of trees in the forest and landing in the lake. Another triumph that is not as evident at this time is that Brian still has the hatchet his mother gave him before he left for the trip to Canada. That Hatchet will soon become a staple in his survival, and an essential tool to Brian. (Fisher n.p.)
As Brian learns to survive, he discovers how to build a proper shelter, but does not yet understand how to create fire or to capture the food he desperately needs to survive. This knowledge is given to him after his run in with the porcupine, where Brian throws his hatchet at the wall of his shelter in an attempt to scare the animal away. Seeing sparks fly away from the wall where his hatchet struck, Brian has the idea that he can use the spark to his advantage. The next day he is able to create his first fire, and he continues to use that knowledge throughout the rest of the book.
Brian’s next big achievement was the night after he built his first fire.(Paulsen) It was morning, and as Brian left his shelter he discovered a small pile in the sand. Buried underneath the sand were seventeen soft white eggs, shaped like ping pong balls. These were brains first source of actual food since he had gotten on the plane in the beginning of the book.(Paulsen) They were his first meal, his first protein. They were also a symbol of hope, after deciding to only eat one every day, ...

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...ildren's Literature Review. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. ClassNet. PDF.
Bressler, Jean. "Have Hatchet Will Survive." The ALAN Review 18.3 (Spring 1991): 16-18. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 82. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Salvner, Gary M. "Songs of the Earth: Paulsen's Survival Stories." Presenting Gary Paulsen. Ed. Patricia J. Campbell. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996. 39-65. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 82. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Wilson, Evie. "Review of Hatchet.." Voice of Youth Advocates 10.6 (Feb. 1988): 283. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 82. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

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