In the novel “Hatchet”, by Gary Paulsen, Brian Robeson is stranded on an island. When you first think of being stranded on an island, you most likely think if you will have enough food to eat. Well, this is one of Brian’s many problems. IN these first couple chapters, he has been trying to eat or drink anything he can find. He has drank in-purified water to turtle eggs. So, Brian is starving, but some of the things he has eaten may cause him to be more things than, just hungry. First off, the average human cannot go three days without water. For, Brian has not been drinking a lot water.However, when he did drink it was lake water. The water from the lake that he crashed the plane, where the pilot's dead body is, different plants and animals live there, and where many germs can be found. Drinking this dirty water is a cause of why he threw up. On the other hand, now that he can build a fire, he can boil the water. It is good to boil the water, because when you boil the water, it kills all the germs or things that you would not want to drink. …show more content…
Also, the average human cannot eat for three weeks, lucky for Brian he has only been in the wild for about three to four days. Although, he maybe be starving he has eaten many foods that are unhealthy for humans or can harm a human’s body. For example he ate gut cherries, which are also known as choke cherries. These cherries are wild and caused him to have aches and pains in his gut. Along with eating the cherries, he later ater turtle eggs. IN America it is illegal to eat turtle eggs, for Brian is in Canada. Eating raw eggs can be a lead to illnesses, but Brain did not feel sick after eating them. Brian could have gotten a rock and friend it of the fire to at least get to be not as liquidy. Lastly, this does not have to do with Brian’s eating, but he could have gotten one of many diseases from all of his mosquito
Brian quickly made a fire using small pieces of bark that caught fire really fast. He now had warmth and a shelter, the only he needed was a steady food supply.
When the pilot found him, the old Brian would have not been very patient to get on the plane and go home, but now he is kind and patient, because I think he realizes that the pilot has probably just saved his life, and he really owes the pilot. In chapter 19, the text says “He looked at the pilot and the plane, and down at himself - dirty and ragged, burned and lean and tough - and he coughed to clear his throat. ‘My name is Brian Robeson,’ he said. Then he saw that his stew was done, the peach whip almost done, and he waved to it with his hand. ‘Would you like something to eat?’” This quote really shows that he has grown as a person and has gained kindness and patience. Before this experience, he would’ve not said anything and just got on the plane and whined to go home. Now, he is inviting him to eat, showing that he is waiting, so he is more patient, and by offering the pilot something it shows that he is
Most people know that sometimes, terrifying events happen. Planes crash, cars wreck, people die. But most people don’t expect something like that to happen to them. The last thing on someone’s mind is their plane crashing, and them being stranded, alone, in the wilderness, with no idea of where they are. This is exactly what happened to Brian Robeson in Gary Paulsen's novel Hatchet, when the pilot of the plane Brian was riding had a heart attack. The only thing Brian had to protect himself and to stay alive was a hatchet. Even though Brian is only thirteen years old, he managed to survive, and after fifty four days in the wilderness, he is rescued. Based on my characteristics and knowledge of different things that helped Brian survive, I believe I would, unfortunately, not
Every day thousands of people die and their families have to deal with the loss and depression that comes with this.I have personally gone through this experience and had to deal with the grief. When someone goes through a loss they usually go through five stages (D.A.B.D.A) : Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. In Hatchet Gary Paulsen uses survival and Character development to Show the reader how going through a major loss with no help puts emotional and physical struggles on you.
The Hatchet is about Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old boy from New York City who was on a plane to visit his dad in Canada when the pilot suddenly had a heart attack and died. For the last few minutes before the disaster, Brian was in complete control of the plane. He survived by using a hatchet his mother gave him in the past. He was rescued after 54 days when he found a transmitter and flipped the switch.
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself: am I really eating healthy? Recently, I’ve come to the realization of what I’m eating on a daily basis isn’t entirely healthy for me. Michael Pollan, who is author of the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has opened my mind. While reading the first couple of chapters of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve realized that I don’t know much about the food that I am eating. For example, I didn’t know that farmers not only feed their animals, corn but they also feed them antibiotics (Walsh 34). In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan makes a strange statement, “You are what what you eat eats, too” (Pollan 84). Pollan continuously emphasizes this remark through various examples, and he’s right because strangely enough the food
...ach problems after eating and dizziness as well. If he was attempting to kill himself, why would he then complain about his sickness? He was a smart enough man to know that they would be happening.
Brian had “broken into a neighbor's house and [tried to] steal a gallon jar of pickles”(68) but the neighbor had caught him and made him eat the whole jar as a punishment. To get an everyday necessity like food the children had to be self reliant otherwise there would be no way they would have survived.
As they look for food, they meet or see other humans. Some of these humans are not the same as the man and the boy. They are, however, cannibals. The need for food drove them to an unspeakable act of cannibalism. The other person they see is a normal human trying to survive. The very altruistic boy wants to help the others and share his own food. Unfortunately, the man knows that the more people they have in their group, the less amount of food they will have and the possibility of a shorten life span (Bo 32).
When the children become stranded on the island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces, and their lives begin to fall apart. The downfall starts with their refusal to gather things for survival. The initial reaction of the boys is to swim, run, jump, and play. They do not wish to build shelters, gather food, or keep a signal fire going. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom and life as they knew it deteriorates.
Hollinger, Michael. “Naked Lunch.” 2003. Literature to Go. 2nd ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2014. 856-59. Print.
“What should we have for dinner?” (Pollan 1). Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals shows how omnivores, humans, are faced with a wide variety of food choices, therefore resulting in a dilemma. Pollan shows how with new technology and food advancement the choice has become harder because all these foods are available at all times of the year. Pollan portrays to his audience this problem by following food from the food chain, to industrial food, organic food, and food we forage ourselves; from the source to a final meal and, lastly he critiques the American way of eating. Non-fiction books should meet certain criterions in order to be successful. In his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan is able to craft an ineffective piece of non-argumentative non-fiction due to a lack of a clear purpose stated at the outset of the book, as well as an inability to engage the reader in the book due to the over-excessive use of technical jargon as well as bombarding the reader with facts.
The story I'm about to tell you about is stormy seas, acid rains, and dry, desert like conditions. It’s an dangerous journey that traverses long distances and can take several days to return. It’s the story of your digestive system whose purpose is turn the food you eat into something useful.
In the excerpt of "Hatchet," it states, "A ladder, of course. He needed a ladder. But he had no way to fashion one, nothing to hold the steps on, and that stopped him until he found a dead pine with many small branches still sticking out. Using his hatchet, he chopped the branches off so they stuck out four or five inches, all up along the log, then he cut the log off about ten feet long and dragged it down to his shelter. It was a little heavy, but dry and he could manage it, and when he propped it up he found he could climb to the ledge with ease, though the tree did roll from side to side a bit as he climbed." Although he was stuck with nothing to help him reach the small ledge, he used the nature around him to build something to climb up to the ledge. Brian also is portrayed as lazy. In the excerpt of "Hatchet," it states, "The basic idea had been good, the place for his shelter was right, but he just hadn't gone far enough. He'd been lazy, but now he knew the second most important thing about nature, what drives nature. The food was first, but the work for the food went on and on. Nothing in nature was lazy. He had tried to take a shortcut and paid for it with his turtle eggs, which he had come to like more than chicken eggs from the store." Brian is lazy as he doesn't try his best and it cost him with the food that he found which got taken away from him. These two traits can also help you portray
Crusoe accepts the challenge to survive, but not only does he survive, but he also expands and discovers new qualities about himself. In the beginning of his time on the island, Crusoe feels exceedingly secluded. He fears savages and wild beasts on the island, and he stays high up in a tree. Lacking a "weapon to hunt and kill creatures for his sustenance" (Defoe, 47), he is susceptible. Defoe believed that "the nature of man resides in the capacity for improvement in the context of a material world" (Seidel, 59), and this becomes apparent in his novel. The tools that Crusoe possesses from the ship carry out this notion, improving his life on the island dramatically. He progresses quickly, and no longer feels as isolated as he did before on the island. Crusoe uses his tools to build a protective fence and a room inside a cave. He then builds a farm where he raises goats and grows a corn crop. Later, his ambitions take him to the other side of the island where he builds a country home. Also, with the weapons that Crusoe creates, he saves Friday from cannibals, and makes him his servant. Because of his tools, his supply becomes more than sufficient for survival. He comes to learn that if he works with his surroundings instead of wallowing in the fact that he has no longer got what he thinks he needs, he able to find and use everything he needs in order to carry out life.