Hatchet Essay - from a Student

357 Words2 Pages
27 September 2012 Self-reliance to Survive Authors use direct and indirect characterization to describe characters. In Hatchet, Gary Paulsen represents Brian in many different ways during Brian’s attempts to survive after he crashes the plane into the Canadian Wilderness. In Hatchet, the trait that helps Brian the most is self-reliance. Brian reveals his self-reliance when he builds a shelter, creates a new bow, and makes a new fire after the tornado hits close to his shelter. After the plane crashes, Brian knows he needs to make a shelter as soon as possible to protect himself from weather and large and dangerous animals. One of the first things he does is make a new shelter and he decides to builds his shelter against a rock wall “when he went in he found himself in a room about fifteen feet wide and eight to ten feet deep” (Paulsen 61). He also makes a bow to catch fish and fool birds. The first bow fails but soon “He had made a new bow, with slender limbs and a more fluid gentle pull” (Paulsen 118). With the working bow, he could catch and kill fish and birds to eat their meat and make feathered arrows. Later, a tornado hits close to Brian’s shelter and destroys his shelter and puts out his fire. It also throws his tools into the lake. He immediately works on making a new fire, knowing that fire is needed to survive in the wilderness: “He worked slowly, but even so, with his new skill he had a fire going in less than an hour” (Paulsen 150). With fire, he is protected from animals. Brian relies on himself an incredible amount to make the items that were essential to surviving. Self-reliance helps him to build a proper shelter, make a working bow, and make a fire and the ability to rebuild after some are destroyed. The key trait to Brian’s survival in the wilderness is self-reliance, for he has no one else to rely on other than himself. Without self-reliance,
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