The theme of the story Hatchet is determination, perseverance and survival. Brian Robeson, whose parents are divorced, flies to visit his father in Canadianwilderness.
His pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian managed to land theplane in a lake, and escape unharmed. Now comes the hard part, surviving in thewilderness until rescued. He does have one tool to help him, a hatchet that hismother had given him as a gift. He will have to use it, his own determination,imagination, perseverance and common sense to survive.
Summary: This flight tosee his father in the Canadian wilderness is Brains first time in an airplane. He explains this to the pilot and tells him that he is scared. The pilot feelssorry for Brian and decides to show him that flying is not very difficult. Helets 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 heartattack and dies.
Brian knows he must land the plane himself or die. He tries touse the radio without success. He knows that if he hits the trees, he can die,so he decides to land in the water of a lake. When the plane is in the water, hegets out through a window. He lay on the bank of the lake for a while to rest. Brian knew he needed food and shelter to survive so he set out to find both.
Hewas very careful not to get lost or go too far from the lake where his waterwas. He found a cherry tree and because he was very hungry, he ate his fill. Hefilled his windbreaker with cherries to eat later and then managed to find acave for shelter. He slept very well, but in the morning when he awoke, he saw abear in the cave. He was terrified, because the bear was only about 20 feet awayeating his cherries out of his windbreaker. The bear only looked at Brian andthen left.
The cherries must have been enough to curb his appetite! Thediscovery of how to make a fire was very important to Brains survival. He neededto have one at the mouth of the cave to protect him from wild animals, and tosignal for help. He discovered it by mistake when a porcupine wandered into hiscave! It was dark in the cave and he heard something moving. He knew it wasalive, but not what it was. He kicked it.
It was then, when the quills shot intohis foot that he knew it was a porcupine. He was in pain, and knew he could nottouch it. He threw his hatchet, and when it hit the rock of the cave instead ofthe porcupine, it made a spark. He knew how to make the spark, now all he had todo was find the fuel. He knew he needed some type of meat to survive, so hedecided to catch fish.
First he tried to catch them with his hands, but he soonknew he needed a better plan. He made a primitive bow and arrow. He was veryproud of himself when he was able to use it to catch fish, or shoot a bird. Hewould scoured them and cook them over his fire.
He was becoming better all thetime at survival. One day a tornado went through the area. The tornado turnedout to be a revelation. It moved the plane so that the tail was now sticking outof the water.
It was then that Brian remembered that the plane contained asurvival pack. It was very difficult to get to, and it took a long time. Healmost lost his hatchet while trying to cut a hole in the plane, but he was ableto retrieve it. When he finally got back on dry land, he found that the packcontained food, knife, rifle, and C. B. radio.
He tried to use the radio, but hedid not think it was working. He found out that he was wrong when a rescue planeshowed up, it was working! Character Description: Brian Robeson is a typical 13year old boy trying to cope with his parents divorce. He is not happy about hismothers’ new boyfriend, and he is very excited about going to visit hisfather. He wears the typical tennis shoes, jeans, and T-shirt with awindbreaker. He is not an outdoorsman, but he has watched a lot of TV and alwayspaid attention to how they survived difficult situations. He is scared offlying, and tells the pilot this.
As his situation changes and he is faced withlife or death in a survival situation, he chooses to be brave and strong andsurvive. Review: I liked “Hatchet” because it is about teenage adventure. When I was reading I was trying to imagine what I would do if I were Brian. Ithink that he was very tough.
He was always thinking about what to do tosurvive. The thing that I did not like about the book was that everything thathe did seemed to take so long! It seemed to take a few days to start a fire orto catch a fish. I did not like the ending, it was unrealistic to have a tornadogo through and all of a sudden, the tail of the plane is sticking out of thewater. Then, after all that time he miraculously remembers the survival pack isstill in the plane. Why could not he remember it in all those other weeks?Recommendations: I think that this book is especially good for preteens orteens. Anyone who likes adventure and wild life would like it.
A person wholikes scouting and the outdoors would probably like the book. Timeline: 1. Planecrashes 2. First food .
. . fruits 3. Meeting with bear 4. Encounter withporcupine 5.
First fire 6. Found turtle eggs 7. Building fire for signal 8. First fish 9.
Heard search plane 10. Building a house 11. Attacked by moose 12. Tornado 13.
Plane tail sticking out of water 14. Get survival pack and radio 15. Going home Rewrite: If I could make a change to the story, I think I wouldchange the part with the tornado. I think that it was weird. It seemed like thekind of magic that you see in cartoons. If I wrote the ending to the book, Iwould make it more realistic.
He maybe could find sulfur to make a flare or asearch plane would see his smoke signal. He could even try diving over and overagain to get back into the plane for the survival pack that he may remember wasthere. I just think that the tornado was an easy ending for the author and thathe should not have used it.
