• Study Guide For Hatchet By Gary Paulsen
• Study Guide For Hatchet

Plot Summary Brian Robeson is 13. His parents are divorced; his mother lives in New York, and his father works in the oil fields of northern Canada. Brian is flying to visit his father when the pilot of his bush plane dies of a heart attack.

Brian has to crash-land the plane in a shallow wilderness lake, where he is stranded alone. After the plane crash, Brian must fend for himself. His only tool is a hatchet, given to him by his mother. Brian is swarmed by mosquitoes and severely sunburned before he's able to find shelter in a small rocky overhang on the shore of the lake and food in the form of berries. Eventually, by striking the cave wall with his hatchet and showering sparks onto a pile of kindling, Brian is able to build a small fire.

This is the turning point of Brian's time in the wilderness. For a while after he masters fire, Brian has an easier time. He finds more food (turtle eggs) and starts exploring ways to hunt and fish, trying to build a bow and arrow and a fish spear.

Eventually, a plane passes overhead but doesn't see him, and Brian is devastated. Though he loses his will for a while (even trying to commit suicide by cutting himself with the hatchet), Brian is able to get back at it. He improves on his bow and arrow design, allowing him to nab fish and eventually small birds and rabbits.

He's visited (and sprayed) by a skunk and nearly loses his food supply. With each setback, Brian's resolve grows stronger, until his campsite is struck by a tornado. The tornado destroys Brian's shelter and food supply, but it also reveals the tail of the plane.

Brian remembers that there's a survival pack in the tail and makes plans to swim out to get it. When he makes it to the plane, the pack is missing, and he drops his hatchet into the water trying to cut into the tail. Diving down to grab his hatchet, Brian also finds the survival pack. It contains a.22 survival rifle, sleeping gear, pots, pans, food, matches, and most importantly, an emergency transmitter.

Thinking the transmitter is broken, Brian flips it on and off a few times and tosses it aside before cooking a meal and falling asleep. The next morning, Brian is rescued by a bush pilot after 54 days alone. Writing Background: Gary Paulsen Much like Brian, Gary Paulsen had a troubled childhood. His parents were often drunk and neglectful, so Paulsen was left to fend for himself. Much of what Brian experiences in Hatchet is drawn from this time in Paulsen's life; hunting and foraging for food, surviving rough plane landings, and learning to live off the land. Paulsen has done almost everything Brian does in the book, except eat raw turtle eggs.

Since Hatchet was so well-received, Paulsen also drew from his own real-life adventures to write four more books in the Brian's Song series: The River, Brian's Winter, Brian's Return, and Brian's Hunt. Brian's Winter explores a different ending to Hatchet, in which Brian is not rescued and must survive the winter alone. The Themes and Literary Devices of Hatchet Flashbacks and Literary Time Paulsen uses flashbacks throughout Hatchet to explore the events of Brian's life before he crashed in the wilderness. The most frequent flashback is to the time when Brian, riding bikes in the park with a friend, sees his mother in a car with a man who is not his father. The discovery of this affair which Brian refers to as 'The Secret', haunts Brian throughout his time in the wilderness.

Paulsen also includes flashbacks to happier times; at one point when he is very hungry, Brian remembers a Thanksgiving dinner. This and other flashbacks let Paulsen give insight into Brian as a character, without having to state these character aspects directly. Frequently in Hatchet, Paulsen advances the timeline by several days or weeks. Rather than giving details of each and every day, skipping forward in time lets Paulsen focus on the events that are most important to Brian's character development and survival.

Positive Thinking and Perseverance Shortly after the crash, Brian remembers his English teacher, Mr. Perpich serves as a voice in Brian's ear in the early chapters of Hatchet, motivating him to keep going. 'You are the best tool you have,' Brian tells himself in Mr. Perpich's voice. The power of positive thinking and perseverance guide Brian throughout his time in the wilderness. Harmony with Nature Though Brian does kill animals for food, he does so with respect to life.

Brian's transformation in the wilderness includes a realization that the lives of the animals around him are important and that often, if he leaves them alone, they will leave him alone. The contrasting attitudes of city people who don't have this respect for animals and Brian, who does, guides a lot of the second half of the book. Lesson Summary Hatchet is a young-adult adventure novel about Brian Robeson's survival following a plane crash. The novel explores themes of positive thinking and perseverance as Brian faces challenges from nature like bears, porcupines, dehydration, and starvation; all with only his trusty hatchet to help him.

Brian learns to live in harmony with nature during his weeks in the wilderness, reflecting on his time in society through flashbacks. Though he's only 13 years old, Brian is a changed man by the time he's rescued.

Hatchet, published by Bradbury Press in 1987, is 's best-known novel. It is the first of five in the Hatchet series, detailing the events in Robeson's life after he ends up stranded in a forest after the pilot of a bush plane he was flying in has a heart attack and dies mid-flight. Hatchet is a story of survival, resourcefulness, and resilience, and remains a popular novel for young adults nearly 30 years after its publication. Paulsen's novels often center on nature, and Hatchet is no exception. The majority of the novel takes place in a remote Canadian forest, where Brian makes a camp beside a lake and spends nearly two months trying to survive until he is rescued. The novel caries important themes of respecting and understanding the natural world and the way it functions, and over the course of his two months there Brian truly becomes a part of the natural world around him. Paulsen considers Hatchet one of his favorite books he has written.

He has had many of the experiences that Brian has in the novel: he spent time living in the woods in order to get away from his family and their destructive tendencies. Hatchet is often taught in school curriculums. It is followed by four other books in Brian's Saga, which all serve different purposes. The River was the next book written, and it follows chronologically from the events of Hatchet.

Study Guide For Hatchet By Gary Paulsen

Brian's Winter, on the other hand, envisions an alternate ending to Hatchet, and the final two books, Brian's Return and Brian's Hunt, follow this alternate storyline as well. Hatchet has received numerous awards, notably the 1987 Newbery Honor medal. How To Cite in MLA Format Gundersen, Kathryn.

Study Guide For Hatchet

Suduiko, Aaron ed. 'Hatchet Study Guide'. GradeSaver, 9 March 2016 Web.