Thomas Pampalone
Professor Brown
ENGL 216-01
3/3/2015
Book Review The book I chose to review is Hatchet, written by Gary Paulsen. The publisher of Hatchet is Puffin Books, the copyright date is 1987. Hatchet begins off by, introducing the main character, a thirteen year old boy named Brian Robeson. Brian’s parents are divorced, and as the story begins he is on the plane to go spend the summer with his father in Canada. Brian is obviously upset about the divorce between his father and his mother and has a difficult time coping with his sadness that he holds back. Brian’s mother has sent him away with an essential tool, a Hatchet. The beginning of the story sets up the whole book perfectly, by introducing the main characters and grasping the reader’s attention. The story develops rapidly, Brian’s pilot has a massive heart attack while driving the plane. Although Brian is only thirteen years old, he successfully controls the plane but off route. Brian ends up having to crash land the plane himself into a small lake in the Alaskan bush, but this Brian does not know. He survives the crash and has to survive out in the wilderness relying on himself and a hatchet. As the book unfolds Brian is faced with two major conflicts, Brian vs. himself and Brian vs. Nature. The middle of the story an obvious climax does occur. Brian is faced with the challenge of creating fire. Brian uses his brain and intelligence to use the hatchet his mother gave to him to finally make fire, after being in the wilderness for quit sometime.
This climax is recognizable, because now Brian has the means to survive in the wild with fire.
The conflict that Brian faces is him vs. nature, by making fire Brian mentally and physically defies the odds and gives him the power to keep on trucking. The internal conflict that Brian faces, is the sadness of his mother and fathers divorce. Able to overcome the challenges of nature Brian also begins to realize how to cope with his internal sadness.
Brian continues on fighting for his life throughout the book, facing many natural conflicts such as being attacked by a moose and thrown around in a twister that ruins everything he has worked so hard for. Brian learns to look at these setbacks as a learning experience. At the end of the book Brian ends up finally being rescued fifty-four days after the plane crash. The ending is appropriate for this book, Brian has emotionally developed into a tougher stronger person than he was the day he stepped foot on the small bush plane. Brian throughout the story develops and adapts to the setting of the story. Brian starts the story as a thirteen year old boy living in New York who had no experience living in the wilderness, and by the end is capable of living in the wild with nothing but a hatchet. Brian physically changes throughout the book as well, by the end of his journey he is a mess and has lost almost all of his body fat and weight. Gary Paulsen does a good job of unveiling the type of person Brian is through his personal thoughts using third person point of view.
The setting is what brings upon the conflicts that Brian now must face. Brian is used to the setting of New York, when
