Character Analysis

Author's Note: I analysed the main character Brian in the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. And  explained how his character changed throughout the book. Also, how his character reminds me of another character in a book I've read.  

The book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is mainly about how a 13 year old boy named Brian is finally getting the chance the meet his father, since his parents got divorced, and since they got divorced he has been taking that really hard on himself. But, he never thought that going on this trip to meet his father would end up to be even worse. Next thing he knew the plane he was in had crashed because the pilot had a heart attack and he was in the middle of the woods all by himself. As he spent many lonely days in woods trying to find food, shelter, and warmth. He finds himself being more brave and thinking outside the box to make him survive in the woods. 

While Brian was in the woods he knew he had no time to think about how upset he was about the divorce of his parents because he had to think about how to survive in the woods. He needed a fire going but didn’t know how to start one the beginning, this affected him a lot because he would be freezing at night and he would need a fire to cook food if he found any. He thought that someone would find him soon so he wouldn’t have to worry about how to make a fire. But, it’s been a while and one had found him so he knew he had to make a fire soon. He tried many things with paper, stones, and sticks but it didn’t work. He was very frustrated but, then he thought adding bark from a tree would work so he added some and lighted it up then next thing he knew he had a big fire going. He was so exited he yelled “Fire, I’ve got a fire!”

Now Brian had to find food for himself. He found many things like raw eggs, berries, and a lake for water, but he didn’t want to eat it because he didn’t know if it was safe to eat these things and that was affecting him because he was not eating and he needed something since he hasn’t eaten for a while. After two days of not eating anything Brian was starving and decided to eat a raw egg. He felt a lot better after eating that so we went to try some berries but the berries was to tart for him but, he had to keep eating them because he was too hungry.

Brian reminds me of the main character, Jane, in the book Fade by Lisa McMann. Since, Brian is all alone in the woods and on one knows that he is there and no one knows what he’s going through and it is hard for him to tell people that he is in the woods. This is similar to Jane because she has a problem when people are near  her and they are sleeping she atomically passes out and gets sucked into their dream. No one knows what she’s going through, they just think that she is just sleeping and she can’t tell anyone about it because people would think that she is crazy. And she feels like she is all alone and doesn’t know what to do.

For being in the woods for many days Brian had figured out many things to do easily like finding food, shelter, and warmth. Knowing that he would be here for awhile, he had to be more comfortable going out to find food and thinking of ways to make a fire so that he would survive. And as time went on he could find food anytime he wanted to and he could make a fire less in a hour. Brian was fine being in the woods because he was capable of getting what he needed. He had conquered his fears for being the woods for such a long period of time and now he isn’t as upset anymore about his parents being divorced.