By Gary Paulsen

HATCHET

Book Presentation by:

Travis Arnold

Being 13 years old...completely alone...

lost in the barren Canadian wilderness...

with no hope of rescue.

All you have is a hatchet...

and the will to survive.

Just imagine…

Brian Robeson is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his mother in New York. His parents have recently been divorced, and as the story begins Brian boards a single-engine bush plane as the sole passenger headed for the northern Canadian woodlands to visit his father.

Introduction to Hatchet

Shortly into the flight, the pilot—the only other person on board—suffers a massive heart attack and dies. Brian unsuccessfully tries to keep the small plane airborne, and he proceeds to crash land in a lake in the middle of the Canadian wilderness…

Brian survives the crash, only to find himself injured, alone, and desperate to find and secure food and shelter. The only tool he has at his disposal is a hatchet that his mother gave to him as a gift prior to his ill-fated flight. Despite his dire situation, Brian is optimistic that he will soon be rescued…

Early on, Brian struggles to find the necessities to survive. First he discovers some berries, but they make him violently ill. Then he then finds a raspberry bush, but promptly retreats when he encounters a bear. In his first minor victory Brian manages to build a makeshift shelter, but in the middle of the night a porcupine enters and stabs its quills into his leg, injuring him further.

Brian manages to overcome his initial blunders, teaching himself some basic survival skills. He discovers various helpful tricks, like how to strike his hatchet against rocks to make sparks and build a fire, or how he learns new ways to find food like discovering some turtle eggs to eat.

Brian now possesses the basic skills he needs to survive in the wilderness, but he still remains hopeful for a speedy rescue. One fateful day a plane flies overhead and Brian tries desperately to signal it, but he fails and the plane flies away. Brian becomes so depressed after this experience that he gives up on hope and tries to end his life by cutting his wrists with his hatchet.

Brian survives his suicide attempt and emerges with a new outlook on life. He has become hardened to the point that he has given up on the hope of a rescue, but with his new mentality he’s also found a powerful inner strength and a firm resolve to survive.

Brian takes his newfound resolve in stride, perfecting his hunting, fishing, and shelter-building skills. He manages to catch his first fish, as well as his first bird, which serve as monumental moral victories for him. Brian still encounters many setbacks that the Canadian wilderness throws at him, including being sprayed and nearly blinded by a skunk, being attacked and injured by a charging moose, and even a tornado that blows away his new shelter!

The next day, in the aftermath of the tornado, Brian is shocked to see that the storm stirred up the lake enough to bring the tail of the plane to the water’s surface. Brian quickly devises a plan to swim out to the plane in order to recover its gear bag. Upon doing so, Brian successfully recovers the gear bag, but in the process he drops his hatchet to the bottom of the lake. Enraged at himself for losing the one comfort he’s had since day one, he dives down and retrieves his hatchet from the bottom of the lake, only then realizing just how much his trusty hatchet really means to him.

What items will Brian discover in the plane’s mysterious gear bag?

Will they help him in his ongoing quest for survival?Could the gear bag offer an escape from the brutal

Canadian wilderness?

Will he ever be rescued??

Read Hatchet to find out!

The Cliffhanging Conclusion!!

Man vs. WildLiterally, as in Brian versus the elementsAlso figuratively, in how Brian loses touch with

society and becomes wild himself Optimism vs. Pessimism

The crushing weight of despair and the power to overcome that pain and find the strength to pick yourself up and keep going

The loss of innocence and coming into manhoodBrian begins the story as an innocent boy leaving for

an adventure, and through his trials and hardships he grows into a skilled woodsman and a strong survivor

Themes and Relevancy to YAL

Gary Paulsen won the coveted Newbery Honor for Hatchet in 1988

Hatchet is the first novel in a five-book seriesReviews:

“Muscular prose, plus an accurate depiction of the necessities of survival from an author who has lived the details, makes this a riveting, intelligent read.” —Common Sense Media

“A heart-stopping story…poetic texture and realistic events are combined to create something beyond adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

Awards, Legacy, & Reviews

“He was not the same. The plane passing changed him, the disappointment cut him down and made him new. He was not the same and would never be again like he had been. That was one of the true things, the new things. And the other one was the he would not die, he would not let death in again.”

“Come on, he thought, baring his teeth in the darkness—come on. Is that the best you can do—is that all you can hit me with—a moose and a tornado? Well, he thought, holding his ribs and smiling, then spitting mosquitoes out of his mouth. Well, that won't get the job done. That was the difference now. He had changed, and he was tough. I'm tough where it counts—tough in the head.”

Important and Memorable Quotes

Hatchet is an important YAL work and is still relevant to the field of YAL almost two decades after being written

As a winner of the coveted Newbery Honor in 1988, Hatchet finds itself in the company of some of the greatest and most influential YAL novels ever written

Gary Paulsen’s themes in Hatchet concerning lost innocence, entering into manhood, and positive thinking triumphing over hopelessness are universal themes that can be found in a great many YAL novels

I can personally testify (having read Hatchet for the first time when I was about 11 years old) that this YAL novel is the kind that stays with you long after your young adult years are far behind you

Connections to Our Class

I look forward to hearing and answering any and all questions or

comments you may have on this book and my presentation!

Thank you for reading!!

Questions? Comments?

All images taken from Google ImagesPaulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York: Bradbury,

1987. Print.

Works Cited