Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis
Carter Fergus
Jonathan Swanson
Griffin Kitching
Max Schumaker
Mrs. Holsather-Nelson
Language Arts, Period 5
3 April 2023
Circle of Life Essay Touching Spirit Bear is a novel focused on Cole Mathews’ journey through his anger. Cole is changed on a remote island off the coast of Alaska where he is isolated after a vicious assault on Peter Driscal. Life's a circle. Everything can be circled back to something sometime. Touching Spirit Bear is no different. Throughout the novel by Ben Mikealson, many characters have a heavy influence on Cole’s mental and physical life as he goes through this journey. Some of these characters include Garvey, a prison guard who supports Cole and helps him get over his anger, Peter, the now-disabled boy who Cole doesn’t know how to feel about, and Cole’s father, who beats Cole regularly for no reason, the flame that sparked Cole’s anger.
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As a result of the attack, Peter suffered possibly permanent coordination and speech disabilities. Cole eventually feels terrible about Peter and gets him to come to the Alaskan island after two suicide attempts, so he can help Peter and himself heal and find forgiveness. However, when Peter arrives, he beats up Cole and Cole refuses to fight back. Eventually, Peter finds forgiveness in Cole and allows him and his mind to heal. Garvey helps Cole through his emotional voyage and never gets mad without reason. Garvey was a prison guard at Cole’s detention center. He had close ties to an organization under the alias of “Circle Justice.” He was able to get Cole onto the island instead of spending months in prison. Garvey is generally a supportive character and a mentor to Cole in many ways. Later, he reveals that he spent time in prison and proves to Cole that finding forgiveness is
Analysis Of Touching Spirit Bear By Ben Mikaelsen
142 Words | 1 PagesTouching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen is a novel in which the main character , Cole Matthews, finds himself struggling with his own downfall. He also finds himself fighting his own spirit. Cole is banished from Drake, Alaska because he has committed a crime. His classmate Peter Driscal had told on him for breaking into the school. Now, if someone told on Cole Matthews, they were going to have to pay the price.
Lessons In Touching Spirit Bear By Chase Matthews
364 Words | 2 PagesIn the book Touching Spirit Bear, a native boy named Chase Matthews, is constantly getting into trouble. Chase gets sent to a live on an island by himself, as punishment for a year where he couldn't hurt anybody but runs into an unlikely friend. Chase makes many mistakes but learns from them when he's on the island. This book has taught me a lot of stuff that comes into my life every day Chase burns down the small hut and all of the food that was left for him, tries to kill the spirit bear and when he talks to the spirit Bear. When Chase is dropped off by the elders on this remote island, he tries to act as though nothing can hurt him.
Touching Spirit Bear By Ben Mikealson
325 Words | 2 PagesCole is already a very troubled kid with a lot of anger issues, attitude, and jail sentences, which, therefore, led him to beating up Peter Driscal and giving him a permanent injury. “Justice should heal not punish” is a quote by Garvey (Mikaelsen 13). Circle Justice is a wonderful opportunity for Cole to turn around and make his life better. If he goes to jail with love,
Quotes From Lord Of The Flies Cole
176 Words | 1 Pages(Mikaelsen 249). This is a drastic change from the beginning of the novel, where Cole hates everyone and everything and only thinks of himself. Near the very end of the story, Peter attacks Cole and Cole asks him to stop but he refuses to fight back. The old Cole would’ve fallen down and come up swinging as hard as he could. I believe he has truly changed from how he had previously acted.
Overcoming Anger And Problems In Touching Spirit Bear By Ben Mikaelsen
204 Words | 1 PagesGarvey and Edwin help to get Cole over his anger, one way they do this is by being the first people to care about Cole. Another way Garvey
Quotes From Lord Of The Flies Cole
1377 Words | 6 PagesGarvey played a big role in helping Cole’s mother change because he made her realise that Cole’s dad is not the only one to blame for what happened. Cole found out that his dad was arrested and charged with child abuse when he was in the hospital. It was Garvey who confronted Cole’s mom and he told her: “This is what has come from your silence. Keep quiet now, and you share the blame.” (page 116)
Justice In Touching Spirit Bear
536 Words | 3 PagesOnce she tried to stop mr. Mathews, and he threatened to beat her too. When Cole comes back to then, he realises that he has gone nowhere. He is confused, nearly numb and freezing his butt off. He forgot to consider the low and high tide. When he returns back to the island, he decides to stay and consider some other way to escape.
Touching Spirit Bear Analysis
1607 Words | 7 PagesTouching Spirit Bear: Cole’s Conflicts Have you ever thought about all the conflicts in your life? If you look back you probably realize that a lot of them were bad, but you must have overcome them if you are thinking about them now. You’d most likely figure that a fifteen-year-old wouldn’t have to much to worry about yet, but Cole Matthews is unlike any child that you could ever imagine. Lets just say that some of his conflicts include being beat by his father and in general being ignored by both his mother and father, he was mauled by a bear (the Spirit Bear if you will), and he has to attempt to help Peter Driscal, the boy he hurt at the beginning of the story, but do you know how hard it is to even try to talk to the person whose head you
Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis
675 Words | 3 PagesImagine going through a world where you change everyday. One morning you wake up as happy as can be, the next day mad and depressed as you can be. Doesn’t really happen, but you can change, like Cole did but it wasn’t just overnight. Cole started as a selfish young delinquent, then slowly changed to a caring, understand person.
Symbolism In Touching Spirit Bear
932 Words | 4 PagesHas anyone ever called you an animal? Have you been compared to a sloth because you were lazy, or a mouse because you were quiet? In my Language Arts class, we read the book “Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelsen. In this novel, a troubled teenage boy named Cole is banished to an island to find and heal his soul after he severely beats a kid. During his stay on the island, Cole realizes that he is similar to several different animals.
Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis
1269 Words | 6 PagesAt the beginning of the novel, Cole Matthews is a vicious teenager who thinks he is superior to everyone, but is, in fact, hiding behind a shield of anger, the result of being brutally abused by his drunken father. Cole’s father, Mr. Matthews, drinks non stop until he becomes a monster, and then ruthlessly beats Cole up. When talking to Garvey, a proud, Tlingit indian, who is also his parole officer, Cole opens up about his father’s abuse saying, “‘You don’t know what it’s like being hit over and over until you’re so numb you don’t feel anything!” (Mikaelsen 28).
Symbolism In Touching Spirit Bear
515 Words | 3 PagesEverything will turn out right in the end, and Cole exhibits this. The whole reason that Cole ended up o the island in the first place is because he made bad choices. These choices led to more bad choices and then Cole had a traumatic experience. This changes Cole’s life forever.
Touching Spirit Bear Book Analysis
1076 Words | 5 PagesCole was beaten by him throughout his childhood. This pain and anger gave him the personality and characteristic to inflict pain on other people. The two final themes have a very strong connection. In order to heal, mentally and physically, you have to learn to forgive and receive forgiveness. This was a lesson the reader and the main character, Cole, experience throughout the book.
Essay On Touching Spirit Bear
931 Words | 4 PagesThe relationships in Cole’s life all had a different impact on him but specifically his relationship with Peter affected him a lot. Especially the part of the book when Cole found out that Peter told on him. “‘You’re a dead man,’ he warned... He laughed when he saw fear in Peter’s eyes”(7-8). This shows the relationship at the beginning of the book and clearly it wasn’t good.
Role Of Banishment In Cole Matthews's Lessons
483 Words | 2 PagesFor example, when Cole purposy bothered the Spirt Bear and later on ended up getting mauld by the animal. It is obvious that Cole’s decisions and actions against banishment lead him to fail the act. Cole’s consistent negative attitude made him dislike the idea of meaning humane. Since the beginning of the book, Cole has satisfied himself with anger. Cole believes that he can concor anything with his anger.
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