Being stranded in the middle of nowhere with only a hatchet would be a terrible thing to experience, but Brian went through it. Hatchet shows that anything is possible with the power of positive thinking. Gary Paulsen writes and proves this in his excellent novel Hatchet. The book starts off with the main character, Brian, in a plane trying to crash land it. The pilot dies due to a heart attack, but Brian survives and lands on a L-shaped lake in the woods. He survives in the woods for 54 days until he gets rescued. The article “Juvenile justice program teaches boys life lessons and accountability” is about a program called the Diversion Male Court that helps minorities who have been in trouble with the law and helps teach them personal lessons …show more content…
A couple days after Brian crashed and landed safely he was thinking about the searchers coming for him: When a plane went down thet mounted extensive searches and almost always they found the plane within a day or two. Pilots all filed flight plans-a detailed plan for when and when they were going to fly, with all the courses explained. They would come, they would look for him. The searchers would get government planes and cover both sides of the flight plan filed by the pilot and search until they found him. (Paulsen 47) Brian believes that the searches will begin to search for him and he keeps thinking it until he believes it. Brian, who had just crashed, believes that he will be saved and with thinking that he is saving himself from being eaten by negative thoughts and thoughts of never being rescued. This leads him to thinking of his English teacher who was always talking about “being positive, thinking positive, staying on top of things” (Paulsen 49). He thinks of his teacher and he knows that his teacher would tell him that he need to get motivated. He looks at everything he has and thinks he doesn’t have much until he realizes that he has himself. Perpich, the teacher, used to always tell his students, “You are your most valuable asset. Don’t forget that. You are the best thing you have” (Paulsen 51). Just like that he is then motivated. He goes on to do things he never …show more content…
While Hatchet conveys the message in a way that gives Brian hope to get through his hardships, “Juvenile justice program teaches boys life lessons and accountability” conveys it in a way that gives the kids hope to become better. For instance, Brian had many mistakes and even have a journal for them, “Mistakes. In his mental journal he listed them to tell his father, listed all the mistakes” (Paulsen 124). Brian changed drastically ever since he thought if his english teacher. He was always finding ways to keep himself motivated and determined to get back home. In this case, he used his mistakes and his father to get through his hardships. He didn’t even hesitate when thinking of the mistakes to tell his father, didn’t think he wasn’t going to make it back. The article “Juvenile justice program teaches boys life lessons and accountability” shows the other side of positive thinking with Mario Love telling a 17 year-old, “We know you’re here because of an offense, but we need to look at what’s lacking around you and what services can we put into play to make you a better person” (Juvenile justice program teaches boys life lessons and accountability). Mario Love is a veteran juvenile officer. These officers are really trying to help the kids become better and grow. They won’t