In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, the main character Cole Matthews goes from a furious teenager that controls his anger through violence to a controlled young adult who turns to be very thoughtful. The text states “With anger he had been brewing all day, he attacked him and started hitting him hard in the face with his bare fists” (Mikaelsen 7). This quote shows Cole let out his anger violently or in ways of hurting others. The text also states “But maybe if Peter came to the island,he would see how much things could change”(Mikaelsen 203). This quote shows how Cole changed because it explained how he was trying to help Peter and to get him to change like Cole did.
Instead, he suffered as a result of his choices in life. Cole has been lonely all his life, and this has led to him to start doing things that have hurt and harmed others as well as himself for attention. Cole's feelings have been written on chapter 8, page 73 as "every action worked against him and hurt him deeply, a bitter loneliness swept over him as tears clouded his vision. " Cole felt alone, but only recognized it when he was on the brink of death. This, in turn, led to Cole trying to fill the loneliness with other things like violence and theft, which nearly lead him to his death.
The first thing that Gavin helped Cole with was to get him into circle justice to get him to go to an island so he could learn responsibility. When they got there, Cole was very mad and did not want to be there. This is also when the spirit bear came in. Right now Cole is full of anger and does not want to be on the island and then he sees the spirit bear
If he needs to go to jail, obviously he is very rebellious and needs control. Cole has major anger issues though. For example, according to page 30, when he got mad at Garvey when they were
Cole 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.
There were moments where you could feel sad for Cole, angry at Cole, happy for Cole, the list goes on and on. “As if finishing it’s attack, the Spirit Bear placed it’s huge pawson Cole’s chest and gave a single hard shove. Air exploded from Cole’s lungs. Ribs snapped. Mouth wide open, Cole gasped but could not catch his breath.
The 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.
At 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).
Cole has changed.cole has controlled his anger.while all of these arguments have merit the most important one is that cole has changed. This is because without changed all of this would have been pointless, there would be no point in sending cole to jail because and even after he got out he would still be the same person and will likely end up a repeat offender. Second chances are not given to make thing right but are given to we could be better even after we
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.
When he is given the opportunity to save those who he cares about, he desperately replies, ¨ Anything please! I'll do anything to save her¨( Robertson 66). Cole is deemed both a hero and a villain in the book, in a typical “can not save everyone” scenario. He is resented for this action and hated by many. That is a lot of stress and tension in itself for a teenager to deal with, which he does admirably as shown further in the book.
Everything 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.
Because of his abrupt behavior, Cole has done many unintelligent things, such as burning his shelter on the island. His anger is his choice if Cole communicates by showing anger, isn’t he responsible for all of his actions? Cole has runined so many options of a better life that have come to him. It isn’t surprising that Cole wasn’t in support of the banishment process. In chapter 2, Cole started to search for an escape on the island, he loathed the shelter, the lonleyness, and the fact that he has no one to blame.
With anger that had been brewing all day, he attacked him and hitting him hard in the face with his bare fists. Cole had pounded him bloody.” (Mikaelsen, 8) After this flashback, we learn that Cole really
Cole was a troubled kid, Who grew up with alcoholic parents who nearly beat him his Entire childhood and he beat up this kid named Peter and he goes to the circle of justice to decide what Cole's consequence is so they decide to bring Cole to this island where he gets attacked by a bear and suffers in the cold. I think Cole changes by having a deathly experience, having to be lonely and the fact that he had no power or control on the island that changed him into a different person. Cole's deathly experience changed him and his perspective on life he nearly almost died by getting mauled by a bear and starts to fade away and he's almost certain he is going to die and no one’s going to save him. This near death experience changed his life and changed him to be a better person and no longer has aggressive behavior coming from that island.
