Touching Spirit Bear by Ben details of the character, Cole Matthews. Cole is a young boy struggling with intense emotional turmoil. His emotions were anger, fear, sadness, and loneliness. Cole sought refuge from these intense emotions by fleeing to an Alaskan island to avoid going to jail because he beat up a boy. However, by going to Alaska Cole denied himself the opportunity to work through his issues and develop healthy coping mechanisms. 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. …show more content…
His father is abusive and has a drinking problem. It is mentioned on page 51 of the book that Cole has a left hand that is "on his left stood a liar who had beaten him numb," showing that his father is abusive. Cole's mother is always scared and does not help Cole when he needs it. It is mentioned on page 51 of the book that Cole has a right hand that is "on his right stood a dressed-up puppet, afraid of her own shadow," showing that his mother was afraid to help Cole. Cole's emotional problems likely stem from the abuse he experienced in his home life, with both his father and mother indicating that Cole has been deeply affected by the abuse he