Hatchet By Gary Paulson Analysis

You Choose I have never had a teacher who has ever despised me as much as Mrs. Nelson, my fourth grade teacher at St. Francis Elementary. Day in and day out, she insulted every part of my being. The problem was I could never figure out why, but this was the very reason that I learned so many lessons from her ire. It was spring, and the rain was dripping down the windows across the entire south wall of Mrs. Nelson’s classroom. I had been staring at a single raindrop sliding down the clear pane and then refocused my attention to a second, larger drop once the first one dropped to the Earth forever. Mrs. Nelson’s voice penetrated the silence, “So, what did everyone think of the book?” she said. We had just finished reading Hatchet by Gary Paulson. A few of my classmates spoke up and talked about Brian’s tribulations throughout the book, and how much courage he had to swim to the bottom of the lake. I thought about Brian after his summer in the wilderness and how emotionally scarred he would be. I thought about how I would have felt without my family or friends. I thought about how utterly alone Brian must have felt. I decided to raise my hand and talk about how emotionally confused I felt about the book. Mrs. Nelson had her back to me, facing out towards the windows listening to Johnathan’s evaluation of

Sometimes I question the way you think.” My heart instantly dropped and the class went totally silent. She walked away from the oval of desks to the right side of the room too her desk. It felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of me. I did not know what I said that warranted such a reaction. I looked down at the edge of my desk where some student carved “school sucks” into the delicate wood, and then looked back up at my classmates. They were all staring at me, and Johnathan’s mouth was wide open. I looked over at Mrs. Nelson. She pulled out her green makeup mirror and was applying her light red lipstick without a care in the