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Justice In Touching Spirit Bear

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In the start there is news that someone broke into a hardware store and trashed the place, Cole Mathews-a 15 year old boy- is arrested for severely beating up a kid named Peter Driscal who told the police that it was Cole who broke into the hardware store. Cole had been involved in several other juvenile crimes. This time-with a bad record and a sharp tongue-Cole is on edge of being tried as an adult. A Juvi-officer informs Cole of a way to avoid jail, a group called The Circle Of Justice. “Circle Justice is a Native American form of justice, originating in Canada that seeks healing in contrast to the regular punishment ways and is portrayed in Ben Mikaelsen's two novels Touching Spirit Bear and Ghost of Spirit Bear. ... Circle Justice is a form of restorative justice.”-Google.

With several flash-backs throughout the novel, Cole ends up having the final judgement being that he will be banished to an island on the East-Coast of alaska near Drake. A Tlingit Elder offers to take him to the island-alongside Garvy, the Juvi-officer. Once he arrives, with chains around his wrists, he is already thinking up a plan of how he’s going to escape. He mocks those who are trying to help, thinking about how they don’t know about his ‘top-notch’ swimming skills.

When he steps foot on the island, he sees that …show more content…

Once 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. Throughout his stay, he has several encounters with a mystical white spirit bear, he then is determined to kill it out of anger and

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When Cole arrives on the island, he is consumed by anger, bitterness, and an unwillingness to change. As soon as Edwin, a Tlingit elder, and Garvey leave, Cole sets fire to his constructed shelter and supplies, and jumps into the ocean to swim to freedom. Caught by the rising tide, he is unable to escape the island. In his first few days on the island, he has several encounters with a majestic, white bear called a Spirit Bear, and he is determined to kill it out of anger. One day, when he sees the bear, he stabs it with his knife and a makeshift spear.

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