He is going to Alaska because he robbed a hardware store and beat a boy named Peter Driscal so badly he could have died. The Rising Action is when Cole beats up Peter because Peter told the police that Cole had broken into a hardware store; and that he robbed the store and then trashed it. After nearly killing Peter some boys from their school pulled Cole off of Peter.
In the novel Touching Spirit Bear, troubled protagonist Cole Matthews has severely injured another boy. Instead of being taken into custody, he is given a second chance, and sent to a remote island. The program responsible for this alternate adhesion of justice, Circle Justice, is something that helps kids everywhere escape a life of crime, and become functioning adults. The arrogant teen takes full advantage of his luck, and manages to get himself into a deadly situation. Now, it is up to officials to decide whether he should return to the island, or carry out the rest of his sentence in prison.
In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, the main character Cole Matthews demonstrates he is reckless on several occasions. Cole exhibits this trait on page 65 when he throws a wood spear at the spirit bear. He does not think things through and does not realize the fact that a bear could could kill him with ease. On pg 50 “Peter's lawyer said “we don't know all the reasons for clues anger,but we do know he is out of control , any solution found by this circle justice must protect society and make Cole fully responsible for his actions”. This statement by someone else reveals that Cole is reckless and does not think things though because he beat up a kid and thought he would get away with it with our any consequences.
Secondly, when Cole was dancing his anger dance, he danced late into the night. He continued to dance because he still had anger inside of him and he wanted to just throw it up. Out of nowhere Cole lunges at a tree and starts hitting it and says the words he’s never been to say before, “‘I forgive you,” he cried loudly. “I forgive you’” (232).
Wait, I think I'm going too far and putting my life here, so now Cole is banished to an island and mauled by the Spirit Bear. And I honestly think that Cole deserved it, because it changed him to become better and not worse, and he has found meaning in life and has changed for the better. And I think Cole will be able to change, because after he has touched the Spirit Bear, he feels trusted and he trusts the Spirit Bear in return, and he finally views the world as beautiful unlike before. Lastly, I think after Cole returns from his banishment, the people in circle justice will want him to undergo normal justice, and then Cole does some crazy things to prove that he has changed, for example pushing a rock up and down a hill. So in summary, I think Cole is broken, Cole
In the book Touching Spirit Bear, Cole does many things with major consequences. His anger mainly controls these things, but when Cole finds himself lying on the ground as good as dead, he realizes that he's not a good person, and he realizes what he has done. Here are some consequences and mistakes that Cole has made in the past to get to this point. In the first few chapters, Cole was ruthless.
I already infer that he is definitely heading back though the proof of this is right after page 112 it states PART TWO RETURN TO SPIRIT BEAR in big bold letters. This has to mean Cole is going to return to the island and try to face spirit bear with a new attitude and hopefully this time he can succeed. “But the Spirit Bear was also a memory that would never disappear from his mind or heart,” (Page 112). This could mean that Cole wants to return to the island, what I mean by this is when you get connected to someone or something you tend to want to go to it or attract to it like a couple they always want to see each other so if they have the chance they go to each other. In this case Cole wants to return to the island because he had a connection to it, he is determined to see the spirit bear again.
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.
Later, when he returns to the island, he starts using dances and methods to heal with Garvey and Edwin's help. One by one, Edwin and Garvey taught Cole their ways. First, Edwin brought Cole to an ice-cold pond to clear his mind. The idea was that Cole would be affected not only mentally but also his injuries from the bear attack would be numbed. Cole starts hesitant, not wanting to wake up early in the morning just to freeze, but soon Cole becomes ¨afraid he might oversleep¨ (Mikaelsen 194).
“Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor.” (Marianne Williamson). Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, focuses on a boy named Cole who doesn’t care about anything and does whatever he wants. He ends up beating up a fellow student and goes to jail for it, but has a chance to get out by going to an island to “change” for the better. In fact he does end up changing for the better and overcomes some of his big challenges.
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).
Tradition justice or Circle Justice? The answer to this problem determines Cole’s fate. In the realistic fiction novel,Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, Cole is a troubled teenager who has the option to heal himself and the people he has harmed by going through Circle Justice. Cole is also recently attacked by a Spirit Bear. Before falling unconscious once again, Cole is rescued by Garvey and Edwin.
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.
For example, when Cole purposy bothered the Spirt Bear and later on ended up getting mauld by the animal. It is obvious that Cole’s decisions and actions against banishment lead him to fail the act. Cole’s consistent negative attitude made him dislike the idea of meaning humane. Since the beginning of the book, Cole has satisfied himself with anger. Cole believes that he can concor anything with his anger.
This trauma led him to commit a crime numerous times. Eventually, he ends up fatally injuring a grade nine boy, resulting in being sent to a youth center, and two years later, is incarcerated, after the grade nine boy ends his own life, being unable to heal from the emotional damage received, harming not only himself and Cole, but the entire community and his own family. The prison hardens Cole’s mind, gradually decreasing any chance of healing, and putting him through an extremely violent, overcrowded, and possibly disease infested prison. This diminishes and chips off pieces of his mental health, to the point of severe depression, dangerously high levels of blood pressure, and constantly reminds him of his past, triggering intense PTSD. Finally, all of these precipitately build up, to the point where he is no longer Cole, though rather just a mentally ill shell of his former
