Sparknotes Touching Spirit Bear

Author Micere Keels once said, ¨Behavior is the language of trauma. Children will show you before they tell you they are in distress¨ Cole Matthews, a troubled 15-year-old gives signs he needs help; however, his signs were not heard quickly enough. In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikealson, Cole Mattews, a young teenager suffering from abuse and much more, uses his only instinct taught to him and blindly beats Peter Driscoll, a wimpy freshman, for ratting him out. This all brought attention to the problems Cole faced way before Peter came into the picture and finally gave Cole the room to heal from his abusive father that he needed. The author believes that rage and anger that was influenced by role models blind us, ruin relationships,

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). While the behavior change is slight, Cole shows progress by showing he cares. The following method Edwin used to help Cole was the ancestor rock. Cole would carry a rock that symbolizes his ancestors up a hill, then the same rock that now symbolized his anger would be rolled down. The effects of this showed significantly and soon, ¨Cole started to imagine each step as a day in his life. Whenever he stumbled, he imagined a day when he stumbled. There had been plenty of those days. However, when he stopped to catch his breath, he looked back and saw how far he had come. He had come a long way since smashing Peter's head on the sidewalk¨ (Mikaelsen 197-198). Cole's journey to where he is at the novel's end is incredible. he shows how capable he is of great things. Even though healing was something he initially never thought he needed or wanted, he never wanted to go back once he began his journey to