Summary Of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet

Hatchet, and later on its five sequels, is one of the best known survival and wilderness books ever published, and is based somewhere in Northern Canada. It features Canadian Geography and wilderness as one of its main themes, and uses them both as a setting and a source of challenge for the main character. Gary Paulsen, the author, worked in Canadian wilderness for years before writing the book, and did a fantastic job at capturing just how bewildering and terrifying Canada can be while still being breathtakingly beautiful. The main character, Brian, becomes quite attached to this area where he’s stranded, and talks about how it changes him and his personality completely. It alters his view on life and the way he looks at himself as a person.

He mentions black bears, timber wolves, ruffed grouse, moose, snowshoe hares and cottontail rabbits, all of which are common in Canada. In the first few days Brian gets sick off choke cherries, which grow all over the country and are used today to make jams and wine (BC Government, 2015). A black bear clearly sees Brian but doesn’t attack, which is common in Canada when food sources are high and there are no cubs for the bear to protect (Wikipedia, 2015). A moose, however, does attack, which is a well-known phenomenon in Canada. Moose are known for more attacks on human beings than any other mammal in North America. They attack more often than bears and wolves combined. (Wikipedia, 2015) Brian goes on about the ruffed grouse, which he calls fool-birds, and are well known for being stupid and easy to hunt. (Wikipedia, 2015) The author put but research and personal experience into book in order to make sure that it was accurate and relatable to Canadians and non-Canadians

He used endless personal experience to build a solid survival story that still interests kids to this day. It is an accurate and well thought out, if short, novel. The whole thing circles around Canadian Geography and the ways it can affect how you live, and even if you live. The protagonist, Brian, forms a strong attachment to the wilderness that he is stranded in, and is reluctant to leave when finally rescued. His sense of place and identity totally changes in the time he is there, turning him from a city child to a strong and intelligent survivalist. This novel somehow makes Canadian wilderness a little less terrifying and little easier to understand, while still giving the impression of vast and untamed land that is dangerous and still so unknown in a lot of ways to most