Memory In The Hatchet

Imagine being alone in the wilderness. Nothing but trees, ground, sky, and what lies beyond where you are not. Do you think you could survive 54 days like this? Could you rely on only yourself, your knowledge, and your memory? This is what Brian had to go through in the book Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. Brian, after being in a plane crash, had to survive in the Canadian Wilderness on his own. He relied mostly on his memory during this time. When doing this it helped him get food due to him remembering something from school. Relying on his memory also hurt his survival. He remembered times when he had food. This made him hungrier than he already was. Throughout the book he has memories that help and hurt his chance of survival. These memories,

Some made him upset, mad, confused, and even hungry. While alone with no food Brian had many memories. He was hungry and he thought of his life in the city. He did not have to starve, but instead he could easily go get food. In Chapter 6 it states, “When he was hungry he went to the ice box, or to the store, or sat down at a meal his mother cooked. Oh, he thought, remembering a meal now - oh. I was the last Thanksgiving, last year, the last Thanksgiving they had as a family before his mother demanded the divorce and his father moved out the following January. Brian already knew the Secret but did not know it would cause them to break up and thought it might work out, the Secret this his father still did not know but that he would try to tell him. When he saw him. The meal had been turkey and they cooked it in the backyard in the barbeque over charcoal with the lid down tight. His father had put hickory chips on the charcoal and the smell of the cooking turkey and hickory smoke had filled the yard. When his father took the lid off, smiling, the smell that had come out was unbelievable, and when they sat to eat, the meat was wet with juice and rich and had the taste of the smoke in it. He had to stop this.” This memory affected Brian in a bad way. He thought of the last Thanksgiving he had with his family before the divorce. He was hurt with the memory of his parents divorce. He thought of the food at the last Thanksgiving. This made the hunger grow. Have you ever been hungry, then you thought of food. You would grow more and more hungry. That is how Brian felt, but worse. If he had not remembered this he might have not gotten as hungry as he did. His memory harmed his survival as he