The Spirit Bear Analysis

Cole’s Life Conflict What if the Cole was the Spirit Bear? What if he was really fighting with himself the whole time? It would make sense, whenever the Spirit Bear was around Cole, it is feeling the same way that Cole was. Cole Matthews was a sarcastic and a dishonest fifteen-year-old that was always angry and looking for trouble. He had a problem with blaming people for his troubles, when really that main problem was himself. Cole had parents that didn’t even care about him, his father always got so drunk that he didn’t even remember half of the beating that he gave Cole, and his mother was always too drunk to even notice, or even care. Even though the struggle with his parents is really hard for him, Cole’s most immense conflict in his

An example of when he tends to show that is when he blames the people for his troubles. Cole has always had a problem with blaming people, animals, objects, etc. for what he really did. If Cole has a problem he never thinks to himself, whose fault is this? So the first object he thinks of or sees (usually someone or something he doesn’t like) gets blamed for his problem. An example of this problem is on page 8 when Cole says how it was Peter’s fault that he got beat up by him because he doesn’t know how to fight. “Cole figured he wouldn’t even be here if Peter Driscoll had known how to fight back.” (Ben Mikaelsen) But really it was actually Cole’s fault because if he hadn’t done that naughty thing in the first place, then he wouldn’t of had to get ratted out by Peter, and then beat him up. If Cole actually took a second to think about it and who there was that he could blame, he would eventually come across himself. How could it be anyone else's problem that he had done something he wasn’t supposed to? I think that when Cole really started to overcome this conflict was after he got beat up by the Spirit Bear. He was thinking about the baby sparrows, begging their mother for food, and for life. And it was then that he realized, “It didn’t matter who’s fault it was for his dismal life. All that mattered was living.” (Ben Mikaelsen, 84) He had realized what a beautiful place the world was and how nothing was no one's

Well he took that to his advantage. Cole had parents that didn’t really care about what trouble he was getting into. I believe that because of his parents telling him he had one more chance, he thought he could do whatever he wanted without getting a consequence afterwards. Like these next sentences says, Cole has a another chance after every mistake he made. “Each time Cole got into trouble, he was warned to shape it up because it was his last chance.” “Whatever happened he could always count on having one more last chance.” (Ben Mikaelsen, 6) These two pieces of evidence tell me that Cole was getting into trouble, so much without anybody caring, that he knew he would have no consequence to it. I feel that Cole was so ignorant, that he didn’t know what to expect in the real world. So when he did finally do something so bad that he needed a consequence, he had a fair share of troubles from the real world, it was like reality was smacking him in the face telling him to smarten up. I think that Cole started to overcome this problem when he had just gotten back to the island and he was acting up, so Garvey and Edwin threatened to take him back to Minneapolis. “If he screwed up things this time, there would be no next time.” (Ben Mikaelsen, 176) Cole finally learns that he needs to be mature and smarten up now because this really is his last chance. He needs to make the