Theme Of Hatchet By Gary Paulsen

In this day and age teens and young adults are forced to grow up at younger age as well as go through conflicts internal or external with little to no assistance along the way. This makes the initiation to manhood seemingly harder. Everyone's circumstances are different, Everyone reacts to change differently. These events people go through shape them for the future and to the people they will become. Gary Paulsen poses this theme in his fictional adventure novel Hatchet. Set on the North woods, of central Canada during presumably 1980’s, the novel begins when Brian takes a plane from Hamptons, New York to Canada to visit his dad, the pilot has a heart attack. He immediately loses consciousness and dies, Brian is forced to fly the plane and

Then, Dallas Morning News, also poses the theme in their article Juvenile Justice Program Teaches Boys Life Lessons and Accountability, set in Dallas, Texas in 2015, the article begins by explaining what the program is, essentially, it is a six month rehabilitation program for minority boys. Created to be an alternative to sentencing and a last chance to avoid a juvenile record. Their main focus is to emphasize life lessons, such as accountability, respect, responsibility, and empathy as well as building character. In “Hatchet” and “Juvenile justice program teaches boys life lessons and accountability”, Gary Paulsen and Dallas Morning News both use the theme of initiation to manhood, although in different ways they both convey the idea of coming of age though difficult

When the authors start to really explain what the program is the subject of having a second chance, and growing up is heavaily shown. These troubled boys have gotten a second chance to rethink, reflect, and reevaluate their actions to better their future. Not everyone has good examples when growing up, or even a good parental figure to guide them into the path of manhood. To illustrate, Dallas Morning News writes, “More than telling these boys to stay out of trouble, Ashford and his team teach life lessons about accountability, respect, responsibility, and empathy”( Dallas morning news, page 2). Though the boys are troubled, they are still being taught the basic things they need to know to becoming a man in this society. It is all up to them if they want to take the help, but these lessons of accountability, respect, responsibility, and empathy, will help them in the future into becoming in to men. This really helps them mature and to grow into adulthood, rather than struggling to try to catch up. For example, Dallas Morning News