Hatchet Book Report

At the beginning of the book, Brian is frustrated and angry. I learned Brian could hold a grudge. For instance, when he caught his mother kissing another man, he barely talked to her for two months. Also at the start of the book, Brian is a kid who has a low self-esteem. During the trip to his dad's on the plane, he flashes back to bad things that happened to him. He doesn't know much about survival at the start of the book. He didn't know how to start a fire or catch anything he could eat. At the end of the book, Brian is confident and focused on things happening around him. The "new Brian" notices and appreciates the little things happening around him. He described the scenery around him. "The sun exploded the sky, just blew it up with the setting color, and that color came down into the water of the lake, lit the trees with amazing beauty." The "old Brian" was too angry to notice or appreciate things like this. The "new Brian" became more physically fit. At the climax of the story, he tells about being a pudgy kid. When he looks at himself in the water, he sees how much his arms have built up from chopping wood and his legs from running around in the wilderness.

Throughout the book, Brian is faced with many conflicts, both internal and external. External conflicts included finding food, making a bow and arrow to catch fish and "foolbirds" as he called them because they were so stupid. A turning point for Brian was when he caught him first foolbird. Foolbirds blended in with the environment. Catching one showed that he was starting to notice little things in nature. He was also faced with the challenge of having to start over building his shelter when the tornado hit. The tornado was an external conflict and it showed how Brian was learning to deal with internal reactions. "Old Brian" would have curled up and started crying. "New Brian" got right back up and started over. One of the major internal conflicts was when Brian was faced with forgiving his mother for cheating on his father. One of the things that helped him do that was the time that he spent alone in the forest thinking about it. He learned that everyone makes mistakes and he needed to learn to forgive.