The Hatchet Part Four

Hatchet Blog Post #4

Brian is being more productive with his time. First he made a Fire then he found the Eggs and now he is making a spear to hunt the fish in the lake. He reshaped the Hatchet so it’s in the shape of a spear head. But he can’t catch any fish. They are just too fast. Brian is frustrated he was so sure that the spear was going to work he had worked in the design for a long time. So what he decides to do to make his spear go faster is he decides to create a bow and arrow. So he goes looking for supplies. He found some trees but they just weren’t right to create the bow but later he found a tree that when he pulled it back it had a lot of strength and flexibility. But as he is cutting the tree he hears something, A plane Brian was finally going to get saved so he runs back towards the noise which he presumes it’s a plane engine and visualizes how it would be to go back home. But just when he arrives at the camp the plane is getting away from him, he tries to get its attention by grabbing a stick with fire on it and making a smoke signal but the Pilot doesn’t see it and he goes away. That’s when Brian loses all hope of being rescued. Some time has passed and Brian is hunting for Birds, but as he does he feels the need to stop and look around. That’s when he sees the wolfs but he is not scared he now understands things better and he knew the wolf would not do anything to him. So he was not afraid. He was a new Brian. He recalls a lot of things from the point in time where he is now and the point when the plane had passed. He had tried to kill himself by cutting himself but then he hated what he had done so he decided to live. He perfected the bow and caught his first fish. He had been attacked by a skunk at the middle of the night and he was blind for two hours. He created a new stronger and more resistant shelter to protect himself. He also created a storage pace in a place that was high up so that the animals couldn’t reach it and he created a ladder so that he could reach it. Brian now will try to create a place so he can store the fish alive and eat them later on. He is remembering a lot of things now like the first day he ate meat from the birds (Foolbirds he called them). He was not the same he had experienced a lot of stuff and all that stuff changed him. After that a lot of bad things happen. The Moose and the Tornado. He had been attacked by a violent moose in the day just a senseless rampage that the moose had and when he lay in his shelter hurt came the tornado. It flung everything apart and leaving him without nothing, nothing but the Hatchet. It had restarted everything. The next day he starts to rebuild. He noticed as he built that the Tornado had made the plane surface and then he thought about the survival pack he wanted to go get it. He decides to make a raft to go towards the tail and then find his way in. When he arrives to the tail he sees that the metal is very soft and he is able to cut it quite easily with the hatchet. But after some time cutting he drops the hatchet into the water and he is forced to dive in and get it back. When he gets inside of the plane he searches for the bag and finds the body of the pilot he is horrified because the fish had eaten away most of his face so he gets the bad and gets away from there. He found a lot of wonderful things in the pack like a knife a sleeping bag and even a rifle. He found an emergency transmitter but it didn’t seem to work and the last and most important thing to him was the food. A lot of food was there and he decided he was too hungry and he wanted to eat so he decided to have a feast. Then without warning a plane appeared it glided through the lake and the pilot came out and said that he had heard the emergency transmitter. Brian was saved. Brian is safe now and he is with his family again he decided not to tell his father about the secret in the end so now Brian Is safe and happy, and he is different from what he was before.

But it kept moving away until he could not hear it even in his imagination, in his soul. Gone. He stood on the bluff over the lake, his face cooking in the roaring bonfire, watching the clouds of ash and smoke going into the sky and thought—no, more than thought—he knew then that he would not get out of this place. Not now, not ever

In this Quote we see that Brian has lost hope. He has lost any hope of being rescued. Here I think Brian is really a lot more mature than how he was at the beginning of his trip. At first he was thinking about surviving until he was rescued but he didn’t think about a long term survival plan. Now that he is realized that he might not be saved he is aware that he might have to survive here forever and I think this is good because he will start making decision based in this. But I also believe he might just give up because of this instead of making better long term decisions he might just give up on life and not even try to survive.

 

He was not the same now—the Brian that stood and watched the wolves move away and nodded to them was completely changed. Time had come, time that he measured but didn't care about; time had come into his life and moved out and left him different. In measured time forty-seven days had passed since the crash. Forty-two days, he thought, since he had died and been born as the new Brian.

Brian has passed a long time alone in the forest now and in this quote we can see that he has changed. He now accept the fact that he might never get rescued so he will have to make do with what he has and take care of himself without a false hope of getting saved. He now just cares about surviving and he has gotten used to the forest he knows how things work in there and how to survive. I think this brings up a really interesting topic to talk about and that is that Brian has used the Hatchet his only tool to survive. And I think that that’s the real reason why the story is called the hatchet not because he survived because of it but because it reflects the human spirit and how we humans are persistent and hopeful and resourceful when we want to be and the story is named the hatchet because it shows how Brian uses the only tool he has and manages to survive and thrive with it. 

The Hatchet Part Three

Hatchet Blog Post #3

The Secret is tormenting Brian. In his times of weakness and agony he always recalls the secret. Brian had had a terrible night because he ate those the terrible cherries, gut cherries, he had started calling them because of the stomachache they caused. So after cleaning up the mess he had made near his shelter he went to look for more food and safer food to eat. After a while searching Brian find a bush full of Berries. Berries he recognizes. They are Raspberries beautiful gorgeous delicious raspberries he recognized from the park. He started eating them but there was a Bear near him. Brian ran but the bear did not want him he was just looking for berries. That same night he heard a sound and then something prickled his foot while he was sleeping he threw his Hatchet his only tool to it in desperation to scare it away. The next day he realized that porcupine had come in in the middle of the night. He has some weird dreams about his father and Terry pointing at the fire in the charcoal and he knew that those dreams meant something. In the next day when he is thinking about these dreams he recalls that when he threw the hatchet he had seen sparks when it had hit the rock. He would use the Hatchet to create fire. He gathered a lot of wood and bark to create the fireplace and he split his 20 dollar bill to burn it then he started striking the rock. After a long while of trying he managed to create the fire. He stays with the fire a long while and then in the morning he notices some strange marks in the side of the lake that lead to a hill. He dug a hole in the hill and found eggs, turtle eggs, he then ate one raw, which he found really disgusting and he saved all the rest for later. Brian later realizes that he is quite different now, He NOTICES things. Things he had never played attention to before and he realizes that he now is alert and he looks everywhere for a savior or a threat.

And he thought, rolling thoughts, with the smoke curling up over his head and the smile still half on his face he thought: I wonder what they're doing now. I wonder what my father is doing now. I wonder what my mother is doing now. I wonder if she is with him.

In this quote Brian is feeling a little nostalgic for the first time. For the first time he in not thinking about when he will be rescued or how to survive a little longer. But he is thinking of his family what they are doing and where they are. Also I believe that this quote demonstrates just how shocked and traumatized Brian is because of his mom’s infidelity. I mean Brian is shocked to the point were when he thinks of his mom for the first time in days he remembers her infidelity and I think that’s how it’s going to be from that point on when Brian thinks of his mom.

He would store them in the shelter and eat only one a day. He fought the hunger down again, controlled it He would take them now and store them and save them and eat one a day, and he realized as he thought it that he had forgotten that they might come. The searchers. Surely, they would come before he could eat all the eggs at one a day. He had forgotten to think about them and that wasn't good. He had to keep thinking of them because if he forgot them and did not think of them they might forget about him. And he had to keep hoping. He had to keep hoping.

Brian is really trying to cling to hope in this sentence and this brings up a really interesting topic to talk about and that is what can anyone do in that type of situation. If someone was in Brains situation and did not have any hope of survival and any hope of being rescued then they will probably go mad or just give up and not try to survive anymore. This really leads me to say that for humans hope is one of the strongest feelings and as long as they have hope and maintain that hope they will continue to fight and persevere.

The Hatchet Part Two

Hatchet 

Brian isn’t doing anything. When we left off he had survived the plane crash and now he is waiting. Waiting to be saved. Half sleep and half awake he recalls how he found out about the secret, when he say his mom kissing the manwith the short blonde hair. He reasoned that they would come save him in like a day or two days. He is near the lake he landed in and he is really hungry and really thirsty and he is concerned that because the pilot tilted the plane when he died his parents and anyone who is looking for him won’t be able to find him for some time. So he decides to do something. He recalls the time where he and his friend where pretending to be lost in the woods and he starts missing him and he starts realizing all the things that he might need for survival out in the wild. First he looked for shelter, he looked a little around the lake and found an overhang that formed something like a little cave. After that he felt the Hunger and the Thirst quite clearly so he had a drink of the lake water and that made the Hunger intensify. So he went looking for food and after a while he saw that the birds were eating something, they were eating berries. So he grabbed a load of berries and they ended up making him sick. So with a sickening feeling he went to the little overhang which was his shelter and went to sleep.

 Maybe even today. They might come today. This was the second day after the crash. No. Brian frowned. Was it the first day or the second day? They had gone down in the afternoon and he had spent the whole night out cold. So this was the first real day. But they could still come today

I’m starting to feel really bad for Brian because he is not at all prepared for what is coming to him he thinks that people will find him that day or like three days tops but he is not preparing himself mentally or physically for a long term stay in that forest. I think he is not really accepting what is happening to him because he went through a really traumatic experience and he really might die here. Brian is not really preparing himself so he won’t die if they don’t find him but he is just gathering enough supplies to last until they find him. In conclusion I believe Brian is really clinging to some presumably false hope.

If only I had matches, he thought, looking ruefully at the beach and lakeside. There was driftwood everywhere, not to mention dead and dry wood all over the hill and dead-dry branches hanging from every tree. All firewood. And no matches. How did they used to do it? He thought. Rub two sticks together?

This quote shows us how Brian by using his prior knowledge is thinking of some survival skills to make it for a few days. It also shows how because of all the commodities of the modern world people are really unprepared to survive out in nature. This is of course just a teen ager but  I don’t think an adult would know how to create fire without matches and the tools we have to do things easier in our society.