Analysis of a Theme in Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet

Hatchet is about a 13 year old boy named Brian who has divorced parents and is visiting his dad for the summer, but to visit his dad he takes an old Cessna 406 bush plane, these planes are small and can only fit 12 people. During the flight the pilot has a heart attack, and with no one to fly the plane, Brian crash lands in a Canadian forest. With no help Brian must adapt to his living state and survive until help comes. One theme or message in the story “Hatchet” is that in life there are always devastating times, and we often won’t be able to stop them. 

“Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen is a fictional story about a boy named Brian who has to survive on his own in the wilderness until he is found. One way my thesis is supported in the text is when the author states “This morning he had been fat-well, almost fat-and happy, sure of everything, with good weapons and food and the sun in his face and things looking good for the future, and inside of one day, he had been run over by a moose and a tornado, and had lost everything and was back to square one.” This example supports my thesis because it shows how Brian was living like a king, and in a blink of an eye he had lost everything and had to restart his journey. Overall, this shows not everything goes our way in life. 

There are many examples in the text that help prove my thesis statement, one of them is “Then a wild crashing sound, ripping of metal, and the plane rolled to the right and blew through the trees…”. This quote shows how a normal plane ride turned into a wreck, and now Brian and the pilot who just had a heart attack are in trouble, and there was nothing they could do about the pilot and plane.Therefore, this quote shows my thesis. To conclude this paragraph these are two examples from the text that prove my thesis statement. 

Another way my thesis is showed in the text is when it states “Look back”, he whispered, feeling all the pictures fade, seeing his father's face fade like the sound, like the lost dreams, like an end to hope.” This proves my thesis because Brian was just moments away from being found, but instead he was lost in the trees and lost the helicopters that were looking for him. This is an example that proves my thesis and shows how there was nothing Brian could have done to get the pilots attention. 

Overall, the book “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen is about a boy named Brian crash landing in a Canadian forest and having to survive on his own until he is found. One theme or message in the story “Hatchet” is that there will be devastating times in life and we often can’t do anything about them.