hatchet introduction essay

Gary Paulsen

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Adversity and Growth

At the start of the book, Hatchet ’s protagonist, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson , is a privileged city boy who is accustomed to the comforts of home and shocked at the unexpected changes brought about by his parents’ divorce. Brian initially views such adversity as a negative force that ruins the things he values. However, after a tragic plane crash that leaves him stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness, Brian finds himself facing much greater adversity…

Independence vs. Connection

The opposing forces of personal independence and connection with the natural world play a key role in Brian’s journey. At the beginning of Hatchet , thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is upset about his parents’ divorce but takes his immediate safety for granted, trusting the kind pilot to navigate to their destination in Northern Canada, where Brian is to spend the summer with his father . However, the pilot’s fatal heart attack creates a situation in which…

The Natural World

After a terrifying plane crash that leaves thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson alone in the wilderness to fend for himself, he becomes acquainted with a rich, complex natural world that was previously foreign to him. Even after he is rescued at the end of the book, Brian’s interactions with that new world continue to shape him in profound ways. At first, the wilderness around Brian appears chaotic to him, just as his life in New York feels…

The Power of Language

Although he is isolated from all human interaction during his time in the wilderness after a tragic plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson frequently turns to language as a coping mechanism and survival tool. Brian’s ability to verbalize what he is going through is pivotal at many points throughout the story, and the words he chooses often define the way he proceeds in the face of challenge. By repeatedly emphasizing the importance of language in shaping…

By Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen's ‘Hatchet’ tells the story of Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old boy still finding it hard to believe his parents have become estranged, now thrown into another turbulence when he crash-lands in a wilderness.

About the Book

Article written by Chioma Julie

Degree in M.C.M. Awarded Best Graduating Student in Literature-in-English at UNISEC.

After the pilot flying him to Canada on his routine visit to his father dies, Brian has to take control of the plane. He tries to use the transmitter and gets through once; however, that does not materialize into much or anything at all. Finally, he crash-lands into a wilderness.

‘Spoiler-free’ Summary of Hatchet

With the hatchet (a gift from his mother) and the will to survive, Brian faces each day in the wilderness as it comes, sometimes with hope or hopelessness, courage or fear. He comes face to face with death so many times. He endures wild animals, bad food, tornado, mosquitoes, ants, and so on. The fifty-four days Brian spends in the desert become life-changing. According to him (and we could see that too), after day 5, he was reborn.

Hatchet Summary

Warning – This article contains important details and spoilers

The novel begins with Brian Robeson on his way to Canada on a routine visit to his father. Gifted a hatchet by his mother, Brian boards the plane controlled by a middle-aged man whose name he never really did catch. Thousands of feet above land, the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies. Brian is left alone to control the plane. He has to make tough decisions; he either lands on anything he sees below now or waits for gas to finish and crash-lands. He decides to go with the latter. The transmitter hasn’t been of much help, and he is alone.

Eventually, he runs out of gas. He stared death in the face continuously for his first few days in the wilderness. Viciously attacked by the porcupine and having the rescue plane come and go without finding him, he feels he has survived the worst. He still has more coming for him, but they would now meet him tougher and more prepared.

Brian builds himself a place to stay, an abode, what he’d now go on to call his home. He does this with the help of the hatchet. Nature already took care of most of it anyway, his “home.” With the hatchet (the precious gift from his mum, a gift he didn’t seem to like very much when it was given to him) he builds fire and tools for hunting.

He makes mistakes and learns very quickly from them, because in there in the wilderness, there were no small mistakes, and every mistake was life-threatening. Instead of treating the skunk as the predator that it is, he makes the mistake of treating it as if it were the cute ones from TV. The skunk blinds him for two hours and eats all the turtle eggs he’s got.

Severally, Brian faces death and survives—the porcupine and skunk, the bear, the wolves he nods and smiles at (which he’d later learn were not troublesome at all, and this explains why they left him. But, better safe than sorry), the moose, the tornado and so on.

Brian learns to be proactive. He learns to do away with fear, to be patient, and to think things through. Brian becomes more sensitive, he could now tell sounds apart now and tell when danger was approaching. He becomes more thoughtful and more appreciative. The wilderness toughens him up, as much as it humanizes him.

On day 53, he retrieves the survival pack from the plane after the tornado hit. The tornado (the same one that almost tore him apart) brought its tail out. In the pack, he sees goodies, lots of them, things which, to him, would last forever. He finds a first aid kit, a knife, pots, a frying pan, cutlery, fishing tools, a transmitter (which he thinks is no longer working), a lighter, and even a rifle. It makes him feel so powerful like he didn’t need to do most of the things he had to do to survive.

It was very much like putting the power of life and death in his hands. He didn’t like how some of these things changed him, especially the rifle. He drops it to deal with the emotion later and to prepare for a feast. Just as he is about to get comfortable feasting, a rescue plane comes. Apparently, the transmitter had been working all along. He makes to offer the pilot some food.

Out of the wilderness, there is so much buzz about his experience and even the promise of a film (which was yet to be fulfilled). But it all dies down soon. He engages in research to know better some of the things from the wilderness: the berries, the raspberries, and the other type that nearly ended him, the animals—apparently the bird he thought to be foolish and called so, was actually called the foolbird. Quite close.

Brian Robeson lost seventeen percent of his body weight while in the wilderness. He gains six percent back and would likely remain that way, lean. The predictions have it that assuming the winter met him there, he would likely not have survived. It’d simply have been too harsh for him. He now often dreams of the wilderness. No, not bad dreams. He almost had hope that his presence would make his parents reconnect, but within a week or so, things were back to normal for his family, whatever normal means.

Is the story told in ‘ Hatchet ’ true?

No, ‘ Hatchet ’ is not a true story. It is a young adult, coming-of-age adventure fiction; however, Gary Paulsen tapped from his wealth of experience. With the way he often wrote about the wilderness, it is clear he was fascinated by it. His experiences in the wilderness inspired a lot of stories from him, and one of them is ‘ Hatchet .’

What would you consider most ironic in ‘ Hatchet ?’

The hatchet, the gift from Brian Robeson’s mother, the gift he didn’t care much about, ended up saving his life. This has to be the most ironic thing in ‘ Hatchet .’ Without the hatchet, even the strong will to survive would likely not have taken Brian so far.

How is ‘ Hatchet ’ structured?

‘ Hatchet ’ has a total of 195 pages with no illustrations. It is in prose form and has a total of nineteen chapters. Gary Paulsen employed a simple writing style, language, and sentence structure for ‘ Hatchet .’ This is commendable because simplicity is key.

Is ‘ Hatchet ’ a children’s novel?

Yes, ‘ Hatchet ’ is suitable for children, so it is a children’s novel; however, it is also suitable for other demographics. Young adults and older ones can and should also avail themselves of ‘ Hatchet .’

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About Chioma Julie

Chioma is a graduate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She has a passion for music, movies, and books. Occasionally, she writes to unwind.

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Hatchet Introduction

Gary Paulsen is a successful graduate of the school of hard knocks. From an early age, he was fending for himself, working odd jobs and camping out in the woods alone for weeks at a time. He's run the Iditarod (the famously grueling, 1,049-mile Alaskan sled-dog race) three times, trained horses in New Mexico, sailed around the Pacific in a beat-up sailboat, and lived in some of the harshest environments in the world. No big deal. Oh, and school definitely wasn't his thing: he flunked out of ninth grade, and when he made it to college years later, he quit after just a few months.

Not quite the resume you'd expect from one of the best-selling kids' writers of all time. Paulsen has written almost two hundred books since his first work, called Some Birds Don't Fly , came out in 1968. He's a triple Newbery Honor winner, and he has more than 26 million books in print. But it's not his silver-tongued prose that keeps 'em coming back for more. Nope. It's his ability to act as every kid's own personal wilderness tour guide that makes his books really special.

If you want to know what it's really like to live out in the wild and struggle with the elements, Gary Paulsen is your go-to guy. And Hatchet is your go-to book. Hatchet , the story of a boy stranded alone for weeks in the Canadian woods, is Paulsen's best-known, best-loved work. First published in 1987, it has inspired devotion from generations of kids, and it's still going strong.

In fact, the book is so popular that Paulsen has written four sequels ( The River , Brian's Winter , Brian's Return , and Brian's Hunt ) as well as a nonfiction companion book called Guts . But even with all these sequels (not to mention all the books written later by other authors inspired by Paulsen's example), Hatchet still stands as one of the best kids' adventure books of all time. We think that's saying something—don't you?

What is Hatchet About and Why Should I Care?

Walk away from your computer. No, really, we mean it. Stand up, go look out the window, and then come back. It's okay—we'll wait.

Okay, what did you see? A manicured lawn? A street with cars parked along either side? The apartment building next to yours? Whatever it was, we're willing to bet it probably wasn't anything like what the main character of Hatchet sees when he wakes up next to the lake in the morning. And it probably wasn't anything like the environment human beings have lived in throughout most of our history on this planet.

The fact is, nowadays we spend less time outside than we ever have before. You can't swing a dead moose lately without hitting another article or study about how little time kids spend outside. 

Now, we know that you're awesome—after all, you're here at Shmoop, right?—but if you're like most of us, chances are the closest you've gotten to roughing it is when you went car camping with your family at Yosemite. (And believe us, we're right there with you.)

But think about it. As human beings, we've spent most of our history climbing trees, living on the savannah, or building little huts made of sticks so we can make it through the winter. When it comes right down to it, being in nature is what's really, ahem, natural for us. It's only in the last little instant of cosmic time that we've managed to crawl up out of the mud, figure out how to construct flush toilets, and get our grubby little hands on the remote control.

So you kind of have to wonder, in our great rush to leave the world of the woods behind, is there anything else we've left behind? Anything we've lost, that maybe we can't afford to lose? Anything important, elemental, maybe even necessary to what it means to be human? Gary Paulsen seems to think the answer is yes.

So pull up a chair—or better yet, go find a nice comfy patch of grass to lie down on—open the book, and start getting back to nature.

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W hy's T his F unny?

72 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapter 16-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Hatchet , a Newbery Award-winning novel published in 1987 by author Gary Paulsen, is an esteemed story about a young boy’s struggle to survive after his airplane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. This work of young adult fiction appeals to readers of all ages for its descriptive prose and exciting plot. This guide refers to the 1999 First Aladdin Paperbacks edition.

Plot Summary

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Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is in the middle of his parent’s divorce and struggling to contain a dark secret: He knows his mother had an affair that caused the divorce. His father does not know. Brian is angry with his mother when he boards a small two-seater airplane bound for Canada, where he will spend the summer with his father. Just before Brian leaves, his mother gives him a hatchet, which he fastens to his belt even though he finds it slightly embarrassing. He doesn’t tell his mother why he is so angry with her, he only broods and refuses to speak to her.

As Brian and the pilot settle in to their flight, the pilot asks if Brian would like to fly the plane. He assures Brian that it is easier than it looks, so Brian gives it a try. Shortly after that, the pilot emits strong flatulence and makes strange sounds. Claiming his left arm is hurting, he tries to make an emergency call for help over the radio. Suddenly, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian is left completely alone and panicked. He tries to radio for help but can’t make a connection.

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When the pilot dies, he jerks the plane off course, and then it flies on autopilot for quite a while. Brian knows no one can save him; it is up to him to land the plane. He decides to aim for a lake to make a water landing, as he assumes landing in the trees will kill him. With tremendous courage, Brian lands the plane in a lake, where the plane dives to the bottom of the water. Brian must free himself from the cockpit and swim to the surface before passing out. Upon losing consciousness, Brian is overcome by memories of his mother and the man she is having an affair with. Throughout the novel the narration alternates between flashbacks of the day Brian saw his mother kissing the other man and the horrors of the pilot dying and the subsequent plane crash.

Stranded at the lake, Brian assesses his position. He has very little on him, apart from his windbreaker, shoes, and hatchet. He is desperately thirsty and hungry, and he has no idea where he has landed. He recalls his English teacher who taught him about keeping a positive attitude. He tries to stay positive and evaluate what resources he does have rather than focus on how lost and alone he is. He finds things to do to keep his mind busy, building a small shelter out of tree limbs and leaves, searching for wild berries, and drinking water from the lake. His first success in eating wild berries (he will later call them gut cherries) results in a night of horrendous food poisoning. Brian learns to choose his food sources carefully and never to gorge, despite his constant hunger. He meets a bear while foraging for raspberries and is later attacked by a porcupine in his shelter. He learns to make fire by striking his hatchet against a flint-like rock after his father and good friend appear in his dreams, giving him coded messages about how to do so. Once he can make fire, Brian can cook things like fish, birds, and eggs. The fire’s smoke also helps alleviate the incessant swarm of mosquitos.

As he gets more comfortable surviving in the elements, Brian notices a change come over him. He feels more grown up and one with nature, unlike the city boy he was when he arrived. One day, a plane flies overhead, and Brian is filled with hope at being rescued. He fans his signal fire, but they don’t see him, and the plane leaves. After that, Brian assumes they will stop searching for him and he will be stranded there forever. He loses hope and tries to kill himself with his hatchet. He doesn’t succeed, and when he wakes up the next morning, he resolves to stay alive. He considers this a rebirth. He calls everything before his suicide attempt the time of old Brian.

He continues to develop his patience and hunting skills, eventually getting good with a bow and arrow, such that he can feast on birds and fish every day. Brian is surprised by an unprovoked moose attack and then by a tornado. The tornado destroys his camp and churns up the lake so much that the airplane shifts in the water. This reminds Brian that there is likely a survival kit in the airplane. He resolves to find a way to retrieve it, even though the thought of the dead pilot in the water scares him. He must first build a raft to take with him so he can hack an opening into the plane with his hatchet. He drops his hatchet while working, but he’s able to retrieve it after many deep, challenging dives. He eventually succeeds in busting into the plane, where there is indeed a substantial survival kit. But Brian is forced to look at the submerged dead pilot, whose body has been decaying and eaten by fish. This makes Brian vomit in his mouth and almost chokes him.

After hauling the heavy pack across the lake and back to camp, Brian discovers that it is full of everything he could possibly need. He feels rich. He now has a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, lighter, transmitter radio, and most importantly, freeze-dried food. He flips the switch on the transmitter a few times and then settles down to make a feast of food packages. After his third orange fizzy drink, he is shocked to see an airplane fly overhead and then land. The pilot disembarks and can’t believe he has found the famous missing boy. He explains that Brian was all over the news, but the search was called off not long ago. He heard Brian’s distress signal on the radio (although Brian had no idea the radio even worked) and saw Brian’s cooking fire, so he came to check.

The novel ends with a stunned Brian offering the pilot something to eat. The Epilogue explains that had Brian not been rescued, then it is unlikely he would have survived the harsh, snowy winter. After rescue, Brian does a lot of research to learn about the animals and plants he has come to know. He maintains his interest in and connection to nature for the rest of his life.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Hatchet — Hatchet Movie Vs Book

Hatchet Movie Vs Book

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

Words: 906 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

I. introduction, ii. plot and character development, iii. themes and motifs, visual and cinematic elements, reception and criticism.

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7 Activities for Teaching Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is awesome to read and teach with upper elementary and middle school students. With the theme of nature, wilderness, animals, insects, and so much more, springtime, as well as autumn, makes the perfect backdrop for this beloved novel. Please come along as we explore 7 activities for teaching Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

Hatchet is a story of a thirteen-year-old boy who gets stranded in the Canadian wilderness after his bush plane goes down. Brian is emotionally reeling from his parent’s recent divorce and contending with surviving with little to no wilderness experience. He faces his own despair and loneliness all while dealing with wild animals and never knowing if he will be rescued.

Paulsen is honest with readers as he takes us on the emotional journey and transformation of Brian. I believe it resonates with middle schoolers so well because Paulsen isn’t afraid to dive into mental turmoil and the deep emotions synonymous with this age level.

To learn more about Gary Paulsen, please watch this video provided through his publisher, Random House Kids.

Hatchet is a novel that both upper elementary and middle schoolers alike enjoy. I have taught Hatchet for over four years now and boys, as well as girls, love it. If you would like to learn more about Gary Paulsen’s life, please see below.

Here are 7 activities or ideas I use with Hatchet :

Activity 1: urban brian vs. wilderness brian.

I love to complete a type of transformation assignment with students. We investigate how Brian’s inner and outer character traits were before the plane crash and how he changes once he’s had to survive on his own. Not only does he become stronger, more confident, more intelligent and wiser, but his physical appearance drastically changes. I have students illustrate Brian before and after l, based on inferencing. We list the various changing character traits of Brian before, during, and after his survival journey. We also discuss urban Brian vs wilderness Brian and how the two are so different.

Activity 2: Setting Truly Shapes a Story

We focus on how the setting shapes a story. Furthermore, we discuss that if Brian’s plane went down in the middle of the Arizona desert, then how would this shift change in the setting shift the novel? The students see how Brian relies heavily on the setting as his source of survival. Last, we investigate what aspects of the setting harm Brian and what aspects help him.

Activity 3: Reading Outside in Nature

We read Hatchet outside. Just this last week, I took my seventh graders outside to read Hatchet and there was just something neat about hearing the birds chirping and feeling the wind rustling as we discussed Brian’s scavenging for berries and encountering a bear. Students encountered crows in our parking lot at the same time and it was a neat way to make real-life connections.

Activity 4: Create Their Own Survival Backpacks

At the end of the novel, I assign a culminating project in which the students design their own survival backpacks. Brian had little supplies. His hatchet turned out to be the best resource he had. Students always enjoy this activity as they get to physically gather materials to place into a backpack that would help them survive. I’m always blown away by how creative and innovative they are with this particular project. They think of some amazing ideas!

Activity 5: Research Real-Life Survival Strategies

Hatchet is a great novel to pair with wonderful nonfiction pieces to practice those text features. We read articles about snapping turtles, how to survive a bear encounter, and even a real-life account of a young boy who survived the wilderness on his own. I love the opportunity to learn information about a topic in our novel and have it connect to students in a unique way.

Activity 6: Breaking News: Teenager Missing in Canada

If time isn’t lacking, I have students spend a couple of days on a group project. Students put on a news report that details Brian’s plane crash. During the news report, they “interview” Brian’s parents and police officers, and wildlife officers as well as Terry, Brian’s best friend. They pretend that they are these characters pleading with people to search for Brian. Students create a script and act out a 5-minute news report. This project ends up always being a lot of fun.

Activity 7: Different Types of Conflict

Lastly, we analyze our reading and learn important skills and objectives. We investigate the 5 types of conflict and also learn about the theme as well. If you would like our FREE Hatchet Theme Google Slides Worksheets, please click below.

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If you’ve never taught Hatchet and you teach upper elementary to middle school, I highly recommend this novel. I hope you’re able to implement some of these ideas and bring this novel to life in your classroom and enjoy the survival journey of Brian.

Happy Reading!

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by Gary Paulsen

Hatchet literary elements.

Young Adult Adventure

Setting and Context

A remote forest in Canada.

Narrator and Point of View

The novel is narrated in third-person past tense from the perspective of Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old boy who becomes stranded in a forest while on the way to spend the summer with his father, when the pilot of his plane has a heart attack and dies.

Tone and Mood

The tone and mood of the novel shift in urgency depending on the situation at hand. The mood is frenzied and uptight when Brian deals with immediate problems, like the crashing plane or the moose attack, but lightens to a steadier exploratory tone while he is trying to establish a routine and figure out life in the forest.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Brian Robeson is the protagonist. There is no physical antagonist—rather, the antagonist is nature itself as Brian fights for survival.

Major Conflict

The novel's conflict revolves around Brian attempting to survive on his own in a remote forest with hardly anything, while he waits to potentially be rescued. He constantly makes mistakes from which he must learn.

The novel's climax occurs when the search plane flies over without stopping and Brian becomes the "new" Brian. At the climax, the novel shifts to the future, and Brian is looking back on the events that shaped his time in the forest towards the end of his experience there.

Foreshadowing

The pilot's pains early on in the flight foreshadow his eventual heart attack, and Brian's flying lesson foreshadows the fact that he will soon have to fly—and land—the plane himself. His constantly noticing the fish in the lake foreshadows his coming discovery that he can spear them and use them for food.

Understatement

Imagery is detailed in the "Imagery" section of this ClassicNote.

Parallelism

Metonymy and synecdoche, personification.

The most obvious example of personification occurs when Brian first creates fire. He imagines this fire as a sentiment being, a living friend that he must nurture and care for.

Hatchet Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Hatchet is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What challenges does Brian face regarding food?

Brian had never before had to trap or catch his own food, and he didn't know how to start a fire. He didn't know what berries were safe to eat, and as a result, he became very sick.

How long have brians parents been divorced

The divorce was only a month old.

First Read: Hatchet

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Study Guide for Hatchet

Hatchet study guide contains a biography of Gary Paulsen, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Hatchet
• Hatchet Summary
• Hatchet Video
• Character List

Lesson Plan for Hatchet

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Hatchet
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Hatchet Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Hatchet

• Introduction
• Sequel novels
• Film adaptation